Religion: In Mecca

Men and women who Sacrifice their lives for a religious faith are known to their fellow adherents as martyrs, to opposing sects as fanatics. The latter term was the one used in newspaper despatches to define 25 Wahhabis who were shot by Egyptian soldiers last week in the streets of Mecca.

The soldiers, commanded by Azmi Pasha, were starting for Cairo as an escort of the Holy Carpet, the immemorial piece of rug that covers the Kaaba in the Mosque at Mecca. Because of friction between Sultan Ibn Soud and King Fuad of Egypt, the Holy Carpet had not gone to Cairo for two years, but this year things looked better; the King of Egypt had a chance of being made Calif of Islam; the rug started on its journey, accompanied by the soldiers and followed by a brass band which blared out, with wandering horns and cymbals, an Egyptian marching song. Now to the Wahhabis of Mecca music is an offense to Allah, strictly forbidden in holy places. A little crowd of “fanatics” charged the cortege; the soldiers fired; 25 Wahhabis, some of them women and children, fell dead. King Fuad had lost his chance for the Califate.