Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 96
CHAPTER SIX John Alexander Dowie was by birth a Scotsman. He was born in Edinburgh in 1847 and studied for the Church in his early years. In 1872 he went to Australia as a cleric and. acquired a certain degree of reputation for healing. In 1888 he went over to the United States of America and started the publication of a paper called Leaves of Healing. In 1896 he founded the Christian Catholic sect. In 1901 he started building a town in the State of Illinois which he called Zion City. He established many factories within the area of the town and became in effect the uncrowned king of Zion City. In the same year he claimed to be Elijah III. Dowie was a bitter enemy of Islam and of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him. He gave repeated expression to his hostility towards Islam in his speeches and writings which were published in the Leaves of Healing. On one occasion he delivered himself of the following despicable verbal carica- ture of Islam:. I think of the falsehood of Muhammad with great contempt. If I were to accept those falsehoods I would have to believe that in this gathering and indeed in any part of God's earth there is no single woman who possesses an immortal soul. I would have to acknow- ledge that you women are but wild animals which can be used for: an hour or a day as playthings and that you have no eternal existence, and that when those who are dominated by bestial passions have satisfied their lust with you, you would die the death of dogs. This would be your end. This is the religion of Muham- mad [Leaves of Healing, Vol. VII, NO. 5, 26 May 1900]. On another occasion he said: I warn the Christian people of America and Europe that Islam is not dead. Islam has great strength, though Islam and Muhammadanism must be destroyed. The ruin of Islam will not be compassed through the supine Latin 96