The Message or A Cry of Anguish — Page 11
THE MESSAGE OR A CRY OF ANGUISH II This sad and distressing thought shatters my heart that on one hand there is a book the publication of which, poisons the hearts of the ignorant and destroys an entire people, and on the other hand, those who take thousands of rupees from the Muslims in order to write a rebuttal to the enemies of faith, their sole strat- egy to counter this malicious campaign is to send a short memo- rial to the Government, thereby showing that they have done all that they possibly could. Notwithstanding the fact that they have repeatedly announced that the first and foremost objective of their organisation is to refute the objections that are levelled against Islam by the opponents from time to time. Hence, anyone that has ever come across the journal of Anjuman-e-Himāyat-e- Islām Lahore will find this promise written at the outset. I do not say that this organisation deliberately evades their self-proclaimed promise. The fact is that the present organisation is utterly incom- petent to address the extensive matters of faith or to dispel the evil suggestions and allegations that have been circulated by the Christians for the last sixty years with comprehensive study and research, or through some publication counter the toxic wind that is sweeping across the country. It would have been far better if this organisation had not associated itself with religious matters and restricted its understanding and reason to political affairs alone. Seeing the issue of The Observer dated 6 May 1898 has only increased my disappointment since its editor, an advocate of the Anjuman, has stated in plain words that it would be completely unwise to write a rebuttal to the treatise Ummahātul-Mu'minin and should be content with the response by the Anjuman, that is, submitting a memorial to the Government. A perusal of The Observer clearly shows that it is not only the editor who holds