eligiously-minded emperors and tsars,
appears to have conducted himself in battle according to the wise
principle that a head without a halo is infinitely more desirable than a
halo without a head. Yet he was profoundly convinced that the ultimate
victory of Islam depended upon the sword. The Koran of this period
breathes defiance against the enemies of Islam on almost every page. Its
profuse maledictions, once confined to the evildoers of Mecca, now
include all unbelievers everywhere. When Mohammed once had captured a
fortress inhabited by a tribe of Jews, his judgment was, "The men shall
be put to death, the women and children sold into slavery, and the spoil
divided amongst the army." Then, trenches were dug, some seven hundred
men were marched out, forced to seat themselves in rows along the top of
the trenches, beheaded, and then tumbled into a long gaping grave.
Meanwhile, the Prophet looked on until, tiring of the monotonous
spectacle, he departed to amuse himself with a Jewess whose husband had
just perished.

He continued these conquests until, at his death, in 632, he was the
master of nearly all Arabia and revered almost as a god. Yet, when Omar,
his first lieutenant, captured Jerusalem in 636, he ensured the
conquered Jews and Christians free exercise of their religion, and the
security of their persons and their goods. But when the Crusaders took
Jerusalem in 1099, they massacred all the Mohammedans, and burnt the
Jews alive. It is estimated that 70,000 persons were put to death in
less than a week to attest the superior morality of the Christian faith.

The successors of Mohammed, the Caliphs, in less than a century
conquered Syria, Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, Turkestan, Spain, Northern
Africa, Sicily, and Southern France. Today, 160,000,000 are followers of
Mohammed,--a man who began as a humble religious leader, and ended as an
adroit politician and powerful general; a man who hid during battles,
who often broke faith with friend and foe alike, a charlatan and
demagogue of general intellectual incompetency, and a victim of mental
disease.

JESUS

When we come to consider the life of Jesus, a far different and more
intricate problem is met with. None but the most illogical and purposely
ignorant of religious apologists will admit that the life of Jesus has
been misrepresented by his followers to suit their particular aims. Had
the followers of the moralist Epictetus or the Rabbi Hillel written
lives