Churchillian Observations

A devastating quote. As they say, wisdom is ageless.

The speech below was written in 1899 and delivered by Winston Churchill in 1899 when he was a young soldier and journalist. This comes from The River War: An account of the Reconquest of the Sudan was a 1899 book written by Winston Churchill while he was still an officer in the British army, a first-hand account of the conquest of the Sudan by the English-Egyptian force under Lord Kitchener. It sets out the current views of many but expressed in the wonderful Churchillian turn of phrase and use of the English language.

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries!
Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia
in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent
in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture,
sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the
followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this
life of its grace and refinement the next of its dignity and sanctity. The
fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his
absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the
final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men."

"Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but
the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who
follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being
moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has
already spread throughout Central Africa , raising fearless warriors at
every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong
arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the
civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome ."

h/t VinbergWoodstein