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Saturday, May 27, 2023
[PDF] THE SECRETS OF FREEMASONRY (Nation of Islam): That Which You Should Know by by Elijah Muhammad
PDF Available Here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PNvNuBpWgwPhNRGyw_KqM9Fr3rIcRgkV/view?usp=sharing
https://www.amazon.com/SECRETS-FREEMASONRY-That-Which-Should/dp/1884855059
The Secrets Of Freemasonry By Elijah Muhammad This is a powerful and easy to read insight into one of the world's oldest secret societies or organizations. Elijah Muhammad makes a strong case with irrefutable evidence that their symbolism points directly to the American Blackman and woman's slavery, mental death and eventual "mental resurrection" (being raised).
Saturday, May 20, 2023
[RECOMMENDED READING] The Crescent and the Compass: Islam, Freemasonry, Esotericism and Revolution in the Modern Age by Angel Millar
https://www.amazon.com/Crescent-Compass-Freemasonry-Esotericism-Revolution/dp/0994252544
A timely survey of radical spirituality and political activism in Islam and the West over the last century and a half, The Crescent and the Compass uncovers numerous previously unknown and unexplored connections between European, American, and Muslim movements, organizations, secret societies, and thinkers. Subjects covered include Ayatollah Khomeini and Islamic mysticism; Sufism and Shi'ism; the influence of the ideas of René Guénon, a former Catholic and Freemason, and convert to Sufism; and Charles, the Prince of Wales, Traditionalism and Islamic spirituality.
At the heart of the book, however, are the many connections, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, between various Muslim revolutionaries and Freemasonry, a fraternal movement that was influential in the spiritual and occult avant-garde of Western Europe and America. The Crescent and the Compass not only explores how revolutionaries and anti-colonialists, such as Sayyid Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani, attempted to mold Masonic Lodges for political aims, but how interpretations of Islam and Freemasonry converged in the writings and practices of such figures as poet and occultist Aleister Crowley; Noble Drew Ali, founder of the faith of Moorish Science in the USA; Abdullah Quilliam, Shaykh-ul-Islam of the British Isles; and, as anti-Freemasonry, in the contemporary Takfiri, Islamist movement.
Exploring one of the least documented yet one of the most important historical chapters of the modern era, the picture that emerges will challenge the way reader looks at the Middle East and Islam, and their relationship to the West.
Angel Millar is the author of Freemasonry: Foundation of the Western Esoteric Tradition (2014) and Freemasonry: A History (2005). His articles and papers have been published in The Journal of Indo-European Studies, and by Eurasian Review dot com, among others.
The truth behind Karachi's Freemasons by Akhtar Balouch
https://www.dawn.com/news/1119595
The truth behind Karachi's Freemasons
Akhtar Balouch Published July 16, 2014 62
Akhtar Balouch, also known as the Kiranchi Wala, ventures out to bring back to Dawn.com’s readers the long forgotten heritage of Karachi. Stay tuned to this space for his weekly fascinating findings.
In the not so distant past of our beloved city of Karachi, there existed a Freemason Hall, where the fraternity would hold its sessions on a regular basis. It’s hard to believe, but the building is still there to be seen near Fawara Chowk (Fountain Square).
Fawara Chowk is located in Saddar on Abdullah Haroon Road (previously Victoria Road). On one end of the square is an old Protestant church, the Trinity Church, while on the other end is the Governor House. The square also leads to the State Life Building, one of the skyscrapers of Karachi, and the Jaffar Brothers’ building, an unusual structure that looks somewhat like a multi-storied boat.
The building
If you head over to the Arts Council from this square, you will also pass by the Institute of Foreign Affairs, the first building on your left. Right next to this institute is an old, colonial structure, a building that effuses an aura of another time, another era of the history of Kolachi.
A distinct eeriness surrounds this old structure. There's always a small number of cars parked by the entrance. During winters, an old, the weary gatekeeper can be seen sitting a few yards from the locked entrance, basking in the warm sunlight. The melancholic trees around it seem to be lamenting how no passer-by sits under their shade.
This is the building of the Freemason Hall — the Hope Lodge. Not many know about the Freemasons and the Hope Lodge, and when I tried to do some digging, whoever happened to know anything about them had an unfavourable disposition towards Freemasons.
Most Muslim researchers and authors think that the Freemasons were a fraternity funded and promoted by the Jewish [lobby]. This is, however, far from the truth. Interestingly, before and after partition, the Freemasons always had more than one Muslim member.
Some of the names on a plaque at the Hope Lodge might surprise us. One of the well-known Muslim names from the pre-partition Karachi is that of Jam Ayoub Aliani. The names of two other Muslims can also be seen here. One is M. M. R. Sherazi, while the other is M. G. Hassan.
Jam Ayoub was only a member of the organisation, while the other two had held office.
Among the Hindu Freemasons are W. F. Bhojwani and K. P. Advani, while the Parsi members include D. F. Setna.
Saaien G. M. Syed, founder of the Sindhi separatist movement, Jeay Sindh, writes for Mir Ayoub Khan, son of Jam Mir Khan Barrister in his book Janub Guzaryum Jann Seen:
He was a sincere friend, a jolly fellow and a man of the liberal school of thought. I had the pleasure of working with him in the municipality, the local board, the Anjuman-e-Taraqqi-e-Urdu, Young Men’s Muslim Association, Freemasonry, Sindh Madrassa Board and Sindh Mohammadan Association.
Jam Ayoub’s name is inscribed on the plaque at the Hope Lodge, but Saaien G. M. Syed’s name is nowhere to be found, despite Syed having admitted to have worked with Jam Ayoub in the Freemasons.
According to my historian friend Aqeel Abbas Jafri, even Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib was a member of the Freemason fraternity. Ajmal Kamal, a renowned scholar, seconds Jafri’s claim.
The history
In his book Karachi Taareekh Kay Aaaenay Main, Muhammad Usman Damohi writes about Jam Ayoub and the Freemasons:
With the permission of King George V, Jam Ayoub became the Vice Counsel to Iran in June 1894. He remained in this position until 1927. In those days, the Freemasons’ activities were in full swing. The fraternity would often hold cultural events and programmes in Karachi. Jam Ayoub was an honorary member of the organisation… In those days, the motives of the Freemasons were a secret...
On July 13, 2011, Abeera Khan writes in an article for Dawn:
The historical origin of the Freemasons is rather obscure and mysterious, which — combined with the somewhat secretive nature of their rituals — has led to much conjecture and conspiracy theories about their activities around the world. Their meetings involve old symbolic rituals that have been carried forward for hundreds of years. The fraternity operates from very loosely connected "grand lodges", and "lodges" which are centres of activity and meeting-places. Each independent grand lodge has its own jurisdiction. A symbol always found in these lodges is that of the 'compass' and the 'square', pointing literally or metaphorically to the tools of a mason (or stone-cutting).
But is it right to assume these were exclusively Freemason symbols?
To that question, my photojournalist friend Akhtar Soomro responded with a resounding “no!” He showed me a picture with an aerial view of the General Post Office building in Lahore. The picture showed a collection of Freemason symbols incorporated into the colonial architecture.
So the question is, could the Freemasons be so influential as to have their symbols engraved into the architecture of new, high-profile constructions?
To the best of my knowledge, however, apart from the Freemason Hall (Hope Lodge), there are no other buildings in Karachi which have any Freemason symbols incorporated into their architecture or design. If the Freemasons are working for the rights of the Jews, then other buildings should also have displayed these symbols. In addition, the symbols of Judaism and Freemasonry bear no resemblance to each other whatsoever.
India in Karachi
There are a number of old buildings in Pakistan, especially in Karachi, of colonial origins that were designed by European Christian and Jewish architects.
I do request the readers to inform me if they spot any such symbols anywhere in Karachi on buildings or locations.
The ban
What happened to the Freemason fraternity in Pakistan is another tragic tale altogether.
Daily Dawn dated July 19, 1973 has a news report that would interest you here. Its heading: 'Freemason Hall in City taken over'.
It is reported that a team led by a Magistrate seized the Freemason Hall on behalf of the Government of Sindh. The team also confiscated all documents and other material in the building. The report goes on to say:
The cornerstone of the first ‘lodge’, i.e. the Hope Lodge in Karachi was laid in 1843. The first Governor of Sindh Charles Napier was also made an honorary member of the organisation. The government acted on the people’s demands and information provided by a rebel group in the Freemason organisation. The common understanding is that the Freemasons are Jewish-inspired and anti-Islam.
A report on a website that provides some information about the ban on Freemasons in Pakistan says that on June 16, 1983, all illegal activities of Freemasons were banned under the Martial Law Regulation 56. However, Freemasons continued their activities in secret. Then on December 29, 1985, the ban was extended to any and all Freemason activities in the country.
Karachi's 'Yahoodi Masjid
In 1965, Government of Pakistan had banned military servicemen from becoming members of the Freemason fraternity, the Rotary Club or the Lions’ Club. In 1969, this ban was expanded to cover all public servants, generalising the ban as a restriction from becoming a member of any organisation or fraternity whose aims and objectives were not publicly known.
The question is, when was the Freemason fraternity banned in the country for the first time; 1972, 1973 or 1983?
I asked my lawyer friend Younus Shad to help me in finding the answer. He was able to acquire a copy of the Martial Law Regulation which ordered the ban on Freemasons in Pakistan.
It is titled 'MARTIAL LAW REGULATION BY CHIEF MARTIAL LAW ADMINISTRATOR (Gazette of Pakistan, Extraordinary, Part I, 17th June 1983) No 56':
Section (1) states that any law or judicial decision before this regulation stands null and void.
Section (2) states that an organization, commonly known as the Freemason [organization] is declared a banned outfit and stands disbanded.
Section (3) states that all properties owned by the outfit are handed over to respective provincial governments.
Section (4) states that no claim will be entertained in regards to the properties seized.
Section (5) states that the organisation will not be eligible of petitioning any court of law in the country.
Section (6) states that the provincial governments can ask the federal government for help in the matter.
Section (7) states that any obstruction in the implementation of the regulation can lead to a sentence of three years in prison with fine.
Four years ago, Mike Bruce, a senior manager from an international non-profit institution approached my friend Mazhar Laghari. He wanted to visit the Hope Lodge. Mazhar asked me to help with this. I was caught up with some other things and requested my friend Amar Guriro to help Mike.
That evening, the city of lights was drowned in darkness. Using the torch in his mobile phone, Amar took Mike to the hall and showed him around.
Mike was only able to see the Star of David and the plaque with the members’ names. He was stunned that Pakistan’s history did not have a single word about the fraternity.
After a few months, I met Mike and told him that there was a Jewish cemetery near the Mewa Shah Graveyard. I also informed him about the synagogue in the city and that at least a dozen buildings in Karachi had the Star of David in incorporated into their structures somewhere.
Mike Bruce dreams of a Pakistan where he could enjoy enough religious freedom to be able to visit all such buildings in broad daylight. He had visited the Freemason Hall as if he were spying on it. His organisation strictly advises him not to get out of his hotel after dark.
Researcher and novelist Dan Brown has mentioned how important buildings in the US, including the Congress Library in Washington D.C. and the White House have the Star of David evident in the architecture in more than one place. He even claims how the dollar note has such a symbol on it.
Dan Brown and other researchers claim that the founder and the first President of the United States of America, George Washington was a member of the Secret Brotherhood of the Freemason fraternity. Even Leonardo Da Vinci they claim, was a member of the brotherhood.
We will share some more information about the Freemason Hall in Karachi in the next episode.
(To be continued...)
Translated by Ayaz Laghari
62
Author Image
Akhtar Balouch is a senior journalist, writer and researcher. He is currently a council member of the HRCP. Sociology is his primary domain of expertise, on which he has published several books.
Friday, May 19, 2023
The Masonic Roots of Muslim Thinkers: Who’s the Muslim? by Arab American Encyclopedia-USA - Hasan Yahya
The Masonic Roots of Muslim Thinkers: Who’s the Muslim? by Arab American Encyclopedia-USA - Hasan Yahya
The Masonic Roots of Muslim Thinkers: Who’s the Muslim?
Hasan Yahya, professor of comparative Sociology
Reading recent documented history of Islamic movements especially leadership thinkers such as al Afghani, Muhammad Abdu, Rashid Rida, and the Muslim Brothers movement, describing their involvement in masonic movements or CIA recruits to serve foreign interests, throw heavily the question: Who’s the Muslim? I began to doubt myself! Several leaders in this survey are surveyed, we may conclude certain conclusion against these movements. But we will give readers to reach their own conclusion.
1. Jamal ud Din Al Afghani
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Jamal ud Din Al Afghani, and Muhammad Abduh are documented to be freemasons in the service of British Government, through their membership in the Oxford freemasons movement established for the purpose of creating Salafi movement in outside Britain under the freemason control which was established by Benjamin Disraeli, the Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Doubts over the relationships between Salafi leaders at the start ( Jama ul Din al Afghani and Muhammad Abdu) and the British government are spelled as documented reports that both leaders were members of the Oxford freemasons which was established in the 1820’s. The group of missionaries was appointed by a combined movement of Oxford University, the Anglican Church, and Kings College of London University, under Scottish Rite Freemasonry, as part of a plot to foster the creation of an occult brotherhood in the Muslim world, dedicated to the use of terrorism on behalf of the Illuminati in the City of London (1)
The leading promoters of the Oxford Movement were Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Palmerston of the Palladian Rite, and Edward Bullwer-Lytton, the leader of a branch of Rosicrucianism that developed from the Asiatic Brethren. The Oxford movement was also supported by the Jesuits. Also involved were the British royal family itself, and many of its leading prime ministers and aides.
Benjamin Disraeli was Grand Master of Freemasonry, as well as knight of the Order of the Garter. It was in Coningsby, that he confessed, through a character named Sidonia, modeled on his friend Lionel de Rothschild, that, “the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.” Of the influence of the secret societies, Disraeli also remarked, in Parliamentary debate:
“It is useless to deny. . . a great part of Europe the whole of Italy and France, and a great portion of Germany, to say nothing of other countries are covered with a network of these secret societies, just as the superficies of the earth is now being covered with railroads. And what are their objects? They do not attempt to conceal them. They do not want constitutional government. They do not want ameliorated institutions; they do not want provincial councils nor the recording of votes; they want. . . an end to ecclesiastical establishments.”(2)
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Throughout his forty-year career as a British intelligence agent, Jamal ud al Afghani was guided by two British Islamic and cult specialists, Wilfred Scawen Blunt and Edward G. Browne. E. G. Browne was Britain’s’ leading Orientalist of the nineteenth century, and numbered among his protégés at Cambridge University’s Orientalist department Harry “Abdullah” St. John B. Philby, a British intelligence specialist behind the Wahhabi movement. Wilfred S. Blunt, another member of the British Orientalist school, was given the responsibility by the Scottish Rite Masons to organize the Persian and the Middle East lodges. Al Afghani was their primary agent.
Very little is known of Jamal ud Din al Afghani’s origins. Despite the appellation “Afghani”, which he adopted and by which he is known, there are some reports that he was a Jew. On the other hand, some scholars believe that he was not an Afghan but a Iranian Shiah. And, despite posing as a reformer of orthodox Islam, al Afghani also acted as proselytizer of the Bahai faith, the first recorded project of the Oxford Movement, a creed that would become the heart of the Illuminati’s one-world-religion agenda.
In 1845, Afghani’s family had enrolled him in a madrassa (Islamic school) in the holy city of Najaf, in what is now Iraq. There, Afghani was initiated into “the mysteries” by followers of Sheikh Ahmad Ahsai. Sheikh Zeyn ud Din Ahmad Ahsai was the founder of the Shaikhi school. Ahsai was succeeded after his death by Seyyed Mohammad Rashti, who introduced the idea of a “perfect Shiah, called Bab, meaning “gate”, who is to come. In 1844, Mirza Mohammad Ali claimed to be this promised Bab, and founded Babism, among whose followers Afghani also may have had certain family connections. (3)
2… Muhammad Abduh
After Afghani’s departure from Egypt, his pupil, Mohammed Abduh, was inexplicably named the chief editor of the official British-controlled publication of the Egyptian government, the Journal Officiel. Working under him was fellow-Freemason, Saad Zaghul, later to be founder of the Wafd nationalist party. In 1883, Abduh joined Afghani in Paris, and then went to London, where he lectured at Oxford and Cambridge, and consulted with British officials about the crisis in Sudan against the Mahdi.
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In Paris and London, Abduh assisted Afghani in administering both a French-language and Arabic journal in Paris, called Al Urwah al Wuthkah, or the “Indissoluble Bond”, also the name of a secret organization he founded in 1883. Among the members of Afghani’s circle in Paris were Egyptians, Indians, Turks, Syrians, North Africans, as well as many Christians and Jews, and Persian Bahais expelled from the Middle East.
When the French suppressed the Al-Murwah al-Wuthkah, Abduh traveled for several years, throughout the Arab world, under various disguises, particularly to Tunis, Beirut, and Syria. In each city, he would recruit members into the secret society of Afghani’s fundamentalism.
Like his teacher, Abduh was associated with the Bahai movement, which had made deliberate efforts to spread the faith to Egypt. Bahais began establishing themselves in Alexandria and Cairo beginning in the late 1860. Abduh had met Abdul Baha when he was teaching in Beirut, and the two struck up a very warm friendship, and agreed with his one-world-religion philosophy. Remarking on Abdul Baha’s excellence in religious science and diplomacy, Abduh said of him that, “[he] is more than that. Indeed, he is a great man; he is the man who deserves to have the epithet applied to him.” (4)
Abduh was known for his reformist views about Islam. But, in How We Defended Orabi, A.M. Broadbent declared that, “Sheikh Abdu was no dangerous fanatic or religious enthusiast, for he belonged to the broadest school of Moslem thought, held a political creed akin to pure republicanism, and was a zealous Master of a Masonic Lodge.” (5) Like the Ismailis before him, he would advance his students progressively into deeper levels of heresy. To the higher initiates, he would reveal the doctrines of the Scottish Rite and the philosophy of one-world government. However, for those Abduh deemed were much more disposed, he would introduce to an officer of British intelligence from London.(6)
From 1888, until his death in 1905, Abduh regularly visited the home and office of Lord Cromer. In 1892, he was named to run the administrative Committee for the Al Azhar mosque and university, the most prestigious educational institution in Islam, and the oldest university in the world. From that post, he reorganized the entire Muslim system in Egypt, and because of Al Azhar’s reputation, much of the Islamic world as well.
In 1899, Lord Cromer, made Abduh the Grand Mufti of Egypt. He was now the chief legal authority in Islam, as well as the Masonic Grand Master of the United Lodge of Egypt. Lord Cromer was an important member of England’s Baring banking family, that had grown rich off of the opium trade in India and China. His motive in making Abduh the most powerful figure in all of Islam was to change the law forbidding interest banking. Abduh then offered a contrived interpretation of the Koran, to create the requisite loophole, giving British banks free reign in Egypt. Of Abduh, Lord Cromer related, “I suspect my friend Abduh was in reality an agnostic,” and he said of Abduh’s Salafi reform movement that, “They are the natural allies of the European reformer.” (7)
3 Muhammad Rashid Rida
The Salafi movement then became allied with the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia, through another Freemason, Mohammed Rashid Rida, who, after the death of Afghani in 1897, and Abduh in 1905, assumed the leadership of the Salafis Rida had become a member of the Indissoluble Bond at a young age. He was promoted through Afghani’s Masonic society through his reading of Al-Urwah al Wuthkah, which he later confessed was the greatest influence in his life. Rida had never met Afghani, but in 1897, he had gone to Egypt to study with Mohammed Abduh. Though Rida did not share his master’s opinions about the Bahai movement, it was through his influence that the Salafi movement became firmly aligned with the State of Saudi Arabia.
4 The Muslim Brothers and Osama bin Laden
This survey did not include Hasan al Banna or Sayyed Qutb, in details, however, both were following the same track as Rashid Rida, but with no trace to wahhabis of Saudi Arabia. Still doubts about the Muslim Brothers affiliation, especially when we discover that they were established by British blessings to stand against the Rulers of Egypt in the 1950s, and their involvement with the CIA in 1977, described in an article published at wordpress, titled: “The CIA and The Muslim Brotherhood: How the CIA Set The Stage for September 11” says:
“ The CIA often works in mysterious ways – and so it was with this little-known cloak-and-dagger caper that set the stage for extensive collaboration between US intelligence and Islamic extremists.”
“The genesis of this ill-starred alliance dates back to Egypt in the mid-1950s, when the CIA made discrete overtures to the Muslim Brotherhood, the influential Sunni fundamentalist movement that fostered Islamic militancy throughout the Middle East. What started as a quiet American flirtation with political Islam became a Cold War love affair on the sly – an affair that would turn out disastrously for the United States. Nearly all of today’s radical Islamic groups, including al-Qaeda, trace their lineage to the Brotherhood.” (8)
5… Osama bin Laden
The Muslim Brothers are at the root of a lot of American troubles,” says Col. W. Patrick Lang, one of several US intelligence veterans interviewed for this article . Formerly a high-ranking Middle East expert at the Defense Intelligence Agency Lang considers al-Qaeda to be “a descendent of the Brotherhood.” For many years, the American espionage establishment had operated on the assumption that Islam was inherently anti-communist and there fore could be harnessed to facilitate US objectives. American officials viewed the Muslim Brotherhood as “a secret weapon” in the shadow war against the Soviet Union and it’s Arab allies, according to Robert Baer, a retired CIA case officer who was right in the thick of things in the Middle East and Central Asia during his 21 year career as a spy. In his book “Sleeping with the Devi,” he wrote after quitting the CIA Baer explains how the United States “made common cause with the Brothers” and used them “to do our dirty work in Yemen, Afghanistan and plenty of other places”. This covert relationship; unraveled when the Cold War ended, whereupon an Islamic Frankenstein named Osama bin Laden lurched into existence. The Muslim Brotherhood was described by ex-CIA analyst Graham Fuller as “the preeminent international Islamist organization,” having a huge number of followers with autonomous branches, all in close contact, spread across the Arab world. While they alleged front banned for terrorists before January 25 revolution, Egypt, (it’s birthplace) Such a claim its supporters adamantly deny their relations with Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders, most of them had close personal ties to the Brotherhood prior to September 11, 2001.
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In conclusion, most prominent Muslim thinkers (and Leaders, Jamal ud Din Abdu and Muslim Brothers had certain affiliation or involved in freemasons or CIA plans to curb the Arab and Muslim opposition in Asia and North Africa. While Rashid Reda was Wahhabi, and early Brotherhood was pure Islamic, later in the cold war between the west and the Soviet Union, the Muslim Brothers as well as Osama bin Laden were recruits for the CIA. Bin Laden, retreated, but the Muslim Brothers are still around which may be still covered under the CIA shadow. One drawback in this survey is methodological, where
these documents are taken in their face value with no validation of origins. If
these documents are true, this writer, strongly believes that any authority reaches the top of a nation in the Arab region, is involved overtly or covertly with secret movements, Masonic or else, covered by certain colors to close the gap between the (ignorant) public, and themselves. But secrets will be prevailed someday, who knows? The future will tell. www.dryahyatv.com
NOTES:
- Dreyfuss, Hostage to Khomeini, p. 113.[pdf]
- Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, quoted from Paul A. Fisher, Their God is the Devil, pp. 18-19.
- Nikki Keddie, Sayyid Jamal ad-Din “al Afghani”: A Political Biography, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, (1927) p. 87
- Cole, Juan R. I. “Rashid Rida on the Bahai Faith: A Utilitarian Theory of the Spread of Religions”, Arab Studies Quarterly 5, 3 (Summer 1983): 278.
- Raafat, Samir. “Freemasonry in Egypt: Is it still around?” Insight Magazine, March 1, 1999.
- Dreyfuss, Hostage to Khomeini, p. 136.
- Goodgame, Peter. The Muslim Brotherhood: The Globalists’ Secret Weapon
- The CIA and The Muslim Brotherhood: How the CIA Set The Stage for September 11 (Martin A. Lee – Razor Magazine 2004)
Masonry in the Middle East by Jonathan M. Jacobs, 32°
http://www.skirret.com/papers/masonry_in_middle_east.html
Masonry in the Middle East
Jonathan M. Jacobs, 32°
Today the words Islam and Muslim create certain thoughts in the minds of many Americans. We tend to think of Saddam Hussein, the President of Iraq during the recent war, or the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late spiritual leader of Iran. We tend to think of oil, war, terrorism, and what many of us think of as religious fanaticism.
We rarely think of Brother Masons!
For well over two centuries, there have been lodges in countries with large Islamic populations, and over the last century, if not much longer, Muslims have become Freemasons.
Perhaps one of the best accounts of our early Islamic Brethren is found in Freemasonry in the Holy Land, by Brother Robert Morris. The book gives an excellent account of Brother Morris's 1868–69 visit to Damascus, Beirut, and Jerusalem.
Today Damascus is the capital of Syria, an independent nation, but in 1868 Syria was a province of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire had extended from the lower Danube in Europe to the west coast of the Persian Gulf, in what is now Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. In the northeast it included the Crimea; its western borders reached present-day Algeria. At the Empire's greatest height, in the late 17th century, the Islamic Sultan from his capital of Istanbul sent his army against Vienna, and ruled his vast empire through provincial governors, called Pashas. In 1830 the French had managed to detach Algeria, and by 1868, the Empire was in a period of decline. The Hapsburgs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were slowly nibbling away at the Empire's northern boundaries. Greece had become independent and the Pasha of Egypt was semi-independent, dealing directly with the French concerning the newly opened Suez Canal. By 1868 the Sultan still ruled, through his Pashas, his declining Empire in the lands east of the Sinai Peninsula, and would continue to do so until the end of World War I. It was against this background that Brother Morris made his fascinating visit.
Brother Morris recounts an attempt to form a Masonic lodge in Damascus in April 1868, under the authority of the Grand Lodge of England. At this meeting, several Brothers were present, including British Consul E.T. Rogers; Nazif Meshaka, the secretary to the American Consul; Abbas Kulli Khan, the Consul of Persia (now called Iran), as well as several Ottoman governmental officials. The other Freemasons that Brother Morris met included Nouriddin Effendi, the Ottoman Governor of Joppa, who, in 1868, was a 19 degree Scottish Rite Mason, and Mohammed Rashid Pasha, Governor of Syria. Brother Morris dedicated his book to Brother Rashid, in thanks for Brother Rashid's help and kindness. One of Brother Rashid's predecessors, Brother Faud Pasha, rose to become the Sultan's Minister of War and later Foreign Minister.
No account of Brother Morris's visit to Damascus would be complete without mention of his visit with His Highness Abd el-Kader-Ulid-Mahiddin, the exiled Amir of Mascara, Algeria. Abd el-Kader had begun his life in 1807, born into a family of "sherifs," descendants of the Prophet Mohammed. He was proclaimed Emir of Mascara, Algeria, when he started his 15-year fight against the French until his surrender in 1847. He was finally defeated and was imprisoned in France until 1852, when he was exiled to the Turkish city of Bursa and then moved to Damascus in 1855. On his entry, Abd el-Kader was greeted by a jubilant population. A man of independent means, he lived in Damascus with his family (he had only one wife) and a thousand-man Algerian body-guard. He established an Islamic school where he and 60 Islamic scholars taught.
The next event in Abd el-Kader's life is as surprising to the modern American as it was heroic. In early 1860 some poorer Muslims began rioting in what is now Lebanon, killing the well-to-do Arab Christian population. On July 6, 1860, the rioting spread to Damascus. Abd el-Kader rode into the mob, not to assist it but to dissuade it; he failed and soon the Christian Quarter of Damascus was in flames.
At great risk to his own life Abd el-Kader and his Algerians entered the burning Christian Quarter and rescued all the Christians that they could. He then escorted them to his own home, which was rapidly filled. He went to the neighbouring homes and persuaded the residents to give the Christians refuge as well. Then the mob approached the area and demanded that he turn the Christians over to them for execution.
Drawing his sword, Abd el-Kader confronted the crowd and told them to disperse, or he and his guard would open fire. (There is some question if his Algerians had enough ammunition to successfully stop the mob.) The rioters withdrew without attacking; Abd el-Kader made provision for the Christians to stay in his care for over a month. His actions saved the lives of over 12,000 Christians, including the French Consul, the representative of the government that had exiled him!
The Western world honoured this act of valour. France awarded him the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour; the United States sent him a set of pistols inlaid with gold. In June of 1864, His Highness Abd el-Kader, Emir of Mascara, and Arab Nationalist, Islamic Scholar, and a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, was made a Freemason at the Lodge of the Pyramids, Alexandria, Egypt. Three of his sons also joined the fraternity.
There were a handful of lodges that were formed in Ottoman lands before World War I; the governments of the various Sultans tended to tolerate Freemasonry. Following World War I when Turkey became a republic, there was little change in the Masonic situation. Mustapha Kamel Ataturk, the Republic's founder and first President, while not a Mason, became known as "The protector of the craft." The Grand Lodge, formed in 1909, is recognized by most Grand Lodges in the United States.
With the deterioration and final collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Masonry spread across North Africa and the Middle East.
Lodges were formed in Tunisia as early as 1877.
By the early 1950's, Morocco had 16 lodges, eight chartered by the Grand Orient of France, and eight holding charters from the Grand Lodge of France; neither of the French Grand Lodges is now generally recognized by American Grand Lodges as being regular.
Egypt, virtually a British protectorate, established the Egyptian National Grand Lodge in 1876. The Grand Lodge fell into schism in 1922, but again became united by the end of World War II. At the famous battle of El-Alamein, these lodges responded to a government request for aid, delivering food to allied forces at the front. Among the members of this lodge in 1952 were various members of the reigning Egyptian royal family. By 1960 this Grand Lodge was recognized by several American jurisdictions.
Algeria had several lodges by 1950, though all of these were affiliated with the Grand Orient of France,
During Brother Morris's 1869 visit to the Ottoman province of Syria, there was an attempt to form a Masonic lodge in Damascus; that attempt failed. In 1900, Peace Lodge No. 908, was chartered in Lebanon by the Grand Lodge of Scotland. By the end of World War II, over a dozen lodges were formed in what today are Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. When Israel was founded in 1948, two lodges removed themselves to Arab lands, one to Amman, Jordan, and the other to Tripoli, Lebanon. There was a Grand Lodge of Syria and Lebanon in 1960, recognized by several American jurisdictions, yet most American Grand Lodges did not recognize it.
Since that era, there have been other Grand Lodges operating but without general recognition. For a good many years the Grand Lodge of New York has had a District Grand Lodge for Syria and Lebanon with ten subordinate lodges of limited activities due to conditions of recent years.
Freemasonry entered the Persian Gulf area with the increase of British influence during the first half of this century. The Grand Lodges of England and Scotland chartered lodges in such places as Kuwait City, Abadan, Tehran, Basra, and Baghdad. Iran formed a Grand Lodge in 1969 and established a Supreme Council in 1970.
Several countries with large Muslim populations bordering the Indian Ocean have active lodges, notably India and Malaysia. India's first lodge was formed in Calcutta, in 1730, during the first years of colonization. There was an unsubstantiated report that the first Muslim to become a Mason, His Highness the Prince of Arcot, was raised in a military lodge in 1788 or 1789, about the same time that Brother Washington became President of the United States. In any event, by the mid-19th century, Indian lodges, under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of England were admitting brethren of the Muslim faith. India is a country of diverse faiths; many Indian lodges have among their membership Hindus, Muslims, Jews, and Christians. India has the distinction of having lodges chartered by four Grand Lodges, England, Ireland, Scotland, and India's own Grand Lodge, the latter being formed in 1961. In the Sultanate of Jahore, in distant Malaysia, the Sultan served as Master of his lodge for two years during the first half of this century.
Traditionally, Freemasonry has been generally allowed in Islamic countries, although subject to criticism by some Islamic groups just as some Christian groups have criticized Freemasonry in the United States, the United Kingdom, and parts of Europe. Unfortunately, over the last 35 years the craft has been suppressed in some Islamic areas. Some countries, especially in the Mideast, have tilted closely toward the Soviet Union, which itself suppressed Masonry. Therefore, it should not be a surprise that lodges in Iraq have been erased. Lebanon's lodges, which are chartered by the Grand Lodge of New York are still operating in spite of the ongoing civil war.
The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Iran as a part of the revolution there has caused the Grand Lodge and Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite to go into exile in the United States.
Some lodges in the Gulf states have also closed. There are Masons of the Muslim faith who are affiliated with lodges outside the Muslim world.
It can be added that suppression of Freemasonry in some Islamic countries may be traced back to the Suez War in 1956 when Freemasonry was accused by Egypt, and elsewhere, of taking sides. Such a perception on the part of some followers of Islam can be said to exist today.
The Masonic situation in North Africa is unclear. Most lodges in that area have been influenced historically by the Grand Orient of France, which is not recognized in America. For this reason, there is no current listing of lodges. As a result of lack of information, it is unknown whether these lodges continue to work.
The fate of the Grand Lodge of Egypt is also unknown.
On the brighter side, lodges continue in Turkey, India, and in those Islamic lands in the Far East as well.
One of the more interesting aspects of lodges in countries with Muslim populations is the Volume of Sacred Law. In India, for example, with its many religions, the candidate uses the V.S.L. appropriate for his religion. A Muslim would use the Koran, while a Christian candidate would use the Bible. Turkey uses a similar system.
There has been a long tradition of Freemasonry in the Islamic world. It can be hoped that, with recent events in the Middle East, Islam will again be represented in Freemasonry and that Freemasonry will be well represented in the Islamic world. It is also hoped that we will be able to call a future Abd el-Kader "Brother."
The Northern Light, May 199
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