The Mohammedans, though they appeared at first as conquerors, became
at length Africans by their permanent residence on the soil, and they
went forth afterwards in propagating their faith, not as warriors,
but as fellow-citizens and brothers. They resembled the natives in
color, manners, and modes of thought, and readily assimilated with
them by marriage ties and the affinities of home life. Their converts
among the native races were even more naturally welcomed, as friends
and brothers. They, of course, found no difficulty with the climate,
for in it they were born.

While we repudiate emphatically the idea that Mohammedanism can be a
substitute for Christianity in civilizing Africa, yet it is only just
that we should admit that Islam brings with it some influences for
good into that benighted land--influences that strongly appeal to the
higher instincts and aspirations of the people, and are, therefore,
an elevating power. First of all, the One True God of Islam tends to
lift the African above his idols, his fetich, his witchcraft and his
cannibalism. Then, the prohibition of wine and strong drink snatches
the people from what threatens to be the vortex of their
ruin--intemperance; while Christian nations are now, to their shame
and infamy, swelling the floods and increasing the velocity of that
vortex by larger importations of intoxicating liquors. Then, too, the
followers of Mohammed are using the school of the prophets in the
preparation of their missionaries. The great training school, the Old
University of Cairo, is said to number at times as many as ten
thousand students of the Koran, a number which may well challenge a
comparison with the Protestant Theological Seminaries of Europe and
America, not only by their numbers, but by the astonishing success of
their pupils as missionaries. They run where we halt, they win where
we fail.