A BY-PRODUCT of the Kikuyu controversy is a Protest of
Mohammedans against the attitude of Christian missions towards the
religion of Islam. That religion, they maintain, is as pure as
Christianity, if indeed it is not a purer faith. They protest
against the policy of the Christian bodies in East Africa of
sinking their differences in order to present a stronger front to a
common enemy, as they regard the followers of the Prophet. It would
not surprise us if some of those who talk glibly about Kikuyu were
to press the undenominational argument as justifying either the
inclusion of Mohammedans in a common Church based upon the
acceptance of a common belief in a Deity, or a delimitation of
religious areas that would leave Mohammedans untouched within their
particular sphere of influence. The former of these methods would
apply the principle of Undenominationalism, which, in the last
resort, must knock away first one of its foundations and then
another till it is left with one solitary basis, a vague belief in
one Supreme Being. We cannot conceive of a Mohammedan substituting
for his own religion a form of Christianity that treats as of no
importance the use or non-use of the Christian Sacraments, and
draws no distinction between a Church with lineal descent from its
Founder and so-called Churches that have been formed by local
congregations or at the instance of some leader of a revolt from
the historic Church. We can understand the surrender of his
devotion to the Catholic Faith, with its unbroken tradition and its
definite belief.