The Review of Religions [English], July 1923
We have received the following letter from Mr Ali Haidar alias LK Hyde of 3324, Aldrich Avenue, South Minneapolis, Minnesota, America. Recent irregularities in the publication of “The Review of Religions” though largely due to unavoidable causes hardly justify the publishing of such compliments on our part. We put the pleasure of our correspondent, however, above other considerations and also hope to hereby arouse ourselves to a state of harder work for the amelioration of the paper’s lot. As to the proposal contained in the latter portion of the letter, we have only to say that the matter is under our consideration. —The Editor, The Review of Religions [July 1923]
Dear Mr Editor [of The Review of Religions],
Through the courtesy of the honorable Dr Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, I have been able to peruse a number of copies of “The Review of Religions” and I desire to take this means of conveying to you my sincere appreciation of the true worth of your admirable publication.
Unquestionably, “The Review of Religions” is the highest calibre of ecclesiastical journalism, not only because it is so broad-minded to the Christians and Buddhists, etc., but because it is morally, spiritually, and physically the very breath of a living Islam. Your magazine typifies the spirit of Islam in a way that no other publication would be able to, and not only this, but it is also the personification of tolerance.
If only it were possible to send “The Review of Religions” into the homes of the ministers of the various so-called Christian denominations, what a light they would see about true Islam as it really is.
In a recent issue of the April 1923 “The Missionary Review of the World”, there is an article on The Situation in the Moslem World, in which the writer, Dr Samuel M Zwemer, editor of “The Moslem World” says, “Our work among Mohammedans has been comparatively fruitless.”
As a newspaper man and a journalist, I think that if the great news-gathering associations of the United States such as the Associated Press, the United Press, and the International News Service, were systematically bombarded with news items about the greatness of Islam, they might possibly publish some favourable articles on the situation in the Near East.
If there is anyone who is intolerant and racially prejudiced, it is the ministers who preside over the thousands of pulpits in America, and it is my hope that something will be done to remove this unfair state of mind.
May the Peace of Allah be with you.
Most sincerely,
(Ali Haidar) Laurence K Hyde.
(Transcribed and edited by Al Hakam from the original in The Review of Religions [English], July 1923)
