George Bernard Shaw’s quotation about the Prophet Muhammad’s religion
I have compiled the following article about a quotation attributed to George Bernard Shaw ("I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality….") which should be of general interest:
www.ahmadiyya.org/islam/bernard-shaw.htm
Zahid Aziz
From ikram:
Thank you Dr. Aziz for identifying the source of the famous quote about Prophet Muhammad attributed to Bernard Shaw, which turns out to be none other than the “The Light”, the biweekly of our Jamaat:
In one of the referenced material in your article (link) I found an interesting extract that reflects the wit and originality of Bernard Shaw, which I reproduce for readers’ pleasure:
New York Times, 9 January 1933, p. 12 — BOMBAY, Jan. 8. George Bernard Shaw arrived in India for the first time today, confessing his admiration for Mahatma Gandhi as ‘a clear-headed man who occurs only once in several centuries’.
Bronzed by the Eastern sun, Mr. Shaw stood on the deck of the Empress of Britain, which is taking him on a world cruise, and gave Indian newspaper men rapid-fire opinions of the Mahatma and Indian affairs generally.
‘It is very hard for people to understand Gandhi, with the result that he gets tired of people and threatens a fast to kill himself’, Mr. Shaw said. ‘If I saw Gandhi I should say to him, “Give it up, it is not your job.”
‘The people who are the most admired are the people who kill the most. If Gandhi killed 6,000,000 people he would instantly become an important person. All this talk of disarmament is nonsense, for if people disarm they will fight with their fists.’
Referring to Mr. Gandhi’s present crusade against Untouchability, Mr. Shaw said that if an English labourer proposed to marry a duchess he would very soon find out that he was an Untouchable.
‘That gives me enough to think about without bothering to know anything about the Indian Untouchables’, said the author, with a grin.
Indian affairs, he continued, would henceforth have to be dealt with by Indians themselves.
‘In any future disputes between the Indians and British Governments India must not expect any support from other countries’, he declared. ‘From the viewpoint of population, India is the centre of the British Empire. It is quite possible that in the future, instead of India wanting to be separated from England, the time will come when England would make a desperate struggle to get separated from India.'