Iranian threat to call a Moslem “holy war” unless British oil interests get out of that country makes little sense because responsible and intelligent Moslems would not dream of playing into the hands of Communist Russia.

About a year ago a gathering of Moslem leaders in Cairo called on their followers to work closely with the Christian communions. They pointed out that godless Communism is the common enemy of both Islam and Christendom and that the two would have to face it together.

The world today is split, not between Mahomet [Muhammad] and Christ, but between spiritual-minded peoples and materialist-minded peoples.

They issued a passionate call to all religious men of whatever creed or doctrine to stand together against Russia’s vicious materialism.

For nothing is clearer than this: that the minute the British are thrown out of their oil concessions in Iran, the Russians will move in.

Substantial Iranian Moslems know it. Arab Moslems know it. Egyptian Moslems know it.

It seems impossible therefore that responsible Moslems anywhere should subscribe to an hysterical appeal that could only increase the martial assets of the Communists, who in the Moslems’ own words offer the greatest threat to Islam.