78 Geaves
that the predominantly Christian state of Armenia was a legitimate part of the
multi-religious Ottoman state and that Britain would be outraged if any one of
her dominions attempted to break away because their religion was different,
however just the cause. Secondly, he went out to attack Christians who were
supporting the Armenian complaints against Ottoman rule by pointing out
that this involved a strong element of hypocrisy if the Christians were pointing
their fingers at anyone else when their own house was far from clean. In his
defence of the Turkish people there are parallels with Pickthall’s position cited
above.
By 1901 the war between Turkey and Bulgaria had resulted in the European
powers including Britain becoming embroiled in the various rebellions taking
place in the Balkans against the authority of the Ottoman Empire, and Quil-
liam would use all of his resources to defend the Caliph and pleaded with the
British government to support the ailing Ottoman Empire. However, the cam-
paign to defend the Ottomans would be viewed as treason by many in Britain,
and even as early as January 1903 Quilliam was becoming aware of the tensions
between his dual loyalties to Islam and to his nation of birth. Shortly after ex-
pressing his frustrations in The Crescent, his speech defending Islam and the
Ottoman position in Macedonia was published as The Trouble in the Balkans.18
In the same year the Bishop of Liverpool delivered a sermon defending the
rights of Christians in Macedonia to break free of the Muslim yoke that had
been placed around them by Ottoman rule.19 In late October, Quilliam publicly
refuted the Bishop at a meeting in the Town Hall and defended the religion of
Islam and its cultural/political manifestations in the Ottoman Empire.20 His
defence of Islam was picked up and reported worldwide, with many newspa-
pers printing extracts of Quilliam’s speech.
In May 1906, the mosque in Liverpool celebrated the birthday of the Proph-
et and Quilliam used the occasion to deliver a significant lecture on the rela-
tionship between Britain and Turkey. He accused the British Government of
abandoning their traditional friendship with the Sultan and argued that this
constituted a betrayal of trust.21 The full text of this speech was sent to the
Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and the King. The Liverpool media re-
ported and reprinted extracts of the speech extensively. The national press
18 The Crescent [hereafter tc] 590, 4 May 1904.
19 tc 562, 21 October 1903.
20 tc 563, 28 October 1903.
21 tc 695, 9 May 1906.