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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (March 3, 1960)
"2"; ,,- r ; ; . . . t HOUSE OF WORSHIP-A towering minaret soars over the purely Arabic-styled Moslem mosque located in the northwestern section of Washington, D.C. The Washington Mosque serves primarily as a house of wor ship for diplomatic personnel from Moslem countries. It is one of a dozen mosques in the U.S. Other mosques are supported and are houses of worship for U.S. citizens. (UPI Telephoto) Washintgon Mosque Sits at Odd Angle To Face Toward Mecca By LOUIS CASSELS Washington (CPU On the edge of Rock Creek Park in the fashionable embassy sec tion of Washington is a mag nificent white marble build ing which sits at a peculiar angle to tne street. Tourists who inquire about its odd location are informed that the building is a Moslem mosque. And like all the mos ques in the world, it faces east, toward Mecca. The Washington mosque serves primarily as a home of worship for diplomatic per sonnel from Moslem coun tries. But there are 11 other mosques in the United States, scattered from New York to Sacramento, Calif., which are supported and patronized al most entirely by American citizens. Estimates of America's Moslem population vary wide ly, but the most generally ac cepted figure is 80,000. The vast majority are immigrants or the children of immigrants. Nativt-Born Negroes But some 7,000 or so are na tive-born American Negroes who have been converted to the religion of Islam in a mis sionary crusade that began in New York in 1931, and has now spread to Detroit, Chica go. Philadelphia and other cities. Although Islam's foothold in America is still extremely modest, the presence of Mos lem missionaries in major U.S. cities is symbolic of a dramatic resurgence that has taken , place in the religion founded more than 1,300 years ago by an Arabian camel driver named Mo hammed. Today Islam ranks second in numerical strength among the world's religions, with its 350.000,000 adherents sur passed only by Christianity's feUO.000,000. And as its missionary out reach in America demon strates Islam is again a re ligion on the move. Because it is unequivocally committed to racial equality (one of Mo- HERTZ TRUCK RENTAL Available at HOPKINS RICHFIELD SERVICE MtAndrew at Caw ' - Phone SP 3-9068 hammed's wives was a Negro) it has recently found a warm welcome in many parts of Africa and Asia where Chris tianity is suspect as a "white man's export." Islamic mis sionaries are now reported winning far more converts than Christian missionaries in West Africa. Virtually all Arabs are Moslems, but not all Moslems are Arabs. Outside of the Arab states of the Middle East,- the main centers of Moslem strength are Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and India. Many Parallels Islam's beliefs have many striking parallels with Juda ism and Christianity. These are not accidental. Moham med was familiar with both religions, and he regarded Is lam as a "fulfillment" of the older religions. He taught that Jesus was an authentic human prophet, but that his life was cut short before he could complete all his teachings, so God called forth another prophet Mo hammed to finish the job of revelation. . The new revelations which Mohammed said were given to him in a cave near Mecca were written down in a book called the Koran. Moslems ac cord this book the same rev erance and authority that conservative Protestants ac cord the Bible. They regard it as the literally true, divine ly "dictated" word of God. The Koran depicts God as a compassionate creator "whose love for man is more tender than that of the mother-bird for her young." The concept sounds fami lar enough to be Jewish or Christian, but it was an excit ing new thought to the Arabs of Mohammed's day, whose religion was a primitive poly theism in which the one moderately benign God Al lah was outnumbered by a horde of malevolent "jinns" and demons. Explicit Detail It is only against this back ground that modern mind can grasp the full voltage of the message that Mohammed pro claimed as the creed of Islam: "There is only one God Allah" The Koran spells out a Mos lem's ' religious and moral obligations in explicit detail. And while some of its pre cepts (for example, the au thorization of four wives) may seem lax to westerners, they were radically strict re quirements for near-barbaric Arabs who had not previously bothered with marriage at all. The religious duties pre scribed in the Koran and faithfully observed today by all devoul Moslems are pri marily:' 1. To face Mecca and pray five times each day at sun rise, at noon, in th early afternoon, at sunset and at the fall of darkness. 2. To give IVz per cent of one's wealth to the poor each year. (This is not ZVt per cent of annual income, but of all the property that a Moslem owns.) 3. To fast during the holy month of Ramadan, ninth month of the year on the Ara bic calendar. Fasting means going without any food or drink not even a sip of wat er from sunrise to sunset. 4. To make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a life time. This requirement is binding only on Moslems who are physically and economi cally able to undertake the trip. In the past, devout Moslems were forbidden to gamble, drink alcoholic beverages, eat pork, or charge interest on loans, but . these restrictions have been relaxed consider ably among liberal Moslems today. . NO TAX RETURN London-(UPD-Burglars vain ly ransacked the income tax office in London's Southwark section Tuesday, then broke into the Government Nation al Assistance (unemployment benefits) office and again found no money. - Aor Force Commands Told To Treat Flying Saucers as 'Serious Business' Washington (DPD The Air nanced committee accused the Force has sent its commands a new warning to treat sight ings of unidentified flying objects as "serious business" directly related to the na tion's defense, it has been learned. An Air Force spokesman confirmed issuance of the di rective after - portions of it were made public by a pri vate "flying saucer" research group. The new regulations were issued by the air force inspec tor general last Dec. 24. Procedures Outlined The regulations, updating similar ones issued in the past, outlined procedures and said that "investigations and analysis of UFO's are directly related to the Air Force's re sponsibility for the defense of the United States." Existence of the document was revealed by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. The big-name, privately-fi- Fake Form of Non-Paralytic Polio Discovered Chicago (Science Service) A fake form of non-paralyzing poliomyelitis popped out in the 1958 Detroit polio epidem ic, pointing up the need for a new vaccine. The pseudo-polio was caused by ECHO and Coxsackie vir uses, of which there are many types. These viruses caused more of the non-paralyzing cases than the polio' virus. These facts emerged from a report in the curreht Journal of the American Medical As sociation. ' ' ' Laboratory tests on 1,060 of the' 12,00 cases revealed that the symptoms associated with ECHO and Coxsackie virus infections were virtual ly indistinguishable from those of nonparalytic polio, Drs. Gordon C. Brown, Ann Arbor, Willard R. Lenz, De troit, and George H. Agate, Lansing, . reported. The occurrence of these two types of virus infection was not influenced by polio vac cination, they said. However, the results of their study show that most of the persons who had poliomyelitis viruses had not .received polio vac cine. - On the other hand, examin tions for muscle weakness 60 days after the onset of ill ness indicated there was no association between vaccina tion and findings of improved muscle condition. The re searchers further seated that an analysis of patients, both paralytic and non-paralytic, from whom no virus could be isolated strongly suggested that the polio was not the cause of illness "in a large number" of them. The study also shows the virus-confirmed cases of polio occurred predominantly in younger persons while Cox sackie and ECHO virus infec tions were much more evenly distributed by age. Dr. Brown is associated with the University of Michi gan School of Public Health, Dr. Lenz is with the com municable disease division at Herman Kiefer Hospital and Dr. Agate is associated with the acute communicable dis ease section, Michigan De partment of Health. Air jorce oi deception in publicly .describing unidenti fied flying objects reports as delusions and . hoaxes while sending the private admoni tion to its commands. Vice Adm. R. H. Hillen koetter (ret.), a NICAP board member and former director of : the Central Intelligence agency, said in a statement that a photo-copy of the in spector general's warning had been sent to the senate space committee. Time for Truth "It is time for the truth to be brought out in open con gressional hearings," he said. The Air Force confirmed that the document had been issued. A spokesman said it was put out by Maj. Gen. Richard E. O'Keefe, acting in spector general at the time, to call attention to revised Air Force regulations concerning UFOs. The statement was included in an "operations and train ing" pamphlet circulated at intervals to bring commands up to date. Reports Investigated Pentagon aides said the new regulations, covering seven printed pages, made no substantive change in policy but were rewritten as a mat ter of course. The Air Force has investi gated 6,312 reports of UFOs since 1947, including 183 dur ing the last six months of 1959. The latest air force ( zens are led to believe the un- Know nymg objects are non sense," the retired admiral said. He added that "To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel" through issuance of a regula tion. "Veteran airline pilots and other technically trained ob servers have been discredit ed," he said. "Hundreds of authentic reports, many con firmed by radar or photo graphs, have been labeled de lusions or explained away by answers contrary to fact." Other NICAP board mem bers also issued statements criticizing the Air Force. They included Robert B. Emerson, Army reserve colo nel who heads a private lab oratory at Baton Rouge, La.; J. B. Hartranft Jr., former Air Force officer and presi dent of the 80,000-member Aircraft Owners and Pilots association; retired Rear Adm. H. .B. Knowles; the Rev. Albert Bailer, of Greenfield, Mass., and Prof. Charles A. Maney of Defiance College, Ohio. Knowles said "There is a real need to break through the official Washington brush off and get the truth home to the people." statement, issued a month ago, said "no physical or ma terial evidence, not even a mi nute fragment of, a so-called flying saucer, has ever been found." The inspector general's Document, NICAP said, was headed "UFO's Serious Busi ness." NICAP quoted the inspec tor general as saying: "Objects referred to as 'fly ing saucers' must be rapidly and accurately identified as serious USAF business . . . "Air Force concern with these sightings is threefold. First of all, is the object a threat to the defense of the U.S.? Secondly, does it con tribute to technical or scien tific knowledge?" Personnel Silenced The third point cited, NICAP said, was the question of how to explain the sight ings to the public. NICAP said the inspector general "predicted that UFO sightings will increase, causing public apprehension." Hillenkoetter said that "be hind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs." "But through official se crecy and ridicule, many citi- Sunny Weather Increases Traffic The recent improvement in j Rogue valley weather is draw ing more and more motorists to the open highways. This increase in valley traf fic has caused Medford's Chief of Police Charles P. Champlin to caution drivers against driving too fast for road conditions which may still be affected by winter weather. "Don't b fooled by. the sunshine," Chief Champlin said, "because a road can still be frosty or icy in shaded spots." Even in areas where there is no danger of frost or ice, it is still a mistake for driv ers to go very fast if their driving has been confined to town all winter, he said. "The first few nice days al ways brings a rash of drivers to the road who may not have driven at highway speeds for several months," he explain ed. "If they attempt to drive as fast as they would in the summer and fall they may be headed for trouble -because, accustomed to slower city driving, they might not re act fast enough to avert trou ble on the open road." As an extra precaution, he said, drivers should also be on the lookout for mistakes of others which may involve them in accidents. THE DANMOORE HOTEL 1217 SW Morrison St. PORTLAND, OREGON All transient guests. All those who come, return. Rates not high, not low. Free garage, TV's and radios. Reputation for cleanliness. Children Under Seven No Charge DEPENDABILITY SERVICE U ui - a z ui Q Headquarters for Building Materials CQPELAIID LUMBER YARD Assorted Tools each Linoleum Tile Gold Seal 9x9, ea. Ws" ROTORY MAHOGANY FLUSH DOORS 2'0"x68" $4.80 each 2'4"x6'8" ..... $5.40 each 2'6"x6'8" $5.40 each 2'8"x6'8" ............ $5.75 each QFTSF 3'0"x6'8" $6.30 each 9 9 c MA MEDFORD 1765 No. Riverside SP 2-5235 u m m Z 09 H - m 7 n m DEPENDABILITY SERVICE 6 MAIL TRIBUNE, Medford, Or. C Thursday, Mrefc S, I960 Try and Stop Me -By BENNETT CERF- BOYCE HOUSE tells about a picturesque Texan named Parrish who went to see a lawyer on a fine legal poh.t, The lawyer declared pompously, "A man of my standing ia the profession requires .a fee before discoursing on involved matters of this description." Parrish slapped a quar ter on the table and de manded, "Tell me all the law you know." Then he added, "And give me back my change." During World War n, while a blackout was in progress in Beverly Hills, the late Cecil De Mille, autocratic producer of Biblical spectacles like The Ten Commandments, noticed tnat ail the lights were burning in the home of hi non-temperance neigh bor. W. C. Fields. . Mr Fields," De Mille called out across the hedge, there a blackout going on. Get all those light out and fill your bathtub." 'Confound it," answered Fields grumpily, "can't we even have a blackout without one of your big bathtub scenes?" j 1960. by Bennett Cerf. Dlstr ibuted by King Feature SyndioaU HOME NEEDS Toledo - More than 1,000 feet of metal pipe cable and conduit are required in the construction of an average small residence built in the U.S. today. 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