group, and, being exploited for political ends, becoming a source of dissension and disunity. Rather, the Society For Muslim Unity embraced all believers and formed a barrier to the serious differences which had developed between the various societies and political parties in the months of CUP rule - differences so bitter that it was to this that Bediuzzaman ascribed what he called `the great disaster', that is, the 3l st of March Incident.

In a newspaper article Bediuzzaman wrote: "Our Society's way is love towards love, and enmity towards enmity. That is, to assist love among Muslims, and defeat the forces of enmity." Infact, he described the ittihad-i Muhammedi as ittihad-i Islam, or Islamic Unity, that is, "the unity that exists either potentially or in fact among all believers." The unity and brotherhood of Muslims were "like hidden veins of gold in half the globe", and the Society in Turkey was "a new flame which had appeared in one corner of it and gave the good news of that mighty reality being wholly revealed." This Society had emerged from the potential to the actual and now sought to awaken other believers and urge them towards the way of progress through the drive of the conscience. Muslims had not realized that vast potential. Through neglect, the luminous chain of unity which had bound the centres of Islam together had become inert, it had not been benefited from. Now it had to be brought to life and made to vibrate.'

The foundation of unity and progress and of the strengthening and liberation of the Islamic world was moral renewal, and Bediuzzaman saw the Society as spearheading a more widespread movement for `moral rearmament' through putting new energy into observing the Seriat and following the Practices of the Prophet. He stated: "The reason for our worldly decline was failure to observe our religion. Also, we are more in need of moral improvement than government reform..."