“War has at length been declared. The Royal Message was read yesterday in both Houses of Parliament-by Lord Aberdeen in the Lords, and by Lord J.Russell in the Commons. It describes the measures about to be taken as “active steps to oppose the encroachment of Russia upon Turkey.” Tomorrow The London Gazette will publish the official notification of war, and on Friday the address in reply to the message will become the subject of the Parliamentary debate.
The Koran and the Mussulman (Muslims) legislation emanating from it reduce the geography and ethnography of the various peoples to the simple and convenient distinction of two nations and of two countries; those of the Faithful and of the Infidels. The Infidel is “harby,” i.e., the enemy. Islamism proscribes the nation of the Infidels, constituting a state of permanent hostility between the Mussulman and the unbeliever. In that sense the corsair ships of the Berber States were the holy fleet of Islam. How, then, is the existence of Christian subjects of the Porte to be reconciled with the Koran?”
Source: Lewis, Bernard. A Middle East Mosaic Fragments of Life, Letters and History, Random House 2000, p. 294-299