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The American Revolution as affected by the Muslim World Part – II
(Continued - Page 2)
American Missionaries and the Reactions of the Ottoman Christians
The clergy groups of the Orthodox Churches were alarmed and unhappy with the American missionary activities and their contacts with the local population. They also did not like the idea of sending their children to the missionary schools.
The Jewish community of the Ottoman Empire also did not appreciate being a target for conversion by the American missionaries. They were a very tightly knit community. Their commitment to their religion was also very strong.
Missionaries were not permitted to preach to Muslims. It was thought that a Muslim who is converted to Christianity from Islam, his punishment for apostasy was death.
Most of the concentration of the missionary work was on: Greeks, Arab Orthodox Christians, Gregorian Armenians, Armenian Catholics, Druze, Nestorians, Maronites, and Arab Catholics.
Roman Catholics felt threatened by the impact of publications and the power of printing presses owned by the mission. French and Russian diplomats were also very much concerned regarding the effects of books and printed materials provided by the missionaries.
In 1826, the Maronite Bishop (Patriarch) warned his followers not to rent their houses to American missionaries and asked to drive them out from the neighborhoods. If they would not follow his instructions, they would be excommunicated from the Church. The Armenians were also instructed by their leaders to cut their relationship with the Americans, otherwise they will be isolated from the community.
An Armenian clergyman accused the missionaries of using coercion with some Armenians to change their religion. In the beginning, the Armenians had friendly relations with the missionaries. They liked the American education system but did not agree with the conversion into Protestantism.
A good number of Armenian Gregorians were placed in high positions of the Ottoman administration -- they supported the actions of their Patriarchate. In 1844, the Armenians from Bursa (Broosa), Trabzan (Trebizond), and Erzarum, requested the Ottoman authorities to expel the American missionaries from their communities.
Rifat Pasha, The Minister of Foreign Affairs, asked John P. Brown, the American Charge d’ affairs, to send these missionaries back to the United States. John said it is beyond his jurisdiction. Most of the contents in the publications of the American missionaries were also in violation of Ottoman laws -- the Authorities decided to ban all missionary activities in the Armenian communities.
In 1845, an Armenian woman in Beirut charged that her three children were kidnapped by the American missionaries. The Ottoman governor in Damascus approached the U.S. representative in Istanbul and the children were released to their parents.
The issue of the American missionary’s aggressive activities within the Armenian community was becoming a matter of discontentment between the United States and the Ottoman Monarchy. In a diplomatic report of 1844 – 45, Mr. Dabney S. Carr, an American minister in Istanbul, reported that it is against the law in the Ottoman Empire for any foreigner to make any effort to convert any local Christian into another Christian denomination. The second topic in his report was that any addition into a new Christian sect of Protestants will create administrative challenges for the Ottoman administration. An increase in the number of new converts and an influx of Protestant missionaries were also a major concern for the Monarchy.
An Armenian Patriarch started to take a hard line approach against their converted members. Patriarch Mattes expelled some converted Protestant Armenians from the Gregorian Church.
Under the Ottoman law only, Greek Orthodox, Coptic Christians, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and Armenians were recognized nationals (Millets – the right of autonomous minority territories to rule themselves). Since Protestants were not a recognized nation under the law, anyone who is converted to be a Protestant, will loose their official identity as a citizen of the Ottoman Empire.
The British Kingdom, itself, was a Protestant society. They decided to join the United States Mission to extend their support for the American missionaries to get their legal status in the Ottoman Monarchy. The British Ambassador in Istanbul approached Rashid Pasha, the Grand Vizier, and requested of him that the citizens of the British Empire should also be granted a Protestant millet (nation) status in the Ottoman Domain.
On November 15, 1847, an imperial order was granted by the Sultan Abdelmejid in favor of the Protestant Christians. It was a great achievement for the American missionaries that Protestants will be on the same footing with the other Christian denominations in the Monarchy.
Due to the aggressive behavior of the American missionaries, the local population turned hostile against them. The Christians of the Eastern churches called them arrogant. One Coptic patriarch harshly told Reverend Hogg that, “we had the gospel before America was born, we do not need you to teach us.”
Continued on page 3 of 5 pages
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