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The American Revolution as affected by the Muslim World Part – II
(Continued - Page 5)
Reactions and Disappointments
According to a report after the hard work of forty years in Syria, the missionaries could not count more than thirty people, whom they can claim to be converted Christians. There was a similar report from Anatolia.
The American Presbyterian missionaries came to Egypt in 1854. They also claimed that their objective was also to promote American Culture and enlighten the backward Muslim world. From 1854 – 1950, they were able to encourage only a few converts, including a local Coptic Christian minority. They also had their roll in inciting the local population against the Ottoman Empire, and later in anti- colonial movements.
Historian Baynard Taylor writes that the average cost per apostate was around $16,000, “a sum which would have Christianized tenfold the number of English heathen.” According to author Henry Field, “Christian Missions make no more impression upon Islam than the winds of the desert upon the cliffs of Mount Sinai,” and that “more converts are made from the Gospel to the Koran in a day, than all our missionaries have made from the Koran to the Gospel in a century.”
It was a disappointment for the American evangelists to see that they were not succeeding in remaking the Muslim world into their own image. The American Board continued their objections and insisted that the missionary’s job is to achieve redemption and not in establishing and running schools, clinics, hospitals, and libraries. The Board also objected to the idea of educating the local people, because these people have no intention in accepting Christ as their savior. The evangelists also believed that their secular efforts will also make an impact in their effort to enlighten the people of the Middle East. It is common knowledge that the American founding fathers -- Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison were either Deists or never proclaimed to be a Christian of any denomination. They were all born in Christian families and claimed themselves to be Enlightenment thinkers.
George Washington, a born Episcopalian, is described by some historians as a mystery man and he was also famous for his silence as he did not like to discuss his faith in public. Reverend Samuel Miller said about Washington that he displayed an “unusual but uniform reticence on the subject of religion.” He was not a regular churchgoer. His wife Martha did take communion, but Washington was not seen by anyone to take communion. In the last three years of his life, he is reported to be seen in church only three times. Washington, right after the services, would leave his wife in the church and the coachman had to make another trip for her. If his speech writers had any references to Jesus, he would rewrite his speeches and omit those references.
There is no doubt that Christian evangelists were very sincere in spreading the words of the Gospel and would invite Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others to accept their invitation. It is important to notice that a country such as America, whose foundation is based on the ideals of Enlightenment but not on the religious faith, had a great deal of interest in promoting the message of the Gospel.
Every Culture and Nation has their own definition and standards of Enlightenment: Art, History, Culture, Philosophy, and Religious Faith are the major branches of knowledge. The believers and non-believers in faith have to make their choices according to their rationales and spiritual understanding. The followers of every religion believe that his / her faith is the only true faith.
The question is, why have American evangelists not succeeded in preaching Christianity in the Ottoman Empire. Before preaching and teaching one has to study and understand the basic information about that group of people or their civilization. First of all, the Middle East is the cradle of Civilization and of the Abrahamic Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The American missionaries had a challenging task to make an impression and convince the local closely knit Jewish population to accept Jesus as their savior. The Jewish faith has their own Messiah and they also have a strong concept of monotheism. The idea of trinity is very alien to their faith.
The Christian population of the Ottoman Empire had a very strong faith in their Middle Eastern or Oriental Culture and their own Christian faith. They took pride in that they are the original source of Christianity. They also had a strong resentment toward the American missionaries from their newly built nation telling them that their way of practicing Christianity is not the correct way. The local Christian community probably also felt that their fellow American missionaries did not show much respect for them. So they were not open to the preaching of the Americans and they must have also felt threatened by their attitude.
There were two major obvious reasons for missionaries not to succeed in the Muslim communities: First, it was against the law in the Ottoman Empire to preach Christianity to the Muslims. The second reason was that Americans, like any other Western country in Europe, were very ignorant about Islam. Americans did not know how to distinguish between Islam and Muslims. Muslims were called “Mohammedans.” This term is never used by Muslims; it is a disrespectful way to refer to a Muslim. The word Islam means to surrender or commit to God. The one who accepts and proclaims the authority of God is a Muslim.
The American Board, the missionaries, and the political leaders of an enlightened society of the United States had no knowledge about Islam. They used derogatory language about Islam and Muslims except for a few knowledgeable people. The first principal of preaching and the movement of conversion are to know your audience. Probably the missionaries did not have any idea that the Muslim’s Holy book, the Koran has very descriptive stories about Moses, Jesus, Abraham, Jacob, and all of those stories about the other Prophets and Messengers which are mentioned in the Holy Bible including the Old Testament.
The idea of Trinity and Jesus being the son of God is against the basic core of Islamic teachings. Even the Prophet of Islam, Mohammad, believed in the messages of Moses and Jesus, He believed that the Jewish Holy book, “Torah” and the Christian Holy book Injeel, (Bible ) are the messages of God.
It was a very difficult task for the Christian missionaries to convert Muslims into the Christian faith. The concept of “Tawheed,” believing in the oneness of God, is a very difficult subject to overcome for anyone to convert a Muslim into any other faith.
The American missionaries did succeed in one of their goals, which was to introduce secular education in the Ottoman Empire and later on in the Middle East and other parts of the Muslim world. Even today, missionary Hospitals, Schools and other Educational Institutions are playing a positive roll in promoting secular education. Their dream of advancing the cause of American culture is alive and kicking.
The American Administration, Congress and the Media should learn some lessons from these missionaries, how to win hearts and minds by conducting constructive and humanitarian work around the Globe.
Syed R. Mahmood is the founder and president of American Institute of International Studies. He was a Republican nominee for U.S. Congressional candidate from the district 13th, California in the year of 2002.
Part III will be published in the next issue of Journal of America. For part I, you could go back to the April issue of the Journal. www.journalofamerica.net
Bibliography
American University of Beirut: www.aub.edu
Brooke Allen: Moral Minority, Our Skeptical Founding Fathers, Ivan R. Publisher, 2006
Cagri Erhan: Lecturer Department of International Relations, Ankara University, Turkey. “Ottoman Official Attitudes To-wards American Missionaries.” This paper was delivered to International Conference on, “The United States and the Middle East: Cultural Encounters.” Yale University onDecember 7 – 8, 2000.
Carter Smith: U.S. President, all you need to know - Hylas Publishing 2004, 2005.
Heather J. Sharkey: American Evangelicals in Egypt: Missionary Encounters in an age of Empire - The Princeton University Press.
Michael B. Oren: Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East; 1776 – to present.
Wikipedia: the free Encyclopedia. First Barbary War, March 3, 2010.
Syed R. Mahmood is the founder and President of American Institute of International Studies and a former Republican Congressional Candidate from district 13 in the 2002 election.
Read: Part I of American Revolution as affected by the Muslim World
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