the three empires and the islamic phoenix 293established centres in major cities and villages in the Lebanese and
Syrian soil. During the Egyptian occupation of Syria (1831–40), the
commander-in-chief Ibrahem, son of Muahmmad Ali of Egypt,
declared, and forced, the right of non-Muslims to hold office in the
local government, and proclaimed, and put into effect, the equality
of all members of religions before the law. Resistance to his liberal
policies was forcibly silenced. This, in addition to the general state
of security, encouraged other churches from other denominations to
follow the French catholic example. By the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries Christian missionary activities led to the establishment of
churches in Syria and Lebanon. British and American Protestant
missionaries established a strong presence in Lebanon, and in 1838 the
Native Protestant Church of Syria was established. In 1857, during
the reign of Khedive Sai"d (1854–63) the American United Presbyterian
Mission began their activities in Egypt (ibid.).
Further signs of Western intellectual penetration that took place
at the invitation or the welcoming gesture of the rulers could be also
seen elsewhere in the decaying Ottoman Empire. In Syria and Lebanon,
in addition to the Christian missionary activities, as we saw earlier,
educational missionaries became significant. In 1830, the American
School for Girls was founded in Beirut. In 1866, the Syrian Protestant
College, later to be the American University of Beirut, was established,
and in 1881, the Jesuit educational mission established the University
of Saint Joseph in Beirut. Most of these schools are still providing
educational services until today, and still regarded as exemplary mod-
els of education. With English being used as the medium of teaching
and with curricula designed by American educationalists, the Islamic
input in the educational programmes was well controlled and care-
fully measured. There was very little room, if at all, therefore, for a
substantial existence of Islamic education. That seems to have remained
the case until the latter part of the Twentieth century when the Islamic
world witnessed what became known as Islamic revivalism that more
of Islamic themes were seen to be included in the curricula.
The Alienation of Religion and Islamic Culture in Pursuit of Secularisation
Not all Western influence was forced upon Muslim states, however.
Some was imported at the will of their rulers in pursuit of mod-
ernisation. The first of these rulers was Muœammad Ali (1769–1848)
who was appointed Egypt’s governor, pasha, by the Porte in 1805