The intellectual debilitation of the Islamic State began in the fifth century A.H. At this time, some scholars called for the phasing out of Ijtihad, proclaiming that the doors of Ijtihad were closed and that all of man’s problems had been addressed. This signaled the downfall of the State. Although there were still some Mujtahideen left, deintellectualization had already taken root and this greatly affected the State. By the time the crusaders launched their campaign, the State was in no position to face the challenge. The State became engaged in continuous battles with the crusaders, lasting two centuries. The crusaders emerged victorious at first and managed to occupy parts of the Islamic State. Then the State managed to recapture the occupied lands and vanquish the crusaders. Rule and authority were taken over by the Mamluks who neglected the Arabic language and the intellectual and legislative side of ruling. The door was slammed in the face of Ijtihad and the understanding of Islamic concepts weakened considerably. Scholars were forced to be content with Taqleed (imitation) and the ailment worsened.

This, however, only affected the State from within, since the State remained strong and its international standing remained intact. The Islamic State remained a superpower feared by all other nations, consolidating the largest and strongest part of the world at the time. The ‘Uthmani State took control of most of the known world. In the 10th century Hijri (16th century CE), it united Arab lands under its rule and its dominion stretched over vast expanses of territory. The ‘Uthmani State concentrated on its military might and the expansion of its authority as well as the glamour of its rule and power. It also focused its efforts on the conquests and neglected the Arabic language (despite the fact that it is essential in order to understand Islam and one of the conditions necessary in order to effect Ijtihad). The ‘Uthmani State never paid attention to Islam from the intellectual and legislative point of view, consequently its level of thought and ability to extract rules for unprecedented situations was lacking. At the time, this weakness was not noticed by the Islamic State because it was at the apex of its glory, power and military might. Its ideology, legislation and culture when compared with that of Europe was superior in every respect. This comparison reassured the State and served to make its weaknesses seem both bearable and negligible. Europe was still plunged in total darkness, chaos and unrest. Europe attempted to launch a renaissance but it failed each time. The ‘Uthmani State was in a much better situation compared with Europe and as a result it viewed itself as being superior in its culture and system of ruling. This caused the ‘Uthmani State to ignore the internal malaise that it was suffering from.

What turned the ‘Uthmani State’s attention from internal problems was its sweeping victory over Europe, its seizure of the Balkans and the Southeastern part of Europe. This victory sent shock waves to the rest of Europe and everyone became resigned to the fact that the Islamic army could never be defeated and that nobody could ever successfully face the Muslims. This was when the issue of the Eastern Question first surfaced. Its meaning then was to abort the danger of the ‘Uthmani invasion headed by Mohammed al-Fateh in the 9th century Hijri (15th century). The invasion continued until the end of the 11th century Hijri under the leadership of Sulayman al-Qanuny (The Magnificent). The conquests were concentrated up until the middle of the 12th century Hijri (18th century) during which time the continuity of the struggle remained a major source of strength to the Islamic State.

The strength of the ‘Aqeedah of the Muslims and the specific concepts that they carried - although those concepts were not clear in their minds - had given the State a great moral boost and this helped to maintain their military might. Additionally, the presence of the Islamic ruling system, despite its misapplication, and the state of affairs in Europe contributed to the continuity and superiority of the Islamic State. At that time the Islamic State could have attempted to understand Islam properly and devoted much more effort to the teaching of the Arabic language and the encouragement of Ijtihad. The State could have devoted more effort to understand the intellectual and legislative side of Islam so that it established a strong foundation with which to launch its conquests. This would have enabled the State to liberate the rest of the world through Islam. The State would have been in a position to strengthen its structure and inundate the world with Islamic culture and in the process save the world from corruption and mischief. However, none of this actually happened. Encouragement of the Arabic language was limited to giving the Arabs a few teaching posts and other minor positions of jurisprudence which had little effect on improving the knowledge of the Arabic language and had no effect in awakening the intellect. In order to revive the Arabic language, the State should have made it the official language, as should have always been the case. But this was not carried out. Again, because nothing was done on the intellectual and Fiqhi (jurisprudence) fronts the feeble and misguided efforts of the State resulted in the status quo continuing and the State remaining on the wrong track.

As soon as the second half of the 12th century Hijri (18th century) came the trend was reversed and the internal weakness became apparent because the State was founded on the remains of the misapplied Islamic system. The rule as a whole was more within the Islamic system’s milieu rather than being an Islamic system itself. This was due to the lack of understanding of Islam and its misapplication due to the lack of Ijtihad and Mujtahideen. In the 13th century Hijri (19th century) the scales of history swung between the Islamic State and the non-Islamic countries. The awakening of Europe had just begun and this became evident. Meanwhile, the consequences of the intellectual stagnation coupled with the misapplication of the Islamic system finally caught up with the Muslims.

The 19th century CE witnessed an intense intellectual revolution in Europe. Considerable efforts were made by European philosophers, writers and intellectuals and a comprehensive change in the European concepts occurred with the aim of uniting the people of Europe. Many movements were established and these played a great part in the emergence of new opinions about life. Some of the most significant events that occurred were the change of the political and legislative systems. The specter of the despot monarchy gradually disappeared to be replaced by republican systems based on representative rule and national sovereignty. This had a tremendous effect towards triggering the awakening of Europe from its slumber. The industrial revolution also had a telling effect on the European scene. There were numerous scientific discoveries and inventions springing from the minds of Europe. These factors boosted Europe’s intellectual and material progress. This material and scientific progress resulted in swinging the scales of power in Europe’s favor at the expense of the Islamic world.

On the international scene, the issue of the Eastern Question came to be altered so that it was no longer simply a question of containing the impending Islamic danger to Europe, but whether the Islamic State should be left as it was or whether it should be divided up. The European countries had different opinions due to the differences in their interests. This change in the Eastern Question and in Europe’s fortunes - reflected in its intellectual and scientific progress (e.g., the Industrial Revolution) - triggered a political swing between the Islamic State and the disbelieving states in favor of fragmenting the Islamic State.

The cause of the political revolution in Europe stemmed from intellectuals that sought to establish a new way of life. They adopted a specific viewpoint concerning life and embraced a new doctrine. Based on this revised outlook, they founded a system. This led to the change of thoughts and the set of values, creating a general transformation in their lives and this catapulted the industrial revolution into motion. Instead of looking and reflecting deeply on its ideology, instead of stimulating new concepts and resorting to Ijtihad to solve its problems according to the rules emanating from its ‘Aqeedah, instead of taking up science and industry, the Islamic State fluttered and became perplexed about how to react to Europe’s change of fortunes. It remained idle due to this confusion and this further led to its backwardness in science and industry. It therefore lagged behind other European countries in terms of material progress and prosperity.

The ‘Uthmani State was the Islamic State, the Islamic ‘Aqeedah was the basis of the State and its systems, the concepts of Islam were its concepts and the Islamic viewpoint about life was its viewpoint. It should have in fact looked into the new concepts that were emerging from Europe and measured them against its own ideological criterion. It should have studied the new problems from an Islamic perspective and given its verdict on those concepts and problems with the help of adequate Ijtihad according to the Islamic viewpoint. Finally, the validity of such concepts would have to be judged. But the State did none of this simply because in their minds, Islam was not clear. It did not have any well defined thoughts because it did not take the Islamic ‘Aqeedah as an intellectual foundation on which all concepts are to be based. The ‘Aqeedah became lifeless because its lifeblood, Ijtihad had stopped flowing. The Islamic culture - the collection of concepts concerning life - was not crystallized in the minds of the Muslims. The culture was not linked to the State’s actions. This led to a steep intellectual decline, thereby causing regression.

As a result, the Islamic State was taken aback by the intellectual, cultural and industrial revolution they witnessed in Europe. However, they did not react because they were intellectually paralyzed, as they could not come to a decision about adopting or rejecting Europe’s achievements or culture. They could not differentiate between what is allowed to be taken from science, discoveries and industry and what is forbidden to be taken from a particular culture, since the latter determines the viewpoint about life. They became stagnant and it was this which led to the backwardness of the Islamic State while the European progression gained momentum.

The Muslims failed to realize the contradiction between the Islamic and European concepts. Another cause was their failure to distinguish between science, industry and inventions which Islam encourages Muslims to acquire, regardless of the source, and culture and ideology which can only be adopted from Islam.

The ‘Uthmanis did not properly understand Islam. Such blindness led the Ummah and the State to live haphazardly. Meanwhile its enemies held onto a specific system and carried it out. Europe became the possessor of an ideology, regardless of the validity of its creed, and the Islamic Ummah with its correct ideology was incipiently being relegated to live in the shadow of Europe’s ideology. The Islamic ideology, seemed remote from the people’s lives and a thing of the past because the Ummah resided in a State where it was misapplied. Despite the fact that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, “I have left with you two things, if you hold on to it, you will never go astray, the Book of Allah and my Sunnah” and despite the fact that the State was Islamic and the Ummah was Muslim, and despite its vast intellectual repository and wealth of Fiqhi knowledge being accessible to everyone, the State did not grasp the meaning of that Hadeeth and did not take the necessary steps to return to the roots of Islam, i.e., the ‘Aqeedah. The State did not make use of this wealth, a wealth which no other nation possessed, possesses, or will ever possess.

Indeed the Islamic State did not benefit from this wealth because as soon as Ijtihad was stalled and intellectual activity ceased the Islamic concepts became blurred in the minds of the Muslims and Islamic cognizance declined. Books and other cultural and intellectual artifacts were kept on shelves and only very few learned people and scholars were left in existence. The desire to study and research diminished. The large amount of cultural and intellectual wealth within the State and society was not sought after because the State never encouraged the pursuit of it. Intellectuals sought knowledge for the sake of knowledge, or they sought knowledge to earn a living. Rare indeed were the ones who sought knowledge to benefit the Ummah and the State. Consequently, the scientific, cultural and legislative momentum did not exist and the understanding of Islam was in disarray. The Muslims understood Islam in a spiritual sense rather than intellectually, politically and legislatively.

The original idea of Islam and the method by which this idea is implemented had become vague. The Muslims could not correctly perceive the Qur’an and the Sunnah and began to think that Islam was merely a spiritual religion. They began comparing Islam with other religions from a spiritual point of view, instead of looking at Islam as being an ‘Aqeedah and a complete way of life. It therefore came as no surprise when the Muslim Ummah, under the leadership of the ‘Uthmani State, stood idle and confused before the European revolution. It remained visibly behind without being affected by the economic progress which Europe was enjoying nor by the multiple inventions that took place there, nor by the industrial revolution that had been launched all over the continent. The effect that this European material progress had on the State was somewhat minimal and never resulted in any notable benefit nor did it generate any material progress or any gain. Most Muslims perceived Europe’s achievements as being contradictory to Islam and called for the prohibition of adopting such elements of progress.

A vivid example of this was when the printing press was invented and the State decided to print the Qur’an. Some scholars prohibited its printing and they began issuing Fatawa prohibiting anything new and of accusing anyone who studied the natural sciences of being a disbeliever. They accused every intellectual of being a Kafir and Zindiq.

Conversely, a small group of Muslims at that time envisioned the need for adopting everything from the West, their science, education, culture and civilization. Those were the ones who had been educated in Europe or in missionary schools that had infiltrated the Islamic world. At first, that small band of Muslims made little impact on society. In the last years of the ‘Uthmani State the notion stating that the West adopted its culture from Islam and that Islam does not forbid the adoption of what conforms to it and that which does not contradict it, was spread amongst the Ummah. The West succeeded in spreading this concept until it was adopted by the majority of the Muslims, especially the educated ones - the scholars and jurists, who came to be known as “modern scholars” or “reformists”.

However, due to the real contradictions between the Western and Islamic cultures and because of the obvious differences between the Western and Islamic concepts about life, the attempts to harmonize the teachings of Islam with Western culture were doomed to failure. The reformists lost their way and in the process alienated themselves from Islam. Their misguided pro- Western approach failed because they could not correctly perceive the Western concepts and they neglected in the process the inventions, science and industry as they moved further away from Islam. The Ummah relied heavily on those reformists and as a result, confusion was exacerbated. The State was unable to take a decisive stand and the Ummah rejected all means of material progress, ranging from science, inventions and industries. She became weak and unable to stand or defend herself. This weakness encouraged the enemies of Islam to mutilate the powerless Islamic State piece by piece.

The missionary invasion, disguised as scientific cooperation, began infiltrating the Muslim land. At the same time the various movements that emerged succeeded in destroying the structure of the State. The concept of nationalism was implanted and avidly encouraged by the West, taking root in the Islamic State, such as the Balkans, Turkey, Arab regions, Armenia, Kurdish reqions and many other places.

In 1914, the State was on the verge of collapse. It entered the First World War and emerged defeated. Then, finally it was destroyed in 1924. Therefore, the Islamic State disintegrated and the dream that had eluded the West for many centuries was finally fulfilled. The West wanted to destroy the Islamic State in order to destroy Islam. With the disintegration of the Islamic State, the system in the Muslim land became non-Islamic and the Muslims have lived ever since under a non-Islamic banner. Since that time they have lived under disbelieving regimes ruled over by laws of disbelief, they have become unsettled and their situation has deteriorated.

Europe began its invasion of the Islamic State in the name of science and it appropriated large budgets for that purpose. In fact, the invasion was covertly colonial, but disguised as missionary work in the name of science and humanitarian aid. This invasion was designed to enable the departments of political intelligence and cultural colonization to settle in Muslim countries until they became the heart and spearhead of the Western colonial juggernaut. Colonization began when the Muslim world opened its gates to Western culture via the guise of missionary associations, which were mainly French, English and American.

As a result of this, both French and English influence infiltrated the Muslim world via these missions. They actually became the driving force behind nationalist movements, encouraging Pan-Arabism and Pan-Turkism, as well as in control of orienting the educated Muslims towards the West. There were two main objectives behind this. The first was to separate the Arabs from the ‘Uthmani State, which they named Turkey in order to stir up racism, further ripping at the fabric of the Islamic State. The second was to alienate the Muslims from the real bond of Islam, since they had no knowledge of any other bond.

The missionary institutions managed to achieve the first stage of their scheme, but the second remained unfulfilled. It was left to the nationalist orientation of the Turks, Arabs, Persians and others to be the remaining wedge to split the unity of the Muslims and to veil them from their guiding principle. The missionary associations went through several phases and their effect was telling all over the Islamic world. The weakness and decline we suffer today is a result of these associations. It was the colonialist powers who positioned the first brick in the wall which they placed in the path of our advancement and which came between us and our ideology.

The Europeans established missionary societies in the Islamic world due to their unsuccessful campaigns against the Muslims, who exhibited patience, strength, and courage in Jihad during the crusades. When the crusaders clashed with the Muslims on the battlefield, they were relying on two factors according to their own calculations and they held out high hopes on those two factors, leading them to exterminate Islam and the Muslims forever.

The first factor was their reliance on the Christians living in the Muslim world, especially in al-Sham and who numbered many. These Christians were very religious people and the Europeans regarded them as brothers in faith. They thought that they would conspire against the Muslims and spy for them under the pretext that they were waging a religious war.

The second factor was that the Europeans were relying on their large numbers combined with their formidable strength, knowing all the while that the Muslims were divided and at odds with one another as the disintegration of their unity had already begun. The Europeans thought that once they had defeated the Muslims, they would subjugate them for good and destroy them, and their Deen would merely become a collection of rituals. However, their hopes were dashed and their predictions faltered. They were stunned and amazed when they saw the Arab Christians fighting alongside the Muslims on the battlefield, unaffected by the propaganda launched by the Europeans. What the Europeans had not understood and had consequently overlooked was that the Arab Christians lived alongside the Muslims in the Islamic homeland, enjoying the same rights as the Muslims and fulfilling the same duties towards the State. The Muslims would eat of their food, marry the Christian women and share in the daily matters of life together with the Christians, as it was Islam that safeguarded their rights.

All the Khulafah and governors adhered to that rule and duly implemented it in the Islamic State. Al-Qurafi and Ibn Hazm stated,

“That it would be our duty to protect the people of the Dhimma if aggressors attacked our land, and we should die protecting them if necessary. Any neglect of such a duty would be a breach of the rights of the Dhimma.”

Al-Qurafi also said,

“The Muslims’ duty towards the Dhimma would be to act gentle and lenient towards their weak, help their poor, feed their hungry, clothe them and talk to them gently. The Muslims should accept and endure the harm of their neighbors even if they were able to repel the harm, this was as a mercy to them and not out of fear of or glorifying them. They should give good advice in all matters, repel anyone harming them, protect their assets, families and honor and all their rights and interests, and do right by them like any generous and pious Muslim should do.”

With this in mind it was only natural for the Christians to fight alongside the Muslims. The Europeans’ surprise was even greater when the second factor which they had relied on failed to materialize. They occupied al-Sham and defeated the Muslims comprehensively, committing the worst atrocities in the process. For example, they were the first to initiate a mass evacuation of Muslims and this trend continued throughout their wars with the Muslims. They thought that everything had gone well for them and that the Muslims would never again stand against them. However, the Muslims remained determined to expel them from their land, and despite the fact that the crusaders occupied Muslim lands for about two centuries, during which times they established kingdoms and principalities, the Muslims eventually managed to expel them from it.

The Europeans searched for the secret behind this turn of events and found that it was embedded in Islam, its ‘Aqeedah being the source of the formidable power which the Muslims possessed, coupled with its rules, which safeguarded the rights of the non-Muslims. This was the main reason behind the cohesion between the citizens of the Islamic State. In their time, the colonialist disbelievers thought of new ways by which they could invade the Islamic world. They deduced that the best way would be by way of a cultural invasion through missionary work, this was in order that they might gain the support of the Christians and initiate doubt among the Muslims vis a vis their Deen.

This, it was hoped, would raise the doubts of the Muslims in their Deen and shake their ‘Aqeedah, with the aim of creating divisions between them and other citizens of the Islamic State, thereby weakening the power of the Muslims.

The colonialists managed to execute their plan. At the end of the 16th century they established a missionary center in Malta and made it their headquarters from which they conducted their missionary onslaught on the Muslim world. To begin with, missions were sent out from there. After a while they saw the need to expand their activities and so they moved to al-Sham in 1625 and tried to establish missionary movements there as well.

However, their activities remained very limited and they did not progress beyond establishing a few small schools and publishing a few religious books. In fact they suffered a great deal of persecution, opposition and hostility from everyone. They managed to function until 1773 when the missionary activities of the Jesuits were abolished and their institutions shut down, except for some insignificant missions like those of the ‘Azaryin’ missionaries which, despite their continuing presence, reduced the effect of the missionaries and their missionary work to a non-existent level. Their influence came to be confined to Malta until 1820 when the first missionary center was established in Beirut and the missionary work began again in earnest. They faced great difficulties at first, but they persisted with their activities. Their first area of concern was religious preaching and religious culture, their education program remained limited and weak.

In 1834, the missionary expeditions spread out all over the region of al- Sham, a college was opened in the village of Antoura in Lebanon and the American mission transferred its print shop from Malta to Beirut in order to print and distribute its books.

The noted American missionary Ely Smith was very active at this time, he had been working in Malta as a volunteer in charge of the mission press and had arrived in Beirut in 1827. After one year there, fear and boredom drove him out and he returned to Malta. He next returned to Beirut in 1834 and together with his wife they opened a school for girls. His area of work broadened and he devoted his life to working in al-Sham, Beirut in particular. All these efforts and the efforts of many others helped revive the missionary movement. An opportunity presented itself to the missionaries when Ibrahim Pasha adopted the syllabus for primary education and implemented it in Syria. The syllabus was inspired by the Egyptian educational system which in turn was taken from the French system. The missionaries took advantage of this opportunity and contributed to the educational movement from the missionary point of view, expanding their printing works in the process. On the back of all this the missionary movement prospered. They succeeded in making the citizens of the Islamic State boil with anger against each other in the name of religious freedom and managed to initiate among the Muslims, Christians and Druze various kinds of religious activities related to the ‘Aqeedah.

When Ibrahim Pasha retreated from al-Sham, unrest, fear and anarchy broke out and people became divided among themselves. The foreign delegates, especially the missionaries, seized the opportunity and due to the meager influence of the ‘Uthmani State in al-Sham, began igniting civil strife. After a period of just one year, in 1841, serious disturbances broke out in the mountains of Lebanon between the Christians and the Druze. The situation deteriorated and under the pressure and influence of the foreign states the ‘Uthmani State was talked into designing a separate ruling system for Lebanon, dividing the province into two parts. One part would be occupied by the Christians, while the Druze would occupy the other. The ‘Uthmani State appointed a governor over both parts, aiming to avoid any clashes between the two sects. This system did not succeed, however, because it was not natural. Britain and France became involved in the dispute and incited civil strife wherever the official authorities attempted to quell the trouble.

The British and the French used these clashes as a pretext to interfere in Lebanon’s affairs. The French sided with the Maronites and the British sided with the Druze, this led to the renewal of disturbances in 1845. The scenes were horrifying and the attacks were extended to include Churches and monasteries. Theft, killing and pillage became common practice, prompting the ‘Uthmani government to send her foreign affairs in charge to Lebanon in order to use his mandatory powers to quell the trouble once and for all. He, however, could not achieve anything significant, although he managed to appease the tension a little. Meanwhile, the missionaries intensified their activities and in 1857 the Maronites began calling for a revolution and armed struggle. The Maronite clergy incited the farmers against the feudal lords and they attacked them fiercely in the North of the country, thus the revolution was ignited and it spread to the South. The Christian farmers now rose against the Druze feudal lords and the British and the French backed their respective allies. Civil strife spread rapidly all over Lebanon as a result of this. The Druze began to indiscriminately kill all Christians, whether they were clergy or ordinary people until thousands of Christians were either dead or displaced and homeless, such was the ferocity of these clashes.

The waves of disturbances and violence spread to the rest of al-Sham. In Damascus, a fierce campaign of deep hatred was waged between its Muslim and Christian inhabitants which finally led to the Muslims attacking the Christian district in 1860 resulting in them committing a massacre. This was accompanied by pillaging and mass destruction until the State was forced to militarily intervene in order to put an end to the disturbances. Although the State managed to restore calm and order, the Western countries saw it as an opportunity to interfere in al-Sham and so they sent their warships to its shores.

In August of the same year, France sent a division of her infantry to Beirut which began the task of quashing the revolution. This was how the ‘Uthmani State was infested by civil strife in Syria and Lebanon. Its true cause was the Western states who were trying to meddle in the internal affairs of the ‘Uthmani State. This they did and they managed to force the ‘Uthmani State to design a special ruling system for Syria, dividing her into two Wilayat and giving Lebanon special privileges. From these events, Lebanon became separated from the rest of al-Sham and it was granted local autonomy, governed by a local administration headed by a Christian ruler and assisted by an administrative council representing the local residents. Since then, foreign countries have managed the affairs of Lebanon and have made it the center for their activities. Lebanon therefore became the bridgehead from which the foreign powers infiltrated into the heart of the ‘Uthmani State and its Muslim lands.

Meanwhile, the missionaries adopted a new policy. The missionaries did not content themselves with just building and running schools, printing presses, and clinics, but went further to establish associations. In 1842, a committee was set up to establish a scientific association under the auspices of the Ameri- 183 can mission. The committee’s work lasted for five years until it had managed to establish an association called the “Association of Arts and Sciences.” Its members included Nasif al-Yaziji and Butrus al-Bustani, (Lebanese Christians taken on board because they were Arabs) Americans Eli Smith and Cornelius van Dyke, and Briton Colonel Churchill. The objectives of the association were vague at first. It had the tendency to teach science to adults, as well as teaching youngsters at school. The association encouraged adults and youngsters alike to learn Western culture, sculpting their minds according to the missionary plan.

However, despite the tremendous efforts put in by the association it only managed to recruit fifty active members in the whole of al-Sham over a two year period. They were all Christians, mainly from Beirut, and no Muslim or Druze joined the association. Colossal efforts were made to expand and activate the work of the association but to no avail. The association collapsed after five years from its initial establishment without reaping any significant results except for the desire of the missionaries to establish more associations. Therefore, another association was founded in 1850 and it was named the “Oriental Association.” It was founded by the Jesuits under the guardianship of the French Jesuit Father Henri Debrenier and all its members were Christians. It followed in the footsteps of the “Association of Arts and Science” lasting only a short time before collapsing as its predecessor had done.

Afterwards, several associations were established, but all were doomed to failure and they collapsed as before. A new association was founded in 1857 which adopted a slightly different method, no foreigners whatsoever were allowed to join and its founders were all Arabs. Somehow, it managed to succeed and some Muslims and Druze actually joined. The association accepted them because they were Arabs. Its name was the “Syrian Scientific Association.” It became successful owing to its activities, Arabic affiliation, and because of the absence of foreigners among its membership. Its members managed to recruit other people to join and they gathered support for the association until 150 members had enrolled in it. Among its administrative staff were some noted Arab personalities such as Mohammed Arsalan from the Druze and Hussein Bayham from the Muslims. Personalities from all Arab Christian sects joined, the most noted of them being the son of Ibrahim al-Yaziji and the son of Butrus al-Bustani. This association had in fact outlasted all the others. Its program was designed to accommodate all sects and to serve as the spark for Arab nationalism. However, its covert objective was colonial and missionary draped in the name of science. It was a shadowy organization manifesting itself in the spreading of Western culture and education.

In 1875, the “Secret Association” was formed in Beirut, it was actually based on a political idea. It began encouraging the concept of Arab nationalism. Its founders were five young men from amongst those who had been educated in the Protestant college in Beirut. They were all Christians whom the missionary parties had managed to affect. Following the establishment of this association, a small number of members were recruited by them. The association seemed to be calling, through its declarations and leaflets, for Arab nationalism and political independence for the Arabs, especially those in Syria and Lebanon.

However, its actual work and its real program was concerned with an entirely different objective. Its aim was to cast strange desires and false hopes into the hearts of the people. It called for Arab nationalism and encouraged animosity towards the ‘Uthmani State, dubbing it the Turkish state. It worked towards separating religion from the State and making Arab nationalism as the basis of life. The association always championed Arabism. Those in charge repeatedly accused Turkey in their literature of snatching the Islamic Khilafah from the Arabs, of violating the Islamic Shari’ah, and of abusing the Deen. This neatly demonstrates the true nature of the association and the real objective for which it had been founded, i.e. to cause agitation against the Islamic State. It was chartered with creating suspicion and skepticism about the Deen and to establish political movements based on non-Islamic principles. The fact is that these movements had been initiated by Western powers. It was they who established them, monitored their progress and managed them. They also wrote reports about their activities. For instance, the British consul in Beirut sent a telegram to his government on 28th July 1880 saying, “Revolutionary leaflets came into circulation, Midhat is suspected to be the source, despite this, the situation remains calm. Details in the post.”

This telegram was dispatched in the wake of a leaflet distributed on the streets of Beirut and posted on the walls there. The telegram was soon followed by several letters sent by the British consuls in Beirut and Damascus.

The letters were accompanied by copies of the leaflets which the association had distributed and should therefore rightly be regarded as reports on the movement set up in the Protestant college which began its activities in al- Sham. The association’s activities were more evident in al-Sham, although they took place in other predominantly Arab areas as demonstrated by what the British commissioner in Jeddah wrote to his government in 1882. In a report about the Arab movement, he stated, “However, news has reached me that even in Makkah itself some intellectuals have begun talking about freedom, it seems to me from what I have heard that a plan has been designed aiming at uniting Najd with the land between the two rivers, i.e. the South of Iraq, and appointing Mansur Pasha as ruler, as well as uniting ‘Asir and Yemen by appointing ‘Ali ibn ‘Aabid to rule over them.”

Britain was not the only interested party, France too displayed a great deal of interest. In 1882, one of the French officials in Beirut voiced the French concern by saying,

“The spirit of independence is well spread and I noticed during my stay in Beirut the dedication of Muslim youths in establishing schools and clinics and in reviving the country. What is worth mentioning here is that this movement is free of any sectarian influence, this association welcomes the membership of the Christians and relies on them to participate in the nationalist activities.”

A Frenchman wrote from Baghdad,

“Everywhere I went, I was faced with the common feeling, on the same scale, of hatred for the Turks. As for the concept of initiating collective action to get rid of this much hated situation, this is very much under way. In the horizons a wind of Arab movement is gathering strength and is about to be born. This people who have been oppressed for a long time are about to proclaim their natural status within the Muslim world and direct the destiny of this world.”

Missionary work in the name of religion and science was not merely confined to the focus of the attention of the US., France and Britain, but extended to most of the non-Islamic states, including Czarist Russia who sent missionary expeditions and Prussia (Germany) who sent a group of ‘sisters’ (the nuns of Carodt) to participate with other missions. Inspite of the difference of opinion among the various missions and Western delegates regarding their political programs, which took into consideration their international interests, their objective was the same; the preaching of Christianity and the spreading of Western culture in the East coupled with the arousal of the suspicions of the Muslims towards their Deen, pushing them to resent it and to regard their history with contempt while leading them to praise the West and its way of life.

The missionaries carried out their preaching according to their great hatred of Islam and the Muslims. They disdained the Islamic culture and its way of life and they regarded the Muslims as backward barbarians, which remains the ill-considered opinion of nearly every European. The results that they achieved are reflected today in the concentration of disbelief and colonialism in our lands.

One of the French learned writers Count Henri Decastri wrote in his book entitled ‘Islam’ in 1896,

“I cannot imagine what the Muslims would say if they heard the tales of the mediaeval ages and understood what the Christian orators used to say in their hymns; all our hymns even those which emerged before the 12th century emanated from one concept which was the cause of the crusades, these hymns were filled with hatred towards the Muslims due to the total ignorance of their religion. As a result of those hymns and songs, hatred against that religion became fixed in people’s minds, and the erroneous ideas deeply rooted, some of which are still carried nowadays. Everyone used to regard the Muslims as polytheists, disbelievers, idol worshippers and apostates.”

This is how the Christian clergy in Europe described the Muslims and their Deen. The allegations in the mediaeval ages were horrible and these were used to incite the feelings of hatred and animosity against the Muslims. The Christian world became affected and the crusader wars took place. After lasting two centuries resulting in the defeat and the humiliation of the Christians, the Muslims began to reconquer the West in the 15th century when the Islamic State entered Constantinople. Then in the 16th century the Muslims swept across southern and eastern Europe and carried Islam to its peoples. Millions of the inhabitants of Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and other countries embraced Islam in the process. Once again the crusader animosity was revived and the Orientalist concept emerged, which was concerned at the time with resisting the Muslim armies, halting the Islamic conquest and lessening the threat of the Muslims.

This deeply rooted animosity in the minds and hearts of the Europeans prompted all Christians in Europe to send their missionaries to the Muslim land in the name of science and culture. The missions took the shape of schools, clinics, associations and clubs. The Europeans devoted almost unlimited resources and huge efforts to the missionary work. They combined their efforts and methodology despite their differences in policy and interests. People and states were united behind the missionary effort since it was conducted by their consuls, ambassadors, delegates and missionaries.

The crusader hatred harbored by the Westerners, especially in Europe and more so by Britain, and their deeply rooted animosity and wicked malice were the cause of our eventual humiliation in our homeland. General Allenby said in 1917 when he entered al-Quds,

“Only today the crusades have ended.”

This was simply a genuine expression of what he really felt. It reflected the hatred and malice he harbored and the same could be said about every European that fought in the battles - cultural and military - against the Muslims, and Allah (swt) says,

“Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, what their breasts conceal is far worse.” [Al-’Imran 3:118]

What Allenby said was indeed most loathsome, and what his country, Britain, harbored was even greater without a doubt; this goes without saying for every European.

This malice and hatred has existed ever since the days of the crusades and it is still perpetuated today. What we face in terms of oppression, humiliation, colonization and exploitation - in addition to the political aspect - is in fact an act of brutal revenge on the Muslims. Indeed it is particular to the Muslims.

Leopold Weiss wrote in his book Islam at the Crossroads,

“Verily the renaissance, or the revival of science and European arts which owed a great deal to Islamic and Arabic sources, used to be attributed to the material contact between East and West. Europe has indeed benefited a great deal from the Islamic world, but she never acknowledged or recognized this favor, nor did she show any gratitude by easing her hatred to Islam, in fact this hatred grew stronger and deeper over the years and at times reached uncontrollable proportions. This hatred engulfed the popular feeling and was triggered each time the word Muslim was mentioned. The hatred became a part of their popular heritage until it took root in the heart and mind of every European man and woman, and more astonishing though was that it remained alive even after all the stages of cultural change that took place. Then came the era of religious reform, when Europe became divided into sects, and each sect stood in the face of other sects, armed to the teeth, ready for battle; however, animosity towards Islam remained the same within every sect. Soon after, a time came when religious fervor diminished but the hatred of Islam remained as strong as ever, a clear example of this was delivered by the French philosopher and poet Voltaire, although he was an arch enemy of Christianity and the Church in the 18th century, he also was at the same time expressing his feelings of hatred and arrogance towards Islam and the Messenger of Islam; after a few decades, there came a time when the Western intellectuals began exploring foreign cultures and looked upon them with some kind of sympathy and openmindedness, however when it came to Islam, the traditional disdain began infiltrating their scientific researches in an extraordinary factional way; and the wide gap which history dug up between Europe and the Islamic world remained unbridged, then the contempt for Islam became an integral part of the European mentality.”

It was on this basis that the missionary associations mentioned above were established. Their aim was to preach the Christian religion and to arouse suspicions in the Muslims about their Deen, thereby leading them to hold it in disdain within their hearts and to blame their own failures on it.

On the other hand, the aim of the associations was also political and the consequences were in fact horrendous on both accounts until they reached unexpected proportions. The missionary movements were founded on the basis of wiping out Islam by libeling it, by creating problems and misgivings about it and about its rules, in order to come between the people and the way of Allah (swt), and to alienate Muslims from their Deen. Behind these missionary movements came the Orientalist movements who had the same target and the very same objective.

Efforts and resources were unified throughout the whole of Europe and a crusade was waged against Islam for the second time; this time it was a cultural war which poisoned the mind by what they had distorted from the Islamic laws and Islam’s high values, the poisoning of the young Muslim minds by what they alleged about Islam and the history of the Muslims in the name of scientific research and scientific fairness. It was in reality the cultural venom which was far more dangerous than the crusader wars. The missionaries carried out the spreading of their poisonous filth in the name of science and humanity. They used to do it in the name of Orientalism. As Weiss stated,

“The reality is that the first Orientalist of modern times were Christian missionaries working in the Muslim countries, the distorted picture they fabricated allegedly from Islamic teachings and history was expertly designed to guarantee a negative reaction and influence the European opinion towards the idol worshippers, i.e. the Muslims; however this twisted concept continued despite the fact that Orientalist studies had been liberated from the missionary influence, stripping the Orientalism from any religious and ignorant fervor that would misguide it. As for the Orientalist’ hostility to Islam, this was an inherited instinct and a natural characteristic derived from the effects of the crusader wars.”

This inherited animosity is the one that supports the hatred in the hearts of Westerners against the Muslims. It is the one that portrays Islam, even in Muslim countries, to Muslims and non-Muslims as being the bogeyman, or this demon which would destroy the progress of humanity. This is in fact to conceal their real fear of Islam, for they know that if Islam were deeply implanted in the hearts and minds of the people it would signal the end of the hegemony of the disbelieving colonial powers over the Islamic world and the return of the Islamic State to once again resume the carrying of the Message of Islam to the world - and indeed it will return Insha’Allah - for the sake of humanity and the West itself. The work of the missionaries would eventually turn into grief and sorrow for them; Allah (swt) says,

“Verily, those who disbelieve spend their wealth to hinder (people) from the path of Allah, and so will they continue to spend it; but in the end it will become an anguish for them.” [Al-Anfal, 8:36]

The inherited animosity is the one that supports any anti-Islamic movement. You will find the Western scholar researching Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, or Communism without any hatred or prejudice at all. Whereas, if he were to research Islam malice, hatred, and contempt would soon appear despite the fact that Muslims were defeated by the colonial disbelievers. The Western clergy, backed by the colonialists, still actively conspire against Islam and they will never abate from libeling Islam and the Muslims and from degrading Muhammad (pbuh) and his Companions, or from injecting slander into the history of Islam and of the Muslims. All this is to get their revenge and to strengthen the hold of the colonialists.

The missionary invasion was regarded as the spearhead which paved the way for European colonialism to conquer the Islamic world politically after first conquering it culturally. Through conquering Istanbul and the Balkans and by bringing Islam to Europe the Islamic intellectual leadership was carried by the Muslims to the countries of the West. When that leadership faltered the Muslim countries became the target of the West, which consequently carried its intellectual leadership to the Muslim world where it encountered fertile ground for its culture and its concepts about life; these were sowed in different ways under the name of science, humanism and religious preaching. The West did not stop there either, as well it libeled the Islamic culture and the Islamic concepts about life by directing its onslaught against Islam. This adversely affected the educated class and the politicians, in fact it deeply affected all those who carried the Islamic culture, and in time it came to affect the majority of the Muslims. As for the educated people, the colonial powers had designed in their missionary schools, before the occupation, and in all the other schools after the occupation, their own educational syllabus and cultural programs according to their particular philosophy and culture and their own special concepts about life. They made the Western personality the basis of this culture and of their renaissance, history and environment the main sources of the material which we Muslims eagerly overflow our minds with. Neither did they stop at that, but they went as far as interfering with the details of the syllabi making sure that no partial items stepped out of line nor contradicted the general principles which represented their philosophy and culture. This was the case even concerning the Islamic Deen and history lessons; both these syllabi had been designed on a Western basis and according to Western concepts.

Even today the Islamic Deen is taught in Islamic schools as a spiritual and moral subject conforming to the Western concept of religion. It is taught in a way which is far from reality and far removed from the real facts of life. The life of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) is taught to our youth in a way which is cut off from the Prophecy and the Message. It is taught in the same way that the lives of Napoleon or Bismarck are taught, for instance. As a result, this does not create in their hearts any of the proper emotions or concepts. The subject of worship and morals, which is included in the religious syllabus, is presented from a self-interest point of view. Thus, the teaching of the Islamic Deen has likewise come to be set upon the same course as the Western concepts of personal benefit and interest.

Educating the Islamic history has also been similarly stained due to illintention and misunderstanding, and has been blackened in the name of historical fairness and scientific research. What rubs salt into the wound is the fact that some of the educated Muslims have taken up the teaching of history and the editing of historical works according to the missionary method and syllabus. Consequently, all the educational syllabi have been designed according to Western philosophy, and, through following its syllabi. This has made most of the intellectuals Westernized. They digested the culture, loved it, and led their lives according to its concepts until most of them became averse to the Islamic culture and critical of it when and where it contradicted Western culture.

Those Muslims became Westernized in their culture, a culture controlled by the Western viewpoint. They were faithful to that culture, to the extent that they idolized the foreigner and adopted his culture. Many of them assumed the Western character, they became hateful of Islam and Islamic culture, in the same way that the Westerner was. They believed that Islam and the Islamic culture was the cause of the decline of the Muslims, as they had been led to believe by them. Consequently, the missionary expeditions achieved great success when they managed to pull across to their side the intellectual Muslims who then fought alongside them against Islam and the Islamic culture.

The situation spread even further to include not only those educated in Europe and in foreign schools, but also to those carrying the Islamic culture as well. They were stunned and incensed with the colonial Western powers’ actions in libeling their Deen, and so began their response to the libel. Their response was initiated without realizing whether such was either right or wrong in the first place. In their eagerness to defend Islam from the libel of the foreigners they did not check their reply. They were certain that Islam was being wrongly accused, but all the same they began the dangerous process of twisting the Islamic texts in order to make them comply with Western concepts.

As a result, their reply was weak and in effect, it was this which proved very helpful to the missionary invasion, rather than the reply itself. What is even worse is that the Western culture, which is contradictory to the Islamic culture, became part of their concepts which they readily accepted and unjustly and wrongfully attributed to Islam. Most of them began by saying that the West had taken its culture from Islam and the Muslims, and then they started twisting the Islamic rules to suit that culture, despite the flagrant contradiction between the Islamic and Western cultures.

Therefore, once they had demonstrated to themselves that their ‘Aqeedah and culture were consistent with the Western culture they came to accept the Western culture in its entirety. This meant that they had accepted the Western culture and abandoned their Islamic culture. This was precisely what the colonialist wanted and what the West was aiming for when it concentrated its missionary work and its colonial expeditions.

By having their intellectuals educated in Western schools and colleges, and through their lack of understanding of Islam relative to those who had an Islamic education, the Muslims by and large inherited the Western concepts about life. Their countries were, thus, swamped by the materialistic Western culture in the society which led the society to be solely run according to the Western culture and its concepts.

Most of the Muslims did not realize that the democratic ruling system and the economic Capitalist system were both systems of disbelief. They were neither moved nor shocked when their disputes were settled by other than what Allah (swt) had revealed despite the fact that they most certainly knew that Allah (swt) says,

“And whosoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, such are the Kafirun (i.e. disbelievers).” [Al-Ma’idah, 5:44]

All this was because of the Western culture, based on the separation of religion from the state, which was predominant amongst their societies, and because the materialistic Western concepts were widespread. They felt that if they just believed in Allah (swt) and observed the prayers, then they would have accomplished their Islamic duties. Meanwhile, they thought that they could conduct their life’s affairs according to their own desires and with what they thought was best. This did not trouble them in the slightest because they had been infected by the Western concept which states that one should, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.” Conversely, they were unaffected by the Islamic concepts which make Caesar and all he possesses firmly under the domain of Allah (swt). Allah’s orders encompass all things as well as the prayer; they encompass buying and selling, renting (indeed all business transactions), the Judicial and education systems; simply everything, but the Muslims were no longer affected by these concepts. If only they had read what Allah (swt) says,

“And so judge (you O Muhammad (pbuh)) between them by what Allah has revealed.” [Al-Ma’idah, 5:49]

And His saying,

“When you contract a debt for a fixed period write it down.” [Al-Baqarah, 2:282]

And His saying,

“And whoever contradicts and opposes the Messenger (Muhammad (pbuh)) after the right path has been shown clearly to him, and follows other than the believers way. We shall keep him in the path he has chosen, and burn him in hell - what an evil destination.” [An-Nisa, 4:115]

And by Allah’s saying,

“And it is not (proper) for the Believers to go out to fight (Jihad) all together. Of every troop of them, a party should only should go forth, that they (who are left behind) may get instructions in (Islamic) religion, and that they may warn their people when they return to them, so that they may beware (of evil).” [At-Tauba, 9:122]

Certainly, they were never affected by the concepts carried in the verses contained in the Qur’an even if they read them. Instead, they read these verses as Qur’anic verses stopping at that. Whereas, a Muslim really reads the Qur’an knowing that it is alive and that he should use the concepts in his life by attempting to implement them in it. However, they read these verses in circumstances whereby Western concepts were predominant and accordingly they indulged in the spirituality of the verses. When it came to the concepts and the meanings of these verses they erected a mental block. All this was because the Western culture and concepts effectively controlled them, holding sway over them. This is as far as the majority of the people were concerned and those who held an Islamic or foreign education.

As for the politicians the tribulation was far greater and the catastrophe far worse due to them. Ever since the colonial powers had gathered these politicians, tempting them to stand against the ‘Uthmani State by promises of big rewards, they conducted themselves according to what the Westerners had designed for them. In the days of the ‘Uthmani State, they sided with the Westerner and helped him against their State. This being expressly forbidden in Islam, yet still they somehow managed to do it and they felt proud of it. They boasted about their achievement during every occasion and anniversary which they chose for themselves to celebrate. At that time, instead of struggling against the ruling faction in order to redress the situation and shake up the State, they went along with its enemy, the disbelievers, against the State. The bitter irony was that the disbelievers eventually ended up taking over their country. Then, instead of seeking the people’s help against the disbelievers, they sought the help of the latter against their own people. They were affected by the disbelievers to the point whereby they lost their Islamic personality. Their concepts became poisoned by certain political and philosophical opinions and this in turn poisoned their viewpoint about life and ultimately about Jihad itself (this being the ultimate purpose of the State). This spread to poison the whole of the Islamic atmosphere and confuse the concepts in every aspect of life.

Compromising through negotiations replaced Jihad. The politicians believed and adopted the principle of, Khuth wa taalib (Take what you can now and then ask for the rest later) - which is considered better for the colonialist than a huge army in the land - and seeking the help of the disbelieving colonialist became common practice and a standard rule. They relied on him without realizing that any assistance they sought from the disbeliever was considered a grave sin and political suicide. They also resorted to working through the narrowness of regionalism, and made it their own political atmosphere. Not realizing that this very regionalism makes political work fruitless because regionalism - no matter how large the region is - cannot fulfill all the political and non-political duties that a true life needs. They did not stop at that either, but they made their personal interests the focus of their attention and made the foreign countries their general center of attention. Therefore, they lost the natural center of attention, which was their ideology. By losing it, they lost the chance of succeeding in their quest, no matter how hard they worked at it and however faithful they were.

Therefore, all the political movements became futile, and every awakening in the Ummah turned into a contradictory, confused movement like that of the slaughtered animal, which finally ends with a motionless, despair and surrender. This is so, because the leaders of the political movements lost their natural focal attention. Thus, it became natural that the Ummah loses this focal attention. Accordingly, the concepts of the politicians were poisoned with the erroneous, as well as with the foreign ideologies. As a result, movements were established in the Muslim lands in the name of nationalism, socialism, regionalism, communism, spiritual Deen, morals, education and preaching. These movements worsened the situation and added to the complexes of which the society suffers.

The result of all these movements was the failure and to revolve around themselves, because they went according to Western concepts, affected by the Missionary invasion; and they directed the Ummah in matters which brought no fruit or good. They also enabled imperialism to get strong hold and remain there. Thus, the success of the Missionary invasion was unmatched.