The apparent ability of an opponent to take the tactics of his or her target and use the newly acquired methods against them are evident in chapter five of Beth Baron’s The Orphan Scandal. According to the author, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was successful in reducing the efforts of Christian missionaries in the country to nothing because they spent years studying them before putting their plans into action. Apparently, under Hasan al-Banan, Islamic efforts to thwart the influences of Christianity gained momentum over a period of more than a decade before striking the damaging blow (Baron 132).
Baron’s arguments are plausible because when the organization discredited the missionaries, they used a young and orphaned Muslim girl to communicate their message to the people. After all, the English General Mission devoted its funds and efforts to help the poor and orphaned children in Egypt with the aim of “rapid evangelization” (Baron 119). Consequently, when one Alzire Richoz, a missionary, beat young Turkiyya Hasan a Muslim orphaned girl for refusing to rise for visiting missionaries, the Muslim Brotherhood took immediate advantage of the situation (Baron 128). The English used the plight of defenseless children to gain acceptance among the people, and the Muslims did the same by defending the rights of a girl caned for a deed that the Islamic culture did not recognize as a mistake.
Works Cited
Baron, Beth. The Orphan Scandal: Christian Missionaries and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood. California: Stanford University Press, 2014. Print.
