Author:
Walther, Karine V. author.
ImprintChapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2015]
Descriptionxiii, 547 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Note:part 1. The United States and the Eastern question : Greece, Crete, and Bulgaria. "Crescent against the cross" : American efforts on behalf of Greeks ; The United States and Bulgarian independence -- part 2. Jewish-American activism in the Islamic world. Jewish-American activism in the Ottoman Empire and Morocco, 1840-1878 ; Empire and civilization in Morocco, 1878-1906 -- part 3. The Philippines and the "Moro problem". "Our Mohammedan wards" in the Philippines, 1898-1905 ; American colonial governance over Filipino Muslims, 1903-1914 -- part 4. Resolving the Eastern question. The United States and the Armenian massacres, 1894-1896 ; "People not yet able to stand by themselves" : the United States, Armenia, and the mandate system in the Middle East.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Note:"In Sacred Interests, Karine V. Walther excavates the deep history of Americans' Islamophobic fixation on how Muslims should be governed, controlled, converted, and colonized, showing how these ideas shaped American foreign relations from the early republic to the end of the Armenian Genocide in 1921. Beginning with the Barbary Wars, Walther illuminates reactions to and involvement in the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, the efforts to protect Christians and Jews from Muslim authorities in Northern Africa, colonization of the Philippines, and the Armenian Genocide. Even in instances where the U.S. government was not formally involved, American missionaries and activists played crucial roles in these events, drawing conclusions and lessons that they would pass on and apply to subsequent interventions. Americans' interest in Islam abroad became critical to a larger American narrative: diplomatic, cultural, political, and religious beliefs about Islam and Muslims hardened and became self-fulfilling as Americans continued to encounter Muslims throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries" -- Provided by publisher.
