Mission schools’ Christianization of Somali children confirmed Sheikh Muhammad’s fears about colonial threats

Evidence

Not long after this very characteristic Somali inquisition which had made clear to the leaders of the established Qadiriya the revolutionary character of Sheikh Muhammad ‘Abdille’s message, the Sheikh came into contact with the French Roman Catholic mission which had opened a station in the north of the Protectorate in 1891. This was originally at Berbera, but had now moved to Daimole, inland on the road towards Sheikh. The story goes that Sheikh Muhammad met a boy at the mission school and asked him his name. To his amazement and wrath, the boy replied ‘John ‘Abdillahi’. Another account relates that the Sheikh met a party of boys from the mission who when asked what clan they belonged to – the stock Somali inquiry to elicit someone’s identity, replied ‘the clan of the Fathers’ (in Somali, reer faddar), thus apparently denying their Somali identity (many of the boys were actually orphans). — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 206

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mission encounters convinced Sheikh Muhammad that Christian colonization threatened Somali Islam — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 207

Related

• Mission encounters convinced Sheikh Muhammad that Christian colonization threatened Somali Islam (similarity 0.90)
• Contact with the Catholic mission confirmed the Sayyid’s view of Christian colonization (similarity 0.83)
• Italian mission schools taught Christian doctrine that troubled Muslim Somali parents (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Mission encounters convinced Sheikh Muhammad that Christian colonization threatened Somali Islam #corroborates (0.85) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 207