Page 47 - Protestant Missionary Activity in the Arabian Gulf

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medical and sanitation facilities. Still viewing western

civilization as primarily a product of a Christian society,

they could also rejoice in the apparent victory of modernity

over Islamic superstition. Thus Rev. Pennings, in the same

article that he "bemoans the "Spiritual Depression" in the

; West lauds the downfall of traditional Islam in the oil boom

of the thirties and forties:

ft
0 9 0 the cocksure conviction of the Mohammedans
that theirs was the only religion, the one that has
> the solution for all problems, has been rudely shaken.
For the marvels of the West coupled with modern scien­

tific teaching has shocked this assurance and they find
that Islam is woefully out of harmony with the present
world and with science." 75

Rev. Pennings was, however, somewhat premature in his

assumption that science was necessarily on the side of Chris­

tianity against Islam. In the first forty years of the

Mission’s history this was certainly more the case. Samuel

Zwemer had made eloquent use of modern technology in a street

argument in Bahrain in 1908. As Mylrea related it, Zwemer

and several of the other missionaries were drinking tea at

a small refreshment stand in a crowded open air market (Suq-
al-khamees) outside of Manama. When they had finished drink­

ing the'proprietor took back the cups and ceremoniously

smashed them on the ground, for they had been defiled by

unbelievers and could never again be made clean. Zwemer

struck back. "How long are you going to keep up this sort

of thing?" he cried to the proprietor. "That watch in your

pocket? Where was it made? That umbrella in the corner?

Those matches on the table? That kerchief on your head? That

material of which your gown is made? If it weren’t for the

m