Thank you for this article. It brings out a clear example of how European imperial colonizers brought about their colonization of the 'Levant', otherwise known by the inhabitants as their home ash Sham.

The colonizers did their work through building schools for Christian minorities within the Ottoman state. The colonizers' colleges and nonMuslim ideological adherents promoted secularization, nationalism, and Western ideological precepts.

From these sources came movements of nationalism and secularization which resulted in the division of Arab Christians from Arab Muslims, and Arabs from Turks, and Arabs from Kurds, and Kurds from Turks, and Persians from Arabs, Turks, Kurds. Amidst these divisions, the European colonizers easily turned the various people against each other with military pacts allowing European military forces to enter the region and take power, even having European military commanders kick the tomb of Salahudeen (rha) and making all kinds of historical references reminiscing the Crusades. Not to mention carving up the region based on European 'enlightenment' precepts and their idiosyncratic worldview using Christian names for Muslim lands.

So, yes, 'enlightenment' in the 'Levant' reached its zenith at the height of colonization. Clearly an indication of the motivations and intent of the West towards the Muslim world.