They had not realized that the Ottoman Empire was multireligious, where coexistence was possible because Ottomans tried not to “openly blaspheme or insult other people’s religions,” as Makdisi writes. The Maronites, Muslims, Jews, Druze, and Armenians shared a way of life. The Ottoman authorities viewed the American intruders as a “threat to diversity.” Protestantism was unquestionably alien.
