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This article deals with the role of Islam in the formation and evolution of a Muslim scout movement in Lebanon under the French Mandate. Scouting was imported into the Middle East from Europe just before World War I and was quickly appropriated by Arab societies. In the 1930s it gained significance not only as a social phenomenon but also as a forum for political expression. The Mandate administration initially sought to use scouting to expand France's cultural and political foothold in the region. Quickly, however, Lebanese leaders imbued scouting with their own distinctive ethos, which frequently opposed French interests. This process is especially interesting owing to the cross-pollination of ideological and cultural forces that nourished the burgeoning scout associations, including not only Islam and French scout methods but also Arab and Lebanese nationalism, fascism, and Anglo-Saxon political and cultural objectives in the Middle East. The discussion here addresses how Islam intertwined with these diverse influences and how this ideological conglomeration affected and reflected Franco-Muslim relations in Lebanon. Cet article traite du role que joua l'Islam dans la formation et l'evolution du scoutisme musulman au Liban a l'epoque du mandat francais. Institution europeenne, le scoutisme s'implanta au Moyen-Orient a l'aube de la Premiere Guerre mondiale et s'integra rapidement dans la societe arabe. Pendant les annees 1930, ce phenomene acquiert de l'importance non seulement dans le domaine social, mais egalement comme moyen d'action politique. L'autorite mandataire espera exploiter le scoutime pour renforcer sa presence politique et culturelle dans la region. Or, des le depart, les dirigeants musulmans libanais s'emparerent du mouvement et l'impregnerent d'un esprit anticolonial et anti-francais. Ce processus s'avera plus interessant a etudier car les associations scoutes au Liban furent influencees par divers mouvements ideologiques et politiques, non seulement par l'Islam et la methodologie du scoutisme francais, mais aussi par les nationalismes arabe et libanais, le fascisme et les ambitions anglo-saxonnes en pays arabes. L'auteur se penche ici sur la maniere dont l'Islam se mela a ces tendances multiples, et se demande comment ce melange ideologique influa sur les relations franco-musulmanes au Liban.

This article deals with the significance of the school as a space for colonial and diplomatic power struggles in the French Mandate territories of Syria and Lebanon between 1936 and 1945. Often underestimated in their importance to colonial and international affairs, schools were an integral part of France’s precarious political administration in the Levant. Although fiercely anti-clerical at home, the French government relied extensively on long-established Catholic missionary schools to entrench its control. These schools emerged as a space for conflict, both symbolically and physically, as a result of their association with France’s policy of promoting non-Sunni communities at the expense of the regional Sunni majority. Within the context of these policies, French schools became a symbol of privilege for francophile Christian elites and of oppression for Muslim or pan-Arab groups disaffected with the regime. The discussion here addresses the role of schools as a focus for conflict and cooperation among French officials and educators working in the Levant, as a forum for Franco-Syrian colonial interaction and as an object of international diplomatic dispute as Syria gained its independence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]