> Call me dense, but... Revenge?
>From my readings of history, those people most likely to embrace a
foreign religion fundamentally hostile to the local religion are
either those locally on the outs or those with a bone to pick with the
local _status quo_. This seems to have been the case with early
Portuguese missions in India (the ones that actually were willing to
be known as "Farang")
(For the interested: "Farang" is from the Arabic "Farengi", which is from the Koine Greek "Ferengi", which is from the tribal name "Frank". "Ferengi" among the "Byzantines" essentially meant "greedy, ill-mannered, unwashed, uneducated foreigner from the West".)
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