Reforming tendencies gained strength in the early nineteenth century when a group known as the Wahhabis captured Mecca. The Wahhabis demanded a stricter observance of Islamic law. Although their appeal was limited in Southeast Asia, some people were attracted to Wahhabi styles of teaching. There was a growing feeling that greater observance of Islamic doctrine might help Muslims resist the growing power of Europeans. Muslim leaders were often prominent in anti-colonial movements, especially in Indonesia. However, the influence of modernist Islamic thinking that developed in Egypt meant educated Muslims in Southeast Asia also began to think about reforming Islam as a way of answering the Western challenge. These reform-minded Muslims were often impatient with rural communities or “traditionalists” who maintained older pre-Islamic customs. Europeans eventually colonized all Southeast Asia except for Thailand. Malaya, Burma, Singapore, and western Borneo were under the British; the Dutch claimed the Indonesian archipelago; Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam were French colonies; East Timor belonged to Portugal; and the Spanish, and later the Americans, controlled the Philippines.