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TechnoratiWhile the U.S. government has made changes in response to the rise of radical Islam, an expert on terrorism and the Middle East Crisis is wondering whether churches have changed and, if not, how they should.
Last Friday, on the eighth anniversary of the infamous 9/11 terrorist attacks, some 650 churches – mostly from the United States – participated in a town hall style webcast hosted by Joel C. Rosenberg, author of The Last Jihad and Inside the Revolution.
The event, titled “The Threat of Radical Islam and the Church’s Response,” sought to inform churches about radical Islam and teach Christians how to reach out to their Muslim neighbors.
“I believe we are at the most dangerous moment in the Islamic revolution right now,” said Rosenberg, an evangelical Christian with an Orthodox Jewish heritage. “I hope tonight is the beginning of a conversation about the threat and the response.”
During the webcast, Rosenberg, Christian radio host Janet Parshall, and Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin (retired) – the former deputy undersecretary of defense intelligence and founding member of Delta Force – discussed various pressing issues in the Middle East, including how close Iran is to possessing nuclear weapons, how Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is doing in his country, and the conflict between Israel and its Muslim neighbors.
Rosenberg emphasized multiple times that the vast majority of Muslims in the world (93 percent by some estimates) are peaceful and do not believe jihad is the answer to problems.
But the remaining seven percent of the Muslim population, or 91 million, do believe in using violence to achieve their objective. If the Muslim radicals all came together, said Rosenberg – a former political consultant to then-former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – they would be the fourth largest country in the world.
Despite the initial grim updates about the Middle East crisis, the webcast program shifted gears and began focusing on the “big untold story” of the tens of thousands of Muslims coming to Christ in the Middle East.
Tom Doyle, a mission leader to the Middle East with E3 Partners, said it is the timing of God now to reach the Muslims in the region. Looking at the Gospel, Doyle said, the last place it is reaching are those in the Middle East and Central Asia.
The former pastor of 20 years recalled his first visited Jordan and how a Christian leader there said to him that every believer should go to jail at least once because it is good for them and after that there is nothing to be afraid of.
“That’s the kind of commitment they have when they come to Christ,” Doyle commented.
At another church, when it was time to recite the week’s memorized verse, a 79-year-old man who was a former Muslim stood up and recited all 47 verses of Acts 2, the mission leader recalled. Similarly, an 11-year-old girl, a 34-year-old mom, and others in the church also enthusiastically recited the whole chapter.
“The passion and the boldness,” said Doyle. “They are willing to serve, they are willing to be persecuted, they are willing to die for their faith.”
But initially, Doyle, like so many other Christians, struggled to love Muslims.
And loving Muslims became harder in light of the 9/11 attacks, the persecution of Christians living in Islamic countries and the constant threat Israel faces from its Muslim neighbors.Continue »
