Christians To Seek Converts At Mosques’ Doorsteps

[Budge]

[i]This is what real Christians do instead of going to pray to "Allah" in the mosque with Muslims.
[/i]
[quote]:Christianity:
Christians to seek converts at mosques’ doorsteps
The Seattle Times, USA
Aug. 3, 2007
Lornet Turnbull and Janet I. Tu
seattletimes.nwsource.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 18923 • Posted: Friday August 3, 2007

[b] Led by a California pastor, a group of Christians will gather outside some Seattle-area mosques today in hopes of winning converts among Muslim worshippers coming to midday prayer.

They will also take their message of salvation to those attending this weekend’s Arab Festival at Seattle Center and to the parking lots of shopping centers popular among people from Islamic or Arab cultures.[/b]

It’s a bold — and some say audacious — gesture, coming at a time when choices over religion have grown increasingly sensitive.

But the way Pastor George Saieg sees it, many Muslims come from countries in which people lack the freedom to choose their own religion. An Arab who grew up in a Christian home in Sudan and attended Muslim schools, Saieg said Islam is a religion that offers its followers no assurance of salvation.

“In some countries, the penalty of leaving Islam is death,” he said. “I want people to know that they have freedom in this country to hear about Jesus Christ.”

So he feels an obligation to reach out to them through his “Ministry to Muslims” campaign, in which, he said, “Praise the Lord, 42 people came to the Lord from Michigan.” He believes many in Seattle will similarly convert.

Elsewhere in the country, his message has been met with varying degrees of accommodation or anger.

Mohamad Joban, imam of the Muslim Association of Puget Sound, said he thinks Saieg is driven either by “arrogance or ignorance.” He and other Muslim leaders say they aren’t threatened by him and are open to talking with him.

Joban points to a growing consensus that Islam is the nation’s fastest growing religion and also notes that the Quran is clear in its teachings against proselytizing.

“So who’s forcing all those people to Islam?” Joban asked.

Islam and Christianity, like Judaism, trace their roots to Abraham, considered the spiritual father of all three faiths. But while Christians have historically regarded Jesus as the son of God and God incarnate, both fully human and fully divine, Muslims do not see Jesus as divine or consider him the son of God, though they do regard him as a great prophet.
Evangelism

Evangelism is the sharing of evangel - the ‘’good news.'’ Historically, it has referred primarily to the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by his followers, Christians.



Research resources on evangelism

Further, spreading faith — what some call proselytizing — is a tenet of Christian theology, while the Quran teaches against it. Saieg founded Arabic Christian Perspective in 2003, with a two-fold mission: convert Muslims to Christianity and “expose teachings of Islam that they’re trying to hide.”

[b] He expects about 100 to 200 local Christians to attend his weekend conference at Seattle Revival Center, a nondenominational church in Newcastle, where they will be trained on what the Quran says about salvation, on Muslim objections to Christianity and on ways to respond to those objections.[/b]

Saieg did not specify which mosques he and his followers planned to visit, saying he wants worshippers open to his message and not cowed by warnings from their leaders.

Greg Daley, an associate pastor at the Revival Center, said his church joined Saieg’s campaign because Saieg doesn’t preach a political or right-wing message.

“Our Mission is … to go out into the world and preach the gospel, whether it’s to Muslims, Jews or anyone who doesn’t believe,” Daley said.
[b]
Pastor Joe Fuiten of Cedar Park Assembly of God church in Bothell, e-mailed several thousand people statewide on his Positive Christian Agenda mailing list, encouraging them to attend Saieg’s conference.

He believes “Islam is seriously an issue in the world today. The ultimate answer is conversion, because radical Islam flows from Islam,” he said.[/b]

But the Rev. Craig R. J. Darling of Seattle First Baptist Church said that as a Christian pastor he doesn’t condone the actions of Saieg’s group, saying, “God is bigger than that and with him there’s room for all religions.”

Saieg’s followers brought his campaign to Tacoma last year, and earlier this year to Kent and Seattle, where local Muslim leaders say the group interfered with Muslims leaving a mosque after Friday prayers.

“They were harassing women for wearing scarves,” said Aziz Junejo, who writes a column from the Islamic perspective for The Seattle Times Faith & Values page.

Local Muslim leaders were advising worshippers not to engage Saieg’s people, to take whatever material they are given, and not to resort to physical violence but to call authorities if necessary.

Jeff Siddiqui, a local Muslim leader, said he’s not convinced Saieg’s methods can convert any Muslims.

“If his call to faith is that good, and Islam is that terrible, then he wouldn’t have to harass us and block our paths and barrage us with haranguing,” he said.[/quote]

One interesting fact I found out about the guy leading this is he was born in the SUDAN...{a mostly Muslim country}

[quote]George Saieg, [b]the group's Sudanese-born founder[/b], said by phone on Thursday that he had invited Hussam Ayloush, director of the southern California chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), and Muzammil Siddiqi of the Fiqh Council of North America, to participate.[/quote]

[url="http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200509/CUL20050909a.html"]LINK[/url]

[homeschoolmom]

Could you please state the topic to be debated? Thanks.

[Budge]

Do you support coverting folks at the doorsteps of mosques.

I of course do.

A street preacher witnessed to me almost daily and once she knew me, spoke openly of the falsehoods of the UU.

[Fidei Defensor]

[quote name='Budge' post='1349459' date='Aug 4 2007, 09:43 AM']Do you support coverting folks at the doorsteps of mosques.

I of course do.

A street preacher witnessed to me almost daily and once she knew me, spoke openly of the falsehoods of the UU.[/quote]
Good for you. That doesn't mean everyone is a simpleton like you and can be easily swayed in their beliefs. Some people require real intellectual discussion before they are willing to even look at something. No offense, of course

[Budge]

actually she planted seeds and it took two more years including a short time back in the Catholic Church, for me to be born again and turn my life over to Jesus Christ.

But scary fidei, you just called me STUPID {Simpleton} for becoming a CHRISTIAN.

Yeah I guess I am a FOOL for Christ.

2Cr 11:23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I [am] more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

[Fidei Defensor]

[quote name='Budge' post='1349468' date='Aug 4 2007, 09:51 AM']actually she planted seeds and it took two more years including a short time back in the Catholic Church, for me to be born again and turn my life over to Jesus Christ.

But scary fidei, you just called me STUPID {Simpleton} for becoming a CHRISTIAN.

Yeah I guess I am a FOOL for Christ.

2Cr 11:23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I [am] more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.[/quote]
I was actually calling you a simpleton for the way you appeared to so easily filp flop your beliefs. I would never imply that you were stupid for becoming a Christian, I apologize if that's what it seemed.

The point is, not everyone is so easily reached. I dislike the way you deny that there is any other way to bring a person to Christ except obnoxious "witnessing." Many people are very turned off by that.

[Budge]

[quote]The point is, not everyone is so easily reached. I dislike the way you deny that there is any other way to bring a person to Christ except obnoxious "witnessing." Many people are very turned off by that.[/quote]

Were the apostles obnoixous when they did open air preaching?

Sure there are people turned off, the parable of the sower, makes that clear.

Why are you against people preaching the Word of God? When are these Muslims going to hear it otherwise?

Im glad I had strong Christians in my life who preached the gospel directly so I knew what it was.

[Fidei Defensor]

[quote name='Budge' post='1349477' date='Aug 4 2007, 10:03 AM']Were the apostles obnoixous when they did open air preaching?

Sure there are people turned off, the parable of the sower, makes that clear.

Why are you against people preaching the Word of God? When are these Muslims going to hear it otherwise?

Im glad I had strong Christians in my life who preached the gospel directly so I knew what it was.[/quote]
I'm against those who believe that preaching only consists of the methods you so much love. I'm not against preaching itself. Nor am I against that style, for some cases. I'm against the idea that that style is the only way. Tough love isn't the only way. Note that Jesus ate with the sinners, he didn't stand there and tell them they had to reform. That's not to say that he never did that too, but there are many more ways to go about witnessing, if one way doesnt work. You can witness in many ways, including actions.

[Groo the Wanderer]

Oh I don't know. There's something to be said for kidnapping them, holding theri family at gunpoint and demanding they convert. Seems to work sometimes too.



wait...



THEY do that to us, not the other way around.....my bad...

[Budge]

Oh please no one is talking about converting people at gun point, but preaching the gospel directly to them. That is all.

I am praying they reach a few of the Muslims.

[jeffpugh]

I'm not against this fervent Christian act (witnessing the Muslims), but I'm not going to get up and go to my local mosque and start crying fire and brimstone. Seriously, it takes more than that to turn people over. And it takes some time and reasoning. Besides, my call is not to convert the Muslims. There are other things on my plate now.

Aaannnd I think you need to come up with more of a "yea or nay" question for the debate table here. You're sorta just making statements.

Edited August 6, 2007 by Sacred Music Man

[abercius24]

There is a question of appropriate location to consider, too. If you start evangelizing Moslems at their local Mosque, you must be ready for Moslem Clerics to start recruiting in front of your local Catholic Church. Are you ready to infringe upon their comfort zone at the cost of your own? I think there are more appropriate ways to reach Moslems than confronting them at their place of worship.

Edited August 6, 2007 by abercius24

[cathoholic_anonymous]

[quote name='abercius24' post='1350693' date='Aug 6 2007, 03:42 AM']There is a question of appropriate location to consider, too. If you start evangelizing Moslems at their local Mosque, you must be ready for Moslem Clerics to start recruiting in front of your local Catholic Church. Are you ready to infringe upon their comfort zone at the cost of your own? I think there are more appropriate ways to reach Moslems than confronting them at their place of worship.[/quote]

That is a good point. I felt quite offended when I came out of Mass once to discover some Jehovah's Witnesses parked right in front of our steps, handing out tracts to the people who were leaving the church. Catholic, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Methodist - no matter what people are, no matter how much you disagree with them theologically, you should respect their space.

I don't have a problem with street evangelisation. I am part of one such initiative myself. But we would never dream of parking our stall outside another place of worship and accosting people as they go inside. That's not good witness. That's just plain aggressive.

It's also plain insulting. I think some of the people involved in this project hold very stereotypical views of Muslims: poor, brainwashed folk, completely unfamiliar with basic Christian tenets, etc., etc. This seems to be a completely baffling concept to you, Budge, but a lot of Muslims in the West have more than a passing familiarity with Christianity. If you turn up outside the door of a mosque, especially when the congregants are gathering for Friday Jumu'ah, you are likely to encounter Muslims who are extremely confident in their own faith and very theologically knowledgeable about it. If these are the type of Christians, who, like you, insist that Muslims really worship the 'moon god', they are in for a rude awakening.

As for the article itself...I really, really wish that people would stop equating 'Arabic' and 'Islamic' culture. 'Islamic culture' is a doubtful term that means very little. And not everybody with an Arab face is a Muslim. In fact, there are lots of Christian Arabs. I have been mistaken for a Muslim by street preachers before, as a result of my Arab dress. That was an awkward experience for him as well as for me. And this issue of culture and ethnicity is a lot more sensitive in the masajid of America, where each masjid tends to have its own dominant culture/nationality, which has a significant influence on Islamic practice there. These missionaries have bitten off way more than they can chew, as judging by the article I doubt they're going to understand this.

Edited August 6, 2007 by Cathoholic Anonymous

[Mateo el Feo]

Budge, I wonder what you would think if a bunch of Muslims gathered outside of your church to evangelize your congregation. Or, what if PP came over and started handing out condoms to your church's youth? How would you view such tactics?

[Sojourner]

[quote name='Mateo el Feo' post='1351131' date='Aug 6 2007, 11:33 AM']Budge, I wonder what you would think if a bunch of Muslims gathered outside of your church to evangelize your congregation. Or, what if PP came over and started handing out condoms to your church's youth? How would you view such tactics?[/quote]
Are you suggesting, perhaps, that we should consider the Golden Rule in our evangelism?