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Philip Roberts, previously in charge of Interfaith Witness for the Southern Baptist Convention and now head of Midwestern Baptist Seminary, has developed a ten-point program for respectful religious dialogue and witnessing to Muslims. He emphasized the need for American Christians to understand the Qur'an and "to become a friend and a personal evangelist to Muslims."

His plan rests on several important realizations:

• Muslims rarely hear a truthful presentation of the gospel.
  
  
• Few U.S. Christians understand essential Islamic teaching.
  
  
• Evangelistic outreach should be defined in terms of relationships, not transactions.
  
  

American Christians have an additional valuable resource in outreach to Muslims. Looking at overseas outreach to Muslims, the 1978 Lausanne report says, "The major untapped force for evangelism among Muslims is the Christian community scattered throughout the Muslim world." Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, Sudan—all have such churches, some of them growing faster than the surrounding Muslim population. Given appropriate support, these national churches are well positioned to aid in outreach.

Evangelicals in Muslim-controlled Malaysia provide an encouraging example of Christian-Muslim interaction. Last year, for instance, Malaysian President Mahathir Mohammed delivered a keynote address to an international meeting of evangelicals. "Our experience in Malaysia is that we have to be tolerant with each other," he said in later remarks about religious harmony. "Otherwise we are going to fight each other and we are not going to get anything out of it."

Under this umbrella of mutual tolerance, Christians have planted new churches as well as expanded their outreach. It takes Christians working on both sides of a closed door to get it open.

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A 1996 article in International Journal of Frontier Missions, "The Apostle to Islam: The Legacy of Samuel Zwemer" (PDF), gives great background of Zwemer and his work.

Answering Islam has a page of essays and articles on "The Christian Witness to the Muslim."

Other Christian sites discussing Muslim beliefs about Jesus and Christianity are available at The Muslim-Christian Debate, Campus Crusade for Christ, and FarsiNet.

Muslim perspectives on Jesus and Christianity are also ubiquitous online. They include Al-Sunnah, Harakah, Islam 101, Answering Christianity, and WhatIsIslam.com

Christianity Today covered the apparent entrapment of Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer in "Entrapment Suspected: Shelter Now leader believes workers were pawns in Taliban scheme."

In 2000, Christianity Today focused on Muslim-Christian relations in a series by Wendy Murray Zoba. Articles included:

Islam, U.S.A.Are Christians prepared for Muslims in the mainstream?

Islamic FundamentalsChristians have a responsibility to understand our Muslim neighbors and their beliefs.

How Muslims See ChristianityMany Muslims don't understand Christianity—especially the idea of salvation by grace through faith.

Engaging Our Muslim NeighborsThe Church faces a challenge not just to understand Muslims, but to befriend them.

Recent Christianity Today articles on Islam include:

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February 4 2002, Vol. 46, No. 2