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Islam, founded by Muhammad in the seventh century, is the world's second great missionary faith, behind Christianity. The key belief is that Allah is the only God and that Muhammad is his prophet.

Reaching Muslims has always been one of the most difficult of missionary tasks. In 1900, there were just fewer than 200 million Muslims among the world's 1.6 billion people, or 12 percent. Today, after what had been optimistically labeled a "Christian century," there are 1.2 billion Muslims, or 19 percent, among a global population of 6.2 billion people. Missionary Nik Repkin (a pseudonym) estimates that an average of only one person per church-based evangelical agency working in the Horn of Africa is becoming a believer in Christ every year. Meanwhile, 80 percent of Muslim "seekers" there have returned to Islam.

Robert Sayer, U.S. director of Arab World Ministries (AWM), says two dedicated missionaries with the agency, Dave and Betty (pseudonyms), did not see a Mauritanian Muslim become a follower of Christ during their first seven years of ministry in one location in the 1980s. Sayer, who notes that such reports were once common, says an agency effort to start 25 churches or house groups across North Africa by a certain date did not come close.

"All that has changed," Sayer says. "No, we're not seeing Muslims in the heart of Islam coming to Christ in people-movement fashion, but God is indeed blessing missionary laborers."

Pat Cate of the Christar agency says in the journal Evangelical Missions Quarterly that one missionary couple he knows saw no converts among Muslims during their first 14 years of ministry in one location. But for the next nine years—until they were kicked out of the country—they saw hundreds of Muslims make decisions for Christ.

The North Africa field leader of AWM has seen positive trends across the region. He cites media outreach, increased exposure to North African believers, more prayer, and increased tolerance by governments toward local Christian expressions.

"In all of North Africa, with the exception of perhaps Libya, there has been a significant increase in receptivity to the gospel," the field leader says. "Fifteen years ago, most were saying that it takes about five years of work with a North African before a solid conversion takes place. These days, with increased exposure to Christian media. … this figure is significantly reduced, sometimes to weeks if not days."

Several agency and school leaders say interest in reaching Muslims has increased markedly among those planning to be missionaries. The number of students in Columbia International University's M.A. concentration on Muslims has "doubled or tripled" since September 11, according to Warren Larson, who heads the program.

"We've seen here on our own campus a real eagerness in student-led, even student-initiated, prayer meetings for Muslims," Larson says. "They're praying for Muslims. They're thinking about Muslim work. On September 11, the whole thing just came into focus."

Signs of progress have abounded, even before September 11. In North Africa, the numbers of Christians from Muslim backgrounds (in missions jargon, Muslim-background believers, or MBBs) have multiplied. In Morocco, the growth was from 300 people (and eight to ten groups) in 1979 to 900 people (20 to 25 groups) in 1999. In Tunisia, there were perhaps 30 MBBs and two or three groups in 1979. Twenty years later, there were 150 believers and five or six groups. Even Libya has grown from no known MBBs to as many as 10. AWM says the number of believers has doubled there in the last three years.

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September 9 2002, Vol. 46, No. 10