They have set out to bring the rest of the world to submit to Allah and his prophet.
The iranian crisis has raised a pair of questions, one dealing with the nature of Islam, the other with missions to Muslims.
What did the Ayatollah Khomeini mean when he said that the controversy was not between Iran and America, but between Islam and paganism? The statement has puzzled some American Christians. Why the religious twist?
Islam is understood best when compared to the biblical models from the time of Joshua. Zeal for God, military operation against idolaters, and political expression of the kingdom of God were normative. Muhammad, prophet of Islam, was born in the swirl of political-military movements that swept the Arabian peninsula. In the year of his birth, A.D. 570, Christian Abyssinians in collusion with the Christian governor of Yemen attacked pagan Mecca from the south. In the north, throughout the early decades of Muhammad’s life, Byzantine Christians waged incessant war against Persia. Arab tribes were used as mercenaries. This sensitive religious man learned even from Christians to seek military solutions.
As a result of his fierce preaching against Mecca’s idolatry and wealthy rulers, Muhammad’s life was threatened. In A.D. 622 he emigrated to Medina with a sword in his hand. Islamic history begins with this event. The character of the Islamic world view was shaped by what followed. Muhammad had been invited to Medina to become both the religious and political leader of the community of God-fearers. Military action against pagans began at once. The goals were the subjugation of Mecca, then all Arabia, then the world.
In trying to appreciate the world view and action of Muslims, we must acknowledge that they root both theology and practice in their understanding of God. Their creed is comprised of belief in God, in the messengers of God, in the holy books, in angels, in the coming day of judgment, and in the decrees of God. From this strong theological base they derive their religious duties: to confess faith in God frequently; to remember the poor; to say their prayers five times daily; to keep one month’s fast; to make a pilgrimage to Mecca once in their lifetime; and, according to many Islamic scholars, to practice jihad. It is this last point that allows Islam to seek military solutions in the name of God.
The word jihad is Arabic for “exertion.” It is used in the sense of exerting in behalf of God’s cause.
In his book, Islamic Way of Life, the late Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi of Pakistan sets this forth as one of the pillars of Islam: “Last is jihad, that is, exerting oneself to the utmost to disseminate the Word of God and to make it supreme, and remove all the impediments in the way of Islam, be that through the tongue, or the pen, or the sword.”
To their credit, Muslims have demonstrated a nonmilitary missionary zeal in preaching Islam that has done at least as much to propagate their faith as other means. Most of us are unaware that many nations have embraced Islam peaceably. Pagan Mongols were converted to Islam after their conquest of Central Asia. It was the Muslim singing Sufis who spread Islam through large parts of India and China. Muslim merchants carried their faith to the islands of Indonesia and the Philippines long before Christian missionaries arrived. In our era, Islam has spread peacefully southward in many sub-Saharan African countries. Today, heavily financed by Saudi Arabia, a great center for the propagation of Islam has been set up in Monrovia, the capital of the West African country of Liberia.
The turning of a people to Islam first begins when the Muslim merchants come. Then mosques go up. Finally, schools are established in the mosques. Muslim immigrants frequently intermarry with the local population on the condition that they convert to Islam.
Islam has been quick to take advantage of literature as well as of electronic media. The non-Muslim world is being flooded with books, pamphlets, cassettes, and radio programs teaching and preaching Islam. Saudi Arabia is financing a great communication satellite over the Middle East to further Islam. Islamic publication houses are now flourishing in many Western countries.
In addition to the above means of propagating their faith, Muslims are permitted to use economic inducements to win adherents. At its inception, a system of additional taxation on non-Muslim subjects was introduced, and this undoubtedly contributed to their conversion to Islam. Non-Muslims in Muslim-controlled countries have been denied rights to certain political offices, and Muslims converting to any other faith are stripped of all inheritance rights and can be put to death.
Also under the application of jihad, Muslims may take to the sword to further the cause of Islam. Authorization for this comes from their holy book, the Quran (Koran).
Tell the unbelievers that if they mend their ways their past shall be forgiven; but if they persist in sin, let them reflect upon the fate of their forefathers.…
Make war on them until idolatry is no more and Allah’s religion reigns supreme. If they desist, Allah is cognizant of all their actions; but if they give heed, know then that Allah will protect you. He is the noblest Helper and Protector (Quran 8:38, 39; Dawood Translation).
Islam perceives reality by dividing all the world’s people into two camps: the “house of those who have submitted” (Dar ul-Islam), and the “house of those who are resisting” (Dar ul-harb). Muslims feel compelled to preach and to exert in behalf of God. This exerting can take the form of moral persuasion, preaching for conversion, or military conquest. The militaristic nature of Islam has been apparent from its beginnings in A.D. 622. Within the first century the “armies of Allah” had exploded out of the deserts of Arabia and had begun to spread to the east, north, and west. The “sword of Allah” moved swiftly into Syria, Palestine, and Egypt; into Iraq and Persia; into the Indian subcontinent. Farther to the west Islam moved relentlessly across North Africa, then up into Spain and across to the coast of Italy. Farther east, it moved into Central Asia and deeper into India.
Through its long and amazing history, Islam has borne witness to its inherent urge for empire.
Our era has not been devoid of examples of violence at the hands of Muslims. Around the turn of the century, Turkish Muslims began their pogroms against Christian minorities living among them. Before it was all over, five million Armenians and one million Greeks had been massacred. Harassment of their minorities has continued down to the present.
Other illustrations of Islamic militancy are the overthrow of the Christian government of Chad by Muslim insurgents; the attempt by Idi Amin to Islamize Uganda, killing perhaps a half million people in the process; the protracted war for autonomy on the part of Muslims in the Philippines; and most recently, the Iranian declaration that Islam is in a holy war against pagans.
Many of us in the West, Christians and others, have been shocked by these developments. We should not have been. The truth is that we have not done our homework. It is this neglect that has led us to misjudge and underestimate Islam.
As recently as 1976, the well-financed Festival of Islam in Britain signaled a new Islamic perception of destiny. The most significant statement to emerge from the event was, “Unless we win London over to Islam, we will fail to win the whole of the Western world.” The Festival of Islam was a declaration by the Muslims that they believe a major turn in history is taking place.
Recommended Bibliography:
1. Rahman, Fazlur. Islam. New York: Anchor Books, 1968. A lucid introduction to the dynamics of Islam’s faith, history, ideologies, and present movements, written by a key spokesman of Islam to the West.
2. McCurry, Don. The Gospel and Islam. Monrovia: MARC Publications, 1979. A compendium of 40 papers exploring new concepts and strategies in the cross-cultural communication of the gospel to Muslims today. Outlines comparative status of Christianity and Islam worldwide.
3. Vander Werff, Lyle. Christian Mission to Muslims. Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1977. A scholarly probing into the Christian witness to Islam in India and the Near East from 1800–1938 with particular emphasis on the methodology of great Christian missionaries during that period.
4. Arberry, A.J. The Koran Interpreted. Macmillan Publishing Co., 1964. Perhaps the most understandable and enjoyable translation of the Quran for English readers. Arberry reproduces the poetic style and form of the Quran while maintaining its essential meaning.
5. Watt, W. Montgomery. Muhammed, Prophet and Statesman. New York: Oxford University Press, 1961. An excellent introduction to the background and influences upon Muhammad, especially the Judeo—Christian roots of Islam, as well as the development of his faith and the ultimate impact of his life.
The Muslim nations of the world are headed toward some form of purposeful Islamic community. The Arab League was founded in Alexandria in 1945. The International Assembly of Muslim Youth was founded in 1955. In 1969 the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministries was inaugurated in Jeddah.
In Karachi the following year, a Charter of the Islamic Conference was produced, setting in motion the framework for Muslim summit meetings led by heads of states, a permanent Conference of Foreign Ministers, and the Secretariat in Jeddah. In 1972, an International Islamic News Agency was set up. An Islamic Development Bank was established in Karachi in March of 1973 with an initial deposit of one billion dollars.
In 1974, at the meeting of the Muslim World League, steps were taken to coordinate Islamic activities all over the world. At this same meeting, all Muslim governments were urged to adopt the Quran and the model of Muhammad as their foundational documents and impose Islamic Law. The setting up of Islamic Health, Education, and Welfare Institutes was also stressed. Existing Islamic preaching societies were also to be strengthened and new ones founded. And of special note to Christians, Christian missionary activities were to be curtailed in every Muslim country and all of their institutional work was to be taken over and Islamized.
Positive steps have been taken to implement many of these “reforms.” Bangladesh has become an Islamic republic. Islamic Law has been inaugurated in Iran and Pakistan. There is an Islamic resurgence in Turkey. Orthodox teachers are now spreading through Indonesia, attempting to purge syncretistic Islam from its impurities. In several Muslim countries, Christian schools have been nationalized and visas for Christian missionaries are being refused more often. In one case, a century-old mission was expelled from Algeria.
The scene in North America is also full of surprises. The Muslim population here is estimated at about one million Muslim immigrants and an undetermined number of Black Muslims estimated anywhere from 100,000 to 1 million. Abandoned churches in the ghettos are being bought up and converted to mosques. Saudi Arabia has contributed significantly to the orthodoxy of new adherents by subsidizing pilgrimages to Mecca, and by recently donating $50 million to establish community development projects among Black Muslims. Muslim students from abroad also constitute a significant presence.
The recent accumulation of enormous economic power through a near monopoly on oil now provides Islam with unprecedented opportunity to press these advantages into the services of Islamic expansion through preaching, economic inducements, and military adventures—expressions of the duty of Muslims to propagate their faith whether by “tongue, pen, or sword.”
How then is the Christian church to respond to this revitalized Islam? Here are some ideas needing major emphasis.
First, we must separate the Christian message from Western civilization. Islam has now had a century or more to look at and interact with modern forms of Western secularism. Current Islamic renaissance is Islam’s answer and it has no room for accommodating Western agnosticism, materialism, or amorality.
For too long, Western missionaries have unwittingly imposed their own cultural heritage on those they were sent to disciple. Where a people were predisposed to accept Western cultural patterns, things went well. But in the case of Islam, there is a long-standing inherent anti-Western bias. Only recently have we discovered that the so-called Muslim resistance to the gospel is often nothing more than resistance to the culture of the evangelist. When the gospel is presented in a relatively impersonal form through Bible correspondence courses or radio programs, the level of responsiveness is most heartening. And in those rare cases where national or expatriate evangelists have been able to adopt culturally congenial forms, the work has grown.
This illustrates the second major concern facing Christian missions to Muslims. New approaches must be developed that are far more appreciative of Islamic cultures. Christian workers respect their own cultures; they should likewise respect the culture of the Muslim people among whom they have been led to work. As they fit into their new context, of course, they must heed scriptural principles and resist syncretism (the embracing of values or practices incompatible with the ones that Christ approves). Guidelines for these approaches emerge as the evangelists work through the problem of how Christ seeks to relate to Islamic cultures. Because so little has been done in this area we are only at the threshold of a new era in missions to Muslims.
The Iranian crisis and renascent Islam have done the cause of Christian mission a great service. The violent reaction to Western secularism has driven a wedge between the gospel message and Western culture. It has also helped us see that the gospel message can be freed from its Western cultural forms. Iranians have been coming to Christ in Teheran during the very period of confrontation between student militants and the United States—and this has happened through converted Muslims.
The momentum of the spread of the gospel has been increasing proportionately with the Islamic revival. In the very countries where Islamic law is being imposed the number of Muslims turning to Christ is increasing dramatically. And veteran workers are reporting a higher receptivity than ever before.
Two dramas are going on right before our eyes. The first is an almost worldwide revival of Islam. In country after country orthodox Muslims are awakening, flexing their muscles, and becoming more militant. The number of Muslim countries reaching out to one another is growing. Plans evidencing some kind of Muslim design on the world are emerging. How we interpret this is of critical importance. If as Western Christians we are drawn into the age-old rivalry game between Islam and the West, we will be doing irreparable harm to the cause of Christian missions. But if we see the renascence of Islam as a rejection of Western secularism with its atheism, materialism, and amorality, then we can build on that Muslim longing for something more God-centered and moral. Renascent Islam is, in part, a cry for the kingdom of God. Alert and sensitive Christians are picking up on this and finding unprecedented receptivity among Muslims to the gospel.
And that heightens the second drama—the Christian one. The gospel is advancing as never before in many parts of the Muslim world. We must not be stampeded by the Islamic revival and evidences of its aggressive missionary activity into the blind reaction that feeds ancient cultural prejudices.
We now have the insights and tools for significant penetration of Islam. The recent North American Conference for Muslim Evangelization suggested new approaches in Muslim evangelism that are proving helpful.
We need the vision of a harvest among Muslims, and the nerve to obey Christ in evangelizing and discipling them. God is asking us to lay aside our long-standing prejudices and our centuries’ old neglect, and make disciples of these hurting friends for whom Christ died. It is time to claim promises long lying dormant concerning the sons of Ishmael.
Carl F. H. Henry, first editor of Christianity Today, is lecturer at large for World Vision International. An author of many books, he lives in Arlington, Virginia.
