A promising trend among evangelical churches today is their interest in Islam. And for good reason too: the religion grows rapidly here, and not just from immigrant influence, but from "home-grown" as well.
In the city of Philadelphia, where CHAIM Ministry to the Jews www.chaim.org does most of its missions work, we meet Muslims all the time. When we "aim" for the Jews, it seems we reach Muslim as well. Philadelphia has one of the highest number of African-American converts to Islam of all cities in the US. 80% of these, however, were raised in the Church. 2/3 of Philadelphia Muslims are now African-American, and there are over 15,000 Muslims (foreign-born and domestic) in the city's public schools. So local churches would do well to take more than a passing interest in learning how to witness to them!
Philadelphia was the first US city to adopt the Muslim holiday of Eid (pronounced "eede"). When Islam first made a significant presence here, it was due to the Black Muslim movement started by F.D. Fard, who founded The Nation of Islam. This was actually a cult, or heresy of Islam because of its teachings that "God is a Black man", and that the Negro race is superior to the White. Fard's disciple was Elijah Mohammad, who taught that Fard was divine. Elijah also taught that the Black race must separate and subdue the White, and (FYI), Elijah Mohammad's disciple is Louis Farrakhan. More than an anti-Zionist, (Many Muslims are that.) Farrakhan is an outspoken anti-Semite, and is on public record as making many statements denigrating the Jews. What he's done is to adapt and alter Islam to fit his racism.
The filming of the movie "Malcolm X" (1992) with Denzel Washington produced a huge increase in Muslim conversions among Philadelphia's young blacks, as well as a return movement to traditional Islam among them. One reason: Malcolm X (the person) had a kind of "conversion" experience (not in the "Christian" sense) when he made his first pilgrimage to Mecca and saw that true Islam was egalitarian. Contrary to what he had advocated and taught for years, he saw that true Islam did not support the racism of The Nation of Islam. But when he returned to the US to share this revelation, he angered some of his co-religionists. This may have led to his assassination. The point is, more young blacks are finding their way into traditional Islam than ever before, and the churches must respond to this, for these are the very children and grand-children of their own congregations.
Unfortunately, the ignorance of the true nature of this faith, even in its traditional form is still so widespread and so tainted by state-sponsored "tolerance" values and "political correctness" that it's hard to get a bead on what the faith actually does teach: No, Islam doesn't advocate racism: Malcolm X got that right, but what it does teach is alarming enough in itself, and is aptly covered in two books: The Truth About Islam, by Anees Zaka & Diane Coleman (P & R Publishing); and Christology in Islam and the Biblical Antithesis by Anees Zaka (Church Without Walls Publ.) Both will help the reader not only to understand Islam's threat, but also to dialog meaningfully with Muslims in an evangelistic way.
In the city of Philadelphia, where CHAIM Ministry to the Jews www.chaim.org does most of its missions work, we meet Muslims all the time. When we "aim" for the Jews, it seems we reach Muslim as well. Philadelphia has one of the highest number of African-American converts to Islam of all cities in the US. 80% of these, however, were raised in the Church. 2/3 of Philadelphia Muslims are now African-American, and there are over 15,000 Muslims (foreign-born and domestic) in the city's public schools. So local churches would do well to take more than a passing interest in learning how to witness to them!
Philadelphia was the first US city to adopt the Muslim holiday of Eid (pronounced "eede"). When Islam first made a significant presence here, it was due to the Black Muslim movement started by F.D. Fard, who founded The Nation of Islam. This was actually a cult, or heresy of Islam because of its teachings that "God is a Black man", and that the Negro race is superior to the White. Fard's disciple was Elijah Mohammad, who taught that Fard was divine. Elijah also taught that the Black race must separate and subdue the White, and (FYI), Elijah Mohammad's disciple is Louis Farrakhan. More than an anti-Zionist, (Many Muslims are that.) Farrakhan is an outspoken anti-Semite, and is on public record as making many statements denigrating the Jews. What he's done is to adapt and alter Islam to fit his racism.
The filming of the movie "Malcolm X" (1992) with Denzel Washington produced a huge increase in Muslim conversions among Philadelphia's young blacks, as well as a return movement to traditional Islam among them. One reason: Malcolm X (the person) had a kind of "conversion" experience (not in the "Christian" sense) when he made his first pilgrimage to Mecca and saw that true Islam was egalitarian. Contrary to what he had advocated and taught for years, he saw that true Islam did not support the racism of The Nation of Islam. But when he returned to the US to share this revelation, he angered some of his co-religionists. This may have led to his assassination. The point is, more young blacks are finding their way into traditional Islam than ever before, and the churches must respond to this, for these are the very children and grand-children of their own congregations.
Unfortunately, the ignorance of the true nature of this faith, even in its traditional form is still so widespread and so tainted by state-sponsored "tolerance" values and "political correctness" that it's hard to get a bead on what the faith actually does teach: No, Islam doesn't advocate racism: Malcolm X got that right, but what it does teach is alarming enough in itself, and is aptly covered in two books: The Truth About Islam, by Anees Zaka & Diane Coleman (P & R Publishing); and Christology in Islam and the Biblical Antithesis by Anees Zaka (Church Without Walls Publ.) Both will help the reader not only to understand Islam's threat, but also to dialog meaningfully with Muslims in an evangelistic way.
