It’s safe to say that Brother Andrew is not a man who is afraid of a challenge. After all, 79-year-old men generally don’t spend their time flying to Afghanistan to meet the Taliban, nor to Gaza to meet the leadership of Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
After his exploits smuggling Bibles into Communist countries in the back of his VW Beetle became widely known — his book God’s Smuggler has sold more than ten million copies in over 40 languages — he has focused his considerable energies on the Muslim world. Since 1968 he has travelled Islamic countries preaching the love of Christ. This has even led him to meet with terrorists: various groups in Gaza and the West Bank, warlords in Lebanon, and, most recently, the Taliban. Clearly, this is not a man who is afraid of the dark.
Not many Christians have this radical a desire to meet terrorists; indeed, not many of us seem particularly keen on meeting ordinary Muslims at all. Too many Christians, when faced with the challenge of increasingly confident and vocal Muslim communities in the West, are retreating into fear and insularity, and it is this response that Andrew is so keen to challenge.
