Many Western Christians see Islam as a threat, but should we not rather consider that the presence of millions of Muslims in Europe is an opportunity for mission work?
Nothing can catch God off guard (Matt.10:29; Isa. 46:9-11). Do you believe this? The Triune God never holds an urgent general assembly or an emergency committee meeting to deal with a situation He did not foresee. He knows what He is doing.
God sends us these people who do not know Christ as Saviour. Wouldn’t this be a divine strategy? While so many Muslim countries close their borders to missionaries, millions of Muslims live very close to us. While a missionary has to spend a lot of time learning a foreign language in order to be able to communicate, most Muslims in our country are learning to speak our language.
While I was giving a seminar for Christians, a man in the audience suddenly interrupted me. Quoting statistics, he said that in so many years’ time there would be more Muslims in Europe than anywhere else in the world, and that each Muslim woman would have an average of five children. ‘That’s great,’ I replied. ‘If you win one of those Muslims to Christ, he can tell his brothers and sisters about it.’
These figures only confirm the huge potential. The opportunities to share our faith in Jesus with Muslims are multiplying.
Leave aside their religious identity
How can we move away from the fear of Muslims and Islam to the love for our neighbour which the Bible tells us about? A good start would be to disregard their religious identity and treat them as we would ourselves.
Many years ago, on my return to England, I found myself in a London airport. As I did not yet have a European passport, I had to fill in a special form and then go through a security checkpoint. One of the questions on the form was about my profession and I had written that I was an assistant pastor. The woman sitting at the counter read the form, looked at me (an Arab) and then asked:
‘Sir, are you a pastor?’
‘Yes,’ I replied.
She looked at the form again and asked me hesitantly: ‘And what is the name of the mosque where you work?’
Aren’t we all a little bit like that British policewoman? Do we not judge people too quickly? Are we not often prejudiced against our Muslim friends?
Disregard their religious identity. See them as Jesus does. Know that Muslims are like us, human beings created in the image of God. This reminder is necessary. We are too inclined to see Muslims as enemies to be defeated rather than people to be saved.
Love triumphs!
Often, when new converts are asked what first attracted them to Christ, they respond that God used the love of Christians as a reflection of the person of Christ. The Christian love and respect shown towards me was certainly what attracted me to the Christian faith in the first place.
A Somali refugee had received aid from a group of Christians and he couldn’t help but say: ‘Christians respect us and take good care of us. I don’t know much about their religion, but I am curious and I will certainly read their Holy Book.’
There is another reason why love is so important. It keeps us from becoming discouraged when a Muslim rejects Christ. Without love, it is so easy to stop praying for them, to not want to see them again. Frankly speaking, there have been many times that I have had that experience of simply not wanting to see someone again. This attitude is not normal. We need Christian love to combat our prejudices and rekindle our passion for lost souls who do not have Christ.
When we learn to love our Muslim friends with deep compassion and sincerity, that’s when we really begin to communicate with them.
