SHARING OUR FAITH

[C] WHY ARE WE DOING SO POORLY?

1. Lack of results: These are due to a number of reasons:

   1. not enough workers, thus not enough time and energy spent on tackling Islam.
   2. a general growing confidence of Islam worldwide, particularly since the overthrow of the Shah in Iran in 1979.
   3. the perception that Muslims care for each other, particularly within the family, and have little problem with racism (Nation of Islam carries the 'high moral ground').
   4. the attraction for Islam's moral discipline.
   5. the simple logic of its theology helps to disseminate it easier.
   6. the weakness of recognized (Anglican) Christianity in Britain.
   7. the lack of relationships between Muslims and Christians.
   8. the theological confusion by Christians that evangelism is the domain of the clergy alone (for example: of the 6 groups referred to us for information, only one is actively working full-time with Muslims in the UK).
2. Persecution of Apostates: Those who fall away from Islam (apostasy) or wish to convert to Christianity. -usually persecution lasts 1-3 years.(Refer to paper: Free to Choose by Patrick Sookdeo)
3. Blasphemy Laws:

   • The push to have the government broaden the Blasphemy laws to also include Islam.
   • Muslims want the blasphemy laws to be widened to include material offensive to Islam, thus no criticism will be permitted of Islam, Muhammad, or the Qur'an on TV, in the schools, or in public. Example: Salman Rushdie and Satanic Verses, Taslima Nasreen in Bangla-Desh.
   • Muslims want law on ethnic discrimination to be enlarged to religious discrimination.
4. Mistrust of Christianity:
   (Making it difficult to create relationships)
   A strong distrust by Muslims of anything which is 'Christian'.
   Belief that Christians pervert historical data as they did their scriptures, with a bias against Islam. There is the perception that the west, and thus Christianity, has an agenda to eradicate the Muslim countries in the world. Thus new events are interpreted by this perception.

   • Gulf War is perceived as a Muslim/Christian conflict (with theological contradictions).
   • Bosnia Conflict is widely considered to be a Christian atrocity, with consequently little concern witnessed by the West. "Why did the west send troops so quickly to Kuwait and Somalia, and yet stand by and watch the rape and murder of hundreds of Muslims in Bosnia, prohibiting Muslim nations to send in arms for the defence of the Bosnians? This sparks clearly of a double-standard."
   • hechnia conflict is perceived as a Muslim/Christian conflict as well.
   • Kosovo conflict follows the same patterns as Bosnia and Chechnia
   • Sudan and Afghanistan bombings are perceived as a 'double-standard'. Which is truly the terrorist state, and were the bombings used as a diversion from Clinton's personal troubles? Why does the Western Press not critique the evidence of the U.S. state department?
5. Mistrust of Western Education:
   (due to a bias against Islam = conspiracy)
   Muslims have not been able to adapt to a multi-cultural environment, because historically Islam has always dominated others. Thus Muslims distrust western education, as they feel it is responsible for taking their children away. They demand an alternative educational system.

   • They demand that Muslim schoolgirls wear more conservative clothing, that Halal meat be available at school meals, that Muslim holidays be celebrated, that Muslim boys and girls be separated during instruction, that they not be forced to learn swimming, and that Muslim children be absent from school assemblies.
   • They demand specific Islamic instruction for their children, by an Imam (Muslim religious leader), and contend that "the acquisition of modern knowledge be limited to the practical technological sphere, since at the level of pure thought Muslims do not need Western intellectual products, as these may create doubts and disruptions in the Muslim mind, for which there are already answers to ultimate questions of world view."