living islam _ Islamic tradition

http://www.mrc.org.uk/crusade.htm - expired link (before 2021)

"Never will the Jews or the Christians be satisfied with you unless you follow their form of religion. Say: The guidance of Allah Ta'ala, that is the only guidance, 'were you to follow their desires after the knowledge which had reached you. Then would you find neither protector nor helper against Allah Ta'ala." (Al-Quran 2:120)

Numerous Christian missionary organisations such as the Samuel Zwemer Institute, frontiers International, the Arab world team and operation Mobilization, spend millions of dollars each year in attempting to convert Muslims throughout the world to Christianity.

Despite all their concentrated efforts, Christian missionary organisations have never experienced any significant success in converting Muslims. The almost complete failure to attract Muslims is mainly the result of previous requirements which dictates that converts conform to the Western-imbued concept of Christianity that was entirely alien to any potential converts from Islam.

In the early 1970's the missionary groups began to develop an alternative strategy based on the concept of contextualization. This is primarily an attempt to indoctrinate non-Christians into Christianity while allowing converts to keep those aspects of their former culture and religion that do not clearly contradict Christian teachings. At its essence, it is the preaching of Christianity within the context of prevalent cultural and environmental factors. To make the transition from Islam to Christianity as simple and as painless as possible, Christian missionaries have begun to implement some of the following strategies,

(1) Missionaries are encouraged to conform to local Islamic dress norms.

(2) Western style ornate churches are being abandoned. Instead, places of worship in Muslim countries are being patterned after masajid, are called 'Masajid Issa' (Jesus Mosques).

(3) The Islamic form of prayers involving physical prostrations are allowed to continue. Biblical in the local language are said in place of Quranic Verses that are normally recited in Salat.

(4) Weekly congregational prayers are being moved from Sunday to Friday afternoons.

(5) Fasting in the month of Ramadan is encouraged by the Church.

(6) The two Islamic Eid days are celebrated and acknowledged by the Christians as special Christian holidays.

As well as this the missionaries are also purposefully misinterpreting the Holy Quran by persuading Muslims that the Holy Quran itself states Jesus (Alaihis-Salam) is the son of God.

Contexualization is a new weapon in the burgeoning arsenal of the Christian missionary movement, and one that we can only ignore at our own collective risk. As a community of believers who place our faith on the fundamental words of the Holy Quran "Read, Read in the Name of your Lord", we can no longer afford to tolerate the illiteracy and the lack of proper Islamic knowledge. Without the basic ability to read, many of our brothers and sisters may fall sway to the illusionary appeal of Christian missions.