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| Africa North |
| Religious Affairs Minister calls on Algerian facing up Christianization campaigns |
| 2008-03-25 |
| The Minister of Religious Affairs, Mr. Ghlamallah Bouabdellah, has called on the Algerian people to stand up against the Christianization campaigns targeting some regions across Algeria, “we are all accountable, but not only the public authorities,” the Minister was quoted saying. “Muslims do not accept seeing their holy symbols to be attacked,” said the Minister in a news conference, on the wake of the works of the 9th Quran Meeting which extended along one week, calling the Algerian people to face up to the campaigns aiming at undermining the Muslims’ holy symbols, inciting to defend the identity and the unity of the nation, “I am quite sure all Algerians agree with me,” he added. In this regard, Mr. Ghlamallah indicated he applied for the Ministry of Home Affairs, to provide him the list of the registered Christian associations, while ordering to convene its chairmen to regularize their situation with the concerned services, adding that the associations’ law is clear, as they are obliged to renew their bodies, their agency, their status law, and their rules of procedure. About whether the associations shall abide by a deadline religious affairs minister said it is of the prerogatives of the interior ministry. He said the number of the churches is 8 Anglican, protestant and catholic ones. They are to abide by law or their activity is to be banned. Moreover, 96 Imams, or martyrs as the minister described them, have been killed by terrorists, while announcing that the Ministry is elaborating a biography for each of the killed Imams, to be edited in an illustrated encyclopaedia, with the view of keep their martyrdom in memory. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 We still face three problems: 1) In a society based on fear, the opponents could become majority without even knowing it. We could even imagine a society where everyone has rejected Islam|communism|whatever but is afraid of his neighbor while ignoring that neighbor has rejected it and is afraid of telling it. And that is how a mob made entirely of people who have rejected the faith hangs someone who converted and got caught. 2) Even when outnumbered Muslims still have an edge by the fact that they more readily use violence. New Christain converts tend to shun violence much more than old ones. Unfortunately I fear that Mulims will not let them go peacefully out of Islam so Christains will have to strike back or be wiped out. 3) A consequence of easy and fast transportations is that Muslims from a country where Islam is crumbling will be able to get reinforcements from outside. Christians could theorically too but unfortunately the Crusading spirit (travelling to foreign lands to defend Christians under attack) is nearly non existent. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-03-25 11:45 |
| #2 In Africa Alone Everyday, 16,000 Muslims Leave Islam The Internet site aljazeera.net published an interview with Ahmad Al Qataani, an important Islamic cleric who said: “In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Ever year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity." The results of a recent survey of converts from Islam. First, we can look at the experiences that most influenced Muslims. For example, respondents ranked the lifestyle of Christians as the most important influence in their decision to follow Christ. A North African former Sufi mystic noted with approval that there was no gap between the moral profession and the practice of Christians he saw. An Egyptian contrasted the love of a Christian group at an American university with the unloving treatment of Muslim students and faculty he encountered at a university in Medina. An Omani woman explained that Christians treat women as equals. Others noted loving Christian marriages. Some poor people said the expatriate Christian workers they knew had adopted, contrary to their expectations, a simple lifestyle, ... The next most important influence was the power of God in answered prayers and healing. Like most of the factors that former Muslims list, experiences of God's supernatural intervention often increase after Muslims decide to follow Christ. ... It helps to note that a third of the 750-person sample were folk Muslims, with a characteristic concern for power and blessings. It is also worth noting that the Jesus portrayed in the Qur'an is a prophet who heals lepers and the blind and raises the dead. Not surprisingly, many Muslims find him attractive. Of course, power and blessings do not constitute the final word for Muslims. The Bible also offers a theology of suffering, and many Muslims who follow Christ find that their faith is strengthened through trials. The third biggest influence listed by respondents was dissatisfaction with the type of Islam they had experienced. They expressed unhappiness with the Qur'an, which they perceive as emphasizing God's punishment more than his love (although the Qur'an says he loves those who love him [3:31]). As for Islam's requirement that liturgical prayer should be in Arabic, a Javanese man asked, "Doesn't an all-knowing God know Indonesian?" Others criticized folk Islam's use of amulets and praying at the graves of dead saints. Some respondents decried Islamic militancy and the imposition of Islamic law, which they said is not able to transform hearts and society. This disillusionment is broad in the Muslim world. Many Iranians became interested in the gospel after the Khomeini revolution of 1979 brought in rule by clergy. Pakistanis became more receptive after President Zia ul-Haq (1977-1988) tried to implement Islamic law. And Afghans became more open after Islamist Taliban conquest and rule (1994-2001). |
| Posted by: ed 2008-03-25 11:25 |
| #1 I suspect that they are starting to notice a lot of defections of Muslims to Christianity. It is happening everywhere in the world it can, and Muslim controlled governments are having fires lit under them by nervous Muslim clergy. Further South in Africa it is a flood. Some of the (conservative) Anglican dioceses have almost doubled in size with Muslim converts, and cannot build churches fast enough. Ironically, much of their growth is funded by US Episcopal congregations leaving the Episcopal branch of Anglicanism (holding their noses) and becoming African missionary churches. They are conservative and wealthy, and pump money into their African dioceses and archdioceses. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-03-25 10:09 |