To cris

Submitted by Farid (Germany), Feb 19, 2006 at 17:41

Hello cris,

may I try answering this one? First of all, muslim land as you call it is far from being monolithic.

Second, I see no reason why people shouldn't preach the Holy Gospel in muslim countries.

Third, and that's the most important point: we've had rather bad experiences during the colonization period in the last century with *some* (but definitely not all!) christian foreign missionaries who are being said to have worked for or cooperated with the colonizing powers (kind of "prepared the ground for the occupiers"). I don't know wether that is true or not, and I do know of a few missionaries who built schools and bridges and many other very good things, which are highly respected and thanked for. But what I'm personally thinking is -- of course -- irrelevant.

There's still a prevalent feeling in may muslim countries (including very moderate and pro-western countries) that christian missionaries are somewhat suspect. This prevalent feeling, unjustified in my opinion, is the main driving force behind laws in nearly all muslim countries prohibiting preaching of the Holy Gospel. BTW, this has nothing to do with freedom of faith for Christians in the most open muslim societies (I wished there were more that just a few). It's a kind of political problem, a burden carried over from the colonial times of the last century. I hope we'll all get this behind us soon; but depending on the specific muslim country, we need more or less patience.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".