quietly in the Middle East say Muslims are coming to Christ at an unprecedented
pace despite intense persecution of those who leave Islam.
“Probably in the last
10 years, more Muslims have come to faith in Christ than in the last 15
centuries of Islam,” said Tom Doyle, Middle East-Central Asia director for e3
Partners, a Texas-based missions agency.
A former pastor, Doyle
has been to the Middle East around 80 times and last week returned to the U.S.
from a trip to Jerusalem, where he said both Muslims and Jews are turning to Christianity.
Earlier this month,
more than 200 former Muslims were baptized during a training conference in
Europe led by Iran-born evangelist Lazarus Yeghnazar. Brenda Ajamian, a former
missionary to the Middle East who partners with Yeghnazar’s 222 Ministries
International, said the event was unlike anything she’d seen during her years
ministering in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan.
“That many Muslims who
converted to Christ in one place boggled my mind because missionaries have
worked in the Arab world and Muslim world generally for years and without much
fruit,” Ajamian said. “God is at work among Muslims.”Â
Ajamian said she was told at the conference that drug addiction and depression run rampant in many nations, particularly in Iran, where the cleric-led government has attempted to squash pro-democracy movements. “People are so fed up with the kinds of lives they lead.
… They’re turning to Christ even in spite of the very real possibility of
persecution and death and imprisonment,” she said.
Desperation is also a
big factor in bringing many Jews to Christ, Doyle said. “In the last 20 years
more Jews [also] have become followers of Jesus than in the last 2,000 years of
Christianity,” he said.
Radio, television and Internet-based Christian programming have been key in evangelizing Muslim nations. Yeghnazar claims more than 3,000 Iranians are converted each month through his Farsi-language television and Internet broadcasts.
And Doyle said Father Zakaria Botross, a born-again Coptic priest, reaches about 60 million people through his television programs broadcast across the Middle East. “The apostle Paul to the Muslims is no question Father Zakaria,” Doyle said.
But many Muslim-background believers have
said they came to Christ after having dreams and visions of Jesus.
“I can’t tell you how
many Muslims I’ve met who say: ‘I was content. I was a Muslim, and all of a
sudden I get this dream about Jesus and He loved me and said come follow Me,”
Doyle said.
Doyle notes that the
supernatural is an important part of the Islamic faith. Through the course of
his life, Mohammed claimed to have had visions and encounters, particularly of
the angel Gabriel.
“God is going into their context,” said Doyle. But instead
of finding guidance from Allah, Muslims are finding Jesus.
Haytham Abi Haydar,
pastor of the Arabic Fellowship Alliance Church in Dearborn, Mich., a heavily
Islamic Detroit suburb, said dreams and the supernatural are important to
Muslims. “They’re so powerful and real. They do consider that as a channel to
speak to God and see something important,” said Abi Haydar, who’s also heard of
Jesus coming to Muslims in dreams.Â
Ajamian said churches
of Muslim-background believers are growing “like wildfire” both in the Middle
East and in Europe, which has seen a boom in immigration from Muslim nations.
“The Muslims that are
saved … it’s like they can’t tell the story fast enough,” Ajamian said.
Doyle said though the
harvest is ripe in Middle Eastern nations, the spiritual warfare also has
ramped up. “People feel it. It just feels more intense,” he said.
The stress, he said, is
particularly high right now during Ramadan, the time Muslims fast and pray in
commemoration of the time they believe Mohammed divinely received the first
verses of the Quran. He said people are getting sick and even having
nightmares.
“When Ramadan comes,
you really sense the war in the heavenlies,” he said.
Christians in many
Muslim nations can be imprisoned or killed for converting from Islam. But
Ajamian said the persecution is a sign that God is answering prayers for the
Muslim world. “There’s a move of God,” she said.
“…The devil doesn’t like it, but there is a huge move.”
Cheri Fuller and Cindy Lamb Curry 
Marilyn Hickey 
Charisma Staff