Reaching Muslims for Christ II

Twenty-six-year-old Fatima, though a single woman, had led scores of Muslim women to the Lord in a hot and dusty border city in Central Asia. This was territory controlled by the Taliban. Fatima was highly educated, articulate in four languages, and employed by the United Nations. She lived under multiple death threats as she was both a believer in Jesus and fought for the rights of Muslim women who had been sexually abused by the Taliban in their refugee camps.

Against the advice of her spiritual mentors, she allowed herself to be extracted by the U.N. because of religious and cultural persecution. She was relocated to a large mid-western city in the United States. She was helped to find a job through two large Christian agencies where she helped resettle women and their families from her country who were also refugees. As in her country, she did this with professionalism, and she consistently shared her faith with those she was serving. Soon the leadership of the two Christian agencies required her to attend a high-level meeting. There she was informed by her Christian supervisors that she was not allowed to share her faith in the America with her own people because, as they said, "Faith in America is a private matter." She graciously refused to be silenced in the United States anymore than she had been in her Taliban-infested home environment.

As the pressure increased on her to curb her witness, both by Islamic leaders and her Christian colleagues, a meeting was arranged by her employers with leaders in the Islamic community in order to find common ground in addressing Fatima's embarrassing insistence on witnessing. A wise, well-known, and educated Imam was flown in for the meeting to represent Islamic concerns. His poise, polish, and articulate speech impressed the Christian religious leaders. Graciously, but firmly, he insisted that this believer from Islamic background keep her faith out of the public arena, using arguments based upon sensible religious practices and the religious pluralism of America. After the meeting was adjourned, the Imam lingered to have a final word with Fatima. In passing he whispered to her, "This meeting was for show, for public relations. If you insist on continuing to convert Muslims to become Christians, we will get you. Forget the laws of this country, we will get you. And we know where your family lives back in Central Asia."

Smiling to the waiting Christian leaders, he exited the room. Immediately, Fatima recounted this conversation to her supervisors. They were incredulous that she thought that this distinguished Islamic scholar would say something as uncivilized as this. "After all," they said, "this is America. Such things do not happen here."

Fatima lamented, "This is supposed to be a free country. It is harder sharing my faith here than it was in my home country! There I was only persecuted by Islam."