Evangelism has become a Dirty Word, even for Christians

We are so used to being told that we Christians shove our religion down others’ throats that it might be worthwhile to hear from some other voices. I first became acquainted with Ayaan Hirsi Ali – ex-Muslim, ex-Dutch Parliamentarian, and atheist - in an atheist book club. They expressed great esteem for her and her book Nomad, except for what she said about Christianity:

• The Christianity of love and tolerance remains one of the West’s most powerful antidotes to the Islam of hate and intolerance. Ex-Muslims find Jesus Christ to be a more attractive and humane figure than Muhammad, the founder of Islam.

•  I have a theory that most Muslims are in search of a redemptive God. They believe that there is a higher power and that this higher power is the provider of morality, giving them a compass to help them distinguish between good and bad.  Many Muslims are seeking a God or a concept of God that in my view meets the description of the Christian God.  Instead they find Allah. They find Allah mainly because many are born in Muslim families where Allah has been the reigning deity for generations… (p. 239)

•  The Christian leaders now wasting their time and resources on a futile exercise of interfaith dialogue with the self-appointed leaders of Islam should redirect their efforts to converting as many Muslims as possible to Christianity, introducing them to a God who rejects Holy War and who has sent his son to die for all sinners out of a love for mankind… The Vatican and all the established Protestant churches of northern Europe believed naively that interfaith dialogue would magically bring Islam into the fold of Western civilization. It has not happened, and it will not happen…. To help ground these people in Western society, the West needs the Christian churches to get active again in propagating their faith. It needs Christian schools, Christian volunteers, the Christian message… The churches should do all in their power to win this battle for the souls of humans in search of a compassionate God, who now find that a fierce Allah is closer to hand. (pp. 247, 249, 250, 251)

Interfaith dialogue is worse than a “futile exercise.” It is an invitation to be deceived by Imams who have every Koranic justification to deceive (Taqiyya) the infidel for the sake of Islam, even to the point of feigning friendship. It is noteworthy that we will not find true interfaith dialogue in the Muslim world where the Muslim has already obtained their goal - the subjugation the non-Muslim under Islamic Law.

Instead, Ali calls the Christian to do something that many pastors and priests aren’t calling us to do – to evangelize the Muslim. And Ali does not even believe in God, let alone Jesus!