English Intercede

From June 16-18, millions of Muslims from around the world will arrive in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for Islamic pilgrimage (Hajj). Adult Muslims must perform the Hajj at least once in their lifetime, if possible, to earn spiritual merit, wipe away past sins, and start afresh. During the Hajj, Muslims will rehearse for the Day of Judgment and perform the Islamic Festival of Sacrifice, known as Eid al-Adha, seeking closeness to Allah.

A recent trip to one of the Sahel countries opened my mind and heart to this part of the continent of Africa. While the Sahel has a thriving Christian community and a dynamic Church that is impacting the region, most Sahel countries still face major challenges. For example, of the twenty countries in the world with the Highest population growth, nineteen are in Africa and the majority of those are in the Sahel itself. Experts believe this astronomical population explosion will likely result in massive famine in the coming years in certain areas of the Sahel. Coupled with the threat of overpopulation leading to potential famine is the threat of radical Islam. Global analysts have labeled the Sahel as the “new Afghanistan.”

My parents decided to name me Safia, which means the pure and wise one. We were a typical Muslim household that thronged the streets of Hyderabad, India, in the early 1950s. My mother hired a religious teacher, an ustad, who came to our home twice a week to teach us Arabic so we could be proficient in our holy scriptures.

This article considers the news event that occurred earlier this year when the city of Minneapolis modified its local noise ordinance to allow the public Islamic “call to prayer” to be made at any time necessary. This article will examine this controversial ruling. Since 2023 is the 40th anniversary of the Intercede publication, the article will conclude with the call of the Holy Spirit for Christians to intercede for Muslims.

Muslims face unique challenges as they are being increasingly immersed in the trends of the twenty-first century through the social media and internet platforms flooding the world today. Islam is an inherently prescriptive faith, based on medieval sources, that affects every aspect of a Muslim’s daily life and practices. Islam stands at a crossroads where three main views are commonly held to define its place in the world today: Traditionalism, Islamism, and Modernism.

In 1982, leaders from Assemblies of God World Missions met to discuss the lack of focus and evangelism among the world’s 700 million Muslims. A task force was commissioned to develop a strategy for mobilizing and training workers among Muslim peoples. The result was a new entity aptly named the Center for Ministry to Muslims (CMM).

All cultures incorporate funeral rites as a societal structure to enable people to process the trauma caused by death. These rites provide an avenue for mourning and processing grief and sorrow. Generally speaking, Islam practices the following funerary rites. If at all possible, the body is buried the same day of death, but certainly within 24 hours. They carefully observe an elaborate washing and preparation process of the deceased person’s body.

Islam is growing fastest in the United States among African Americans, most of whom at one time described themselves as Christians. Along with Southeast Asians and those from the Middle East, African Americans comprise one of the three largest ethnic groups of American Muslims and make up about 20 percent of the total U.S. Muslim population.

In late 1968, a French teenage girl, a recent attendee of Evangel Temple in Dakar, Senegal, stood at our front door. “Hello, Pastor” she said. Then, pointing to the Lebanese young man with her, she said, “This is my friend Faouzi. He would like to talk with you a bit. Is that okay?”

Just as the Law attracted many sojourners to the Israelite community during Old Testament times because of its superiority, many today are drawn to nations whose systems stand on its shoulders. The Law of Moses speaks to humankind’s desire for security, shalom, and selfhood. As people come to the West from all over the world, they are drawn to systems indebted to an ethic born of the Holy Scripture.

In the traditional way of evangelism, it is often perceived that we preach a gospel message, give an altar call, and ask people to express their desire to follow Jesus by an uplifted hand. We then ask them to repeat the sinner’s prayer. If they have prayed after us, we presume that they have become Christians. This traditional approach does not work with Muslims.

One of the great blessings of our ministry at Global Initiative is the opportunity to regularly interface with Christians from a Muslim background. It is amazing to note the variety of factors that influenced them to follow Jesus.