English Intercede

Imagine a summer day on the resort beaches of Larnaca, Cyprus—a tiny island in the Mediterranean Sea near the coast of Lebanon and Israel. The sun’s strong rays are creating temperatures of nearly 100 degrees and the humidity hovers around 80 percent. An occasional breeze is a refreshing welcome. It is a beautiful day for Muslim honeymooners visiting from the Arabian Gulf. They sit side-by-side looking at the sea—the groom in shorts and a tank top; his bride in a new black chador (floor-length robe), full-face veil, and long dark stockings.

The tragedy of 9-11, the death of over 300 innocent children and adults in a Russian school, the beheading of foreign hostages in Iraq—these are only a few of the recent atrocities that have fueled anger and disgust toward the religion of Islam and its world community of 1.3 billion people. That includes the 5 million Muslims who live right here in the United States. The flurry of verbal attacks and threats made against Americans and Christians (Crusaders) in particular from people who call themselves “martyrs for Allah” only intensifies the animosity against Muslim people.

Although a Muslim embraces a belief system in which he expresses faith regarding the spiritual realm, his religious works and rituals are seen as the critical pillars which uphold his religious system and provide it with strength, meaning, and preservation. Being a good Muslim is determined more by what is done, than what is simply believed. One's inner beliefs can remain hidden in the private realm of reasoning and uncertainty, but religious works provide a public demonstration that reveal both one's religious identity and religious devotion.

Although the situation in Afghanistan has claimed much of our attention, we have also been forced to look carefully at Pakistan--a large, arid nation between India on the East, and Iran and Afghanistan on the West.
This Nation has 150 million Muslim people, second only to Indonesia. The name Pakistan holds significant meaning: "Pak" means pure or holy, and "stan" means place. So this country was founded to be a holy homeland for Muslims in South Asia.

Stories of supernatural intervention like this abound in Muslim settings because traditional Muslims accept the reality of what is not seen as well as what is seen. The average Muslim not only believes in the supernatural, but is also involved, to a greater or lesser extent, with spiritual forces and phenomena.