No Proselytizing Please!

I can hardly pronounce the title of this blog! However when you are working in Christian ministry in the Middle East, it is vital to understand the boundaries allowed by your host countries. The law in most of the Islamic countries in this region states very clearly that you cannot share the Christian faith with Muslims in the public arena and describes this prohibited activity as proselytizing. It is worth noting though that the legal definition of proselytization under Islamic law does not correspond with what Christians understand as evangelism. Islamic law describes proselytising as wilfully seeking to corrupt, manipulate, deceive or coerce someone into changing their faith. It also adds that the indiscriminate mass distribution of literature or other media which criticizes Islam or promotes Christianity over Islam is forbidden.

Clearly there is a huge gulf in what Christians see as normal evangelism which is sharing the Christian faith in the context of friendships and gossiping the Good News. There is no brain washing involved or deception. There is no attempt to undermine the religion of Islam, rather we simply talk about Jesus and what he means to us. Incidentally there is nothing in there which prohibits the use of Gospel Magic unless of course, the use of deception is raised!