Tuesday, December 16, 2008

"Untrained" Christian Missionaries target Morocco


The website IslamOnline - has an interest ing report in which it claims a new breed of Christian missionaries is turning to the North African Muslim kingdom of Morocco in search for new ground to spread their faith.
"The goal is to give a clear presentation of the Gospel," claims Tyler, a member of an Ohio Baptist church who set up Project North Africa in Morocco. Tyler knows that what he is doing is unlawful and says his work could be disrupted if he gave his surname. He moved into to Morocco some three years ago.

"If you had the cure to the AIDS virus, would you not want to take it to the people? Three years ago I began praying about parts of the world that had not taken up the Gospel."

Since then, he has been preparing the ground for colleagues, mostly from South America, who would learn Morocco's dialect and seek to set up small businesses fronts to fund the group's evangelical work.

Christian proselytizers like Tyler say their clandestine status allows them to set up businesses or language schools at which converts are sometimes employed.

Like across the Arab Maghreb, missionary groups in Morocco currently range from broad alliances such as Partners International and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship to small Baptist and Pentecostal churches based in the Americas and Europe.

There are some 800 active European proselytizers in Morocco who claim that some 1,000 people converted to Christianity in 2004.

New Breed

Experts affirm that missionaries in Morocco reflect the rise of a new "untrained" breed of Christian proselytizers.

"With the internet and the increase in travel, you have a democratization of missions where anyone who feels like it can go anywhere they want," Dana Robert, world Christianity professor at Boston University, told Reuters.

This new generation, Robert says, lacks the training and knowledge of old ones.

"The new breed of missionary doesn't have the same historical training as the older established denominations, nor necessarily the cultural training," she stressed.

"So there's a bull-in-a-china-shop effect."

Western and Arab reports have repeatedly spoken about increasing proselytizing activities in the Arab Maghreb.

Proselytizers traditionally eye troubled and disaster-stricken Muslim areas like Iraq, Sudan's Darfur and Indonesia's Ache.

The vigorous proselytizing in developing countries has led to kidnapping of missionaries as well as anti-conversion laws in some countries.

Mohammed Yssef, general secretary of the Superior Council of Ulemas, Morocco's highest religious authority, complains that missionaries typically target the poor and the sick.

"When people respond positively (to missionaries), it is when they don't have their full freedom," he recently told Reuters. "Once they recover their normal health and situation, they recover their ability to decide."

Yssef noted that missionaries also try to win over communities like North Africa's Berbers by telling them Islam was imposed on them by Arabs.

"These are unethical methods."

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go back to the USA where they need your help.
This sort of rubbish will get all us outsiders a bad name in Morocco.

Anonymous said...

this crap make me wanna follow every westerner i see and put him on t.v. with a brown paper bag and i'm not grocery shopping. It is funny how people say that islam forces or forced people with the sword but when is the last time you have seen muslims in europe or u.s.a doing this deceptive crap. in their countries we are in your face muslims and tell you about the religion if you want to know and leave you alone if you dont want it but i guess this just proves that ALLAH is right regarding fighting the disbelievers of ALLAH and his messenger(alahi salaam). If you dont fight them then they will definitely fight you and try to make you renegade from islaam because they dont like islaam and dont want anything to do with islaam. of course this is not all because Rabb-ul-alameen told us that there are ones who do not fight you in your religion however it is hard to tell which ones are spies who try to infiltrate the muslims and make them weak or inclined to the way of the disbeleivers. may ALLAH give victory and patience to the muslims and make their enemies low ameen

Abu Daoud said...

Anonymous 2: These people are clearly ignorant of Arab culture (or Berber culture, which is not the same as you know), but he is not fighting anyone. That is the different between Islam and Christianity. Your embracing of violence shows that you are far from Allah and do not know him or worship him correctly, in my opinion.

Morocco Time said...

Ugh, I hadn't seen this. They never quit.

Anonymous said...

The article and the responses show the ignorance of christian missions. THe purpose of Christian missions is to chare the christian gospel with those who have never heard it. If they accept it, then there is support and fellowship; if they refuse, then that's that. No one can be bought off or forced to convert to christianity, and only those self-righteous ones who don't know anything about the Bible or the gospel of Jesus Christ say differently. By the way I spent a year in Saudi Arabia and was continuously hounded to convert to Islam and cursed at when others found out I was a Christian. What's that about Islam being tolerant? The only deception is in trying to avoid being kidnapped or killed by intolerant Muslims.

Anonymous said...

I live in Florida. i am a muslim convert. here i meet baptists who will coyly tell you "I am just a christian" In other words are unwilling to tell you what core beleifs they may hold. It should be pointed out the divorce rate among southern baptists is 30%. The social problems in the US are what they are running away from . Muslims do not have that 40% illegitimacy rate and if these american come they will bring that immoral casual dateing with them . Churches are an excellent place to corrupt your young adults because they are all very big on rebellion here. So Whatever they clain whatever they say -send them packing back to the US . Why Because they are trying to escpe their huge problems . They ought to try and save blacks in washington DC . We do not need these bold hypocrites . Imagine ! what gaul to compare our culture -Islam with HIV as a disease that needs a cure! These Ohio baptists need to take a trip to DC . You let them in they will destroy your culture. Every day women in the US convert to Islam to get away from that predatory bunch of hypocrites.Their biggest problem can be seen easily . Its their very casual attitude about mixing sexes socially, dating , premarital sex , cohabitation , immodesty in women , show business as religion , makeup beyond all reason , bleached hair, materialism , credit cards, usery and debt as lifestyle . If nothing else christians will bankrupt Muslims with pursuit of glamour and prestige. Up there in Alaska . Drugs, alchoholic teen illegitimacy, careerist mom oblivious. The son selling dope shipped off to Iraq! All of 'em going to church and messing around with African voodoo! Sadly they are typical! FAR FAR AWAY FROM MUSLIMS INSHALLAH!

OH said...

The "AIDS" problem that he mentioned has absolutely nothing to do with Muslim culture. The real problem that he is talking about is the problem of sin as the Bible teaches it. Every human being is born into it and it is sin that brings death and ultimately an eternity in a lake of fire.

If a man genuinely believes something, it will compel him to take action. That is what he means.

True Christians are compelled by this conviction to offer hope (found only in Jesus Christ) to those who have never heard it from a real Christian. No person can be forced to accept the message, but they should at least have a chance to hear and decide for themselves.

Christian non-evangeliser said...

I'm sorry, but the last comment is the biggest load of hogwash I have seen in years! Ignorant Christians are such a deluded bunch of people! god help them!

Anonymous said...

This has been going on for years and years in Morocco and it's news just now? Your experts have been asleep on the job! I met Christian missionaries posing as bookshop owners, English teachers, and even one horrid midwife who really gave Christianity a bad name.