Christians and Muslims Together

(Warning, the following is not intended to insult Islam)

Meng, it is really appropriate or responsible to send Missionaries into countries where the following could happen.

A.)  They are killed.

B.)  The converts are killed.

C.)  They would be causing conflict in families, tribes and villages.

The sad fact is many of the more tribal or uneducated Muslims believe firmly (although falsely) that the punishment for apostacy is death.

By teaching these people the Gospel and possibly having them accept it, you are endangering their lives and potentially their families lives.

God is merciful and loving.  He is not going to send people to hell just because they never heard the word of Christ.  But those who bring harm to others through their actions will have to face God on judgement day for those actions.

Saudi Arabia is home to the two holiest sites in Islam and is also the seat of a very very strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia.  If they do not wish to have their society disrupted by Missionaries then they have that right.  They were not founded on freedom of religion and we cannot force our western values on their society. 

Meng wrote: I understand what you are saying, but must disagree.  In order to practice our faith, Christians need a Bible.  The Bible, like the Quran, is an intricate part of our faith system.  We read from the Bible and meditate on its words.  Therefore, when Saudi customs confiscates Bibles and trashes them (and they do throw them away - how disrespectful is that?), they are depriving Christians of an important feature of their faith. I don't agree that bringing a Bible into the "kingdom" is equal to building a mosque in the Vatican.  However, I wouldn't be against Muslims building a mosque there if they so choose. There is no compulsion in religion, right? Why trash Bibles?  Why treat Christians as inferiors in Mohammed's own country.  After all, Mohammed, himself, was married to a Christian, was he not?

I agree, however I challenge our co-religionist in the understanding of Abraham. The movtivation of Christian missionaries in my personal opinion is not intellectual sharing but from being zealots. As I have said before the Christian mindset is to "save" the people from eternal damnation. I have challenged many Christians according to their idea of God's mercy and all have failed. Like most religions one group believes the others going to hell. The only Christian sect that believes in the universality of God's message are Catholics who believe that all humans regardless of religious sect has a chance to reach God's love.

Now I'm sure you do not belong to the Catholic church but again this is why many Muslim countries do not allow missionaries. However I do not agree in not educating ourselves of the Bible as I believe it is considered literature. I believe that any person of any religion has the right to free speech in America, or any country that promotes free speech however it is not immoral that a country has a law prohibiting that right from others of different faiths. I have had my rights impede on by Christians telling me constantly and all the time I'm going to hell, so yes I do support a country not allowing Christian proseltyze to occur.

Assalamu Alaikum:

The United States was founded on the principle of religious freedom. Saudi Arabia was not. They are a sovereign government and can choose what they will and will not allow in their country. Speculating as to whether this is correct behavior or not makes no difference to them and will change nothing.

Now, what I find really interesting is that in the United States, a country founded on religious freedom, so many religious groups are so anti-Islam. So openly anti-Islam. As a concerned person, that would bother me more than what some other country is or isn't doing.