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"Blessed are you when men cast insults at you." (Matthew 5:11)
The REVEILLE EQUIPPER First Quarter 2005, Vol. 10 No. 1
- Feature: Free Expression Threatens House of Cards
- Analysis: Time to Talk Religion AND Politics
- News: Minorities Persecuted in Iran
- News: Interview with a Tsunami Relief Worker
- Analysis: The End of The Spear Speaks to Muslims
- Review: The End of the Spear Addresses Terror
- Resource: CD & DVD on Conflict in Islam
- Resource: Audio Tapes & CDs in Baghdadi Arabic
- Opportunity: Intensive Courses in Muslim Studies
Feature:
Free Expression Threatens House of Cards by Dr. Bruce Sidebotham
Muslims are intimidating and killing each other more than they are intimidating and killing outsiders. As with the Global War on Terror, popular Western perspective on the “Cartoon Wars” tends toward arrogance and ethnocentrism. Most Americans either think that Muslim reaction is once again our fault or that we can do something about it, and both conclusions are dysfunctional. It is like a spouse in an abuse situation who thinks the beatings are either her fault or that if she stays in the relationship long enough, she can eventually change her abuser.
Tantrums like this to control expression have been happening within the Muslim world for years. Poll results published in Indonesia’s Monitor magazine on 2 September 1990 ranking readers’ “most admired individuals” with Mohammed landing in eleventh place touched off violent riots resulting in the magazine being closed and the editor, Arswendo, spending five years in jail. [1]
A suggestion in November 2002 by the young Nigerian journalist, Isioma Daniel, that holding the Miss World contest in her country should not be a problem because Mohammed would probably have “chosen to marry one of the contestants” resulted in riots that killed over 200 people, relocation of the contest to London, and calls for Isioma’s execution. [2]
These are only two examples.
Muslim fundamentalists live in a house of cards which even the slightest breeze of free expression threatens to bring crashing down. As a result, just as terrorism, which has been happening in Muslim lands for years, finally came to American soil, so the battle against free expression has spilled beyond Muslim boundaries into the Western world.
As with terrorism, religion provides the underlying motives. Fundamentalist Islam equates power with truth which explains contradictory behaviors and hate for Israel. For Muslims, “Allah hu Akhbar! (God is great) reflects God’s primary character.
Out of fear, Muslims avoid critical inquiry which might reveal internal inconsistency and routinely use intimidation rather than scholarship to keep the system going.
For many Muslim heads of state, retaining power despite abuse, contradiction, and outright law breaking demonstrates authority and the right to rule. In other words, power rather than consistency validates truth.
This approach to truth partly explains widespread resentment of Israel. A tiny country that humiliates Muslim power actually threatens to invalidate the whole Muslim system. And it explains why Muslims can be so upset with cartoon depictions of Muhammad, yet draw their own disgusting cartoons of Jews and Christians. And it explains why few Muslims perceive how seriously violent demonstrations against these cartoons contradict their assertion that Islam is a peaceful religion.
Religious problems require religious solutions. Social, political, economic, and even military actions will facilitate security and freedom only to the degree that they facilitate religious changes.
Notes:
1. Human Rights Watch: hrw.org/reports/pdfs/p/indonesia/indonesi914.pdf
2. British Broadcasting Co.: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2518977.stm
Analysis:
It's Time to Talk About Religion AND Politics
by Chris Seiple, President of the Institute for Global Engagement
from: www.globalengage.org/issues-p.asp?id=60
Iran, a country run by radical mullahs, is unabashedly seeking nuclear weapons? Hamas, an Islamic terrorist organization, is freely elected in Palestine? Danish cartoons about Islam’s principal prophet, Mohammed, precipitate riots around the world? A United Arab Emirates company is going to manage U.S. ports?
As we approach the fifth anniversary of September 11th, it is tragically clear that religion permeates the realpolitik of our world. Yet, we Americans, ironically enough, remain unable to understand the power of religion in international affairs. Although some 90% of us believe in God, our ability to understand and work within the Islamic world, where at least 90% believe in God, is now worse than before 9/11. In fact, we continue to possess what Daniel Yankelovich recently called an “invincible ignorance” of Islam.
We need some guiding principles if we are to operate at the nexus of religion and politics. Here are five to start with:
Then it Must be a Part of the Solution
Last year I attended the “U.S.- Islamic World Forum” in Doha, Qatar (hosted by the Emir of Qatar and organized by the Brookings Institution). A fascinating gathering, there was a double irony to the meeting.[1] Notwithstanding the fact that 9/11 was the catalyst for the Forum and that it even had “Islam” in its title, there was no space to talk about religion. In other words, “Islam” had become a secular category to discuss an attack on the U.S. that had been religiously motivated.
It is hard for us Americans to understand that if religion has been a part of the problem, then it necessarily ust be a part of the solution. After all, we have been taught since childhood not to talk about two things in polite company: religion and politics. But now our national security depends on understanding their intersection.
The stakes are high. If we cannot talk about religion, then Sam Huntington was right — stereotypes settle in as the clash of civilizations becomes inevitable. On the other hand, if we allow for the possibility that religion, and religious people, can and will play a positive role in preventing and resolving conflicts, then we are much closer to protecting our national security through a dialogue of civilizations.
Thankfully, we are beginning to see signs of change. This year I was in Doha again for the Forum, and this time the conference organizers had a plenary session on faith and policy. Congress recently held its first hearings on understanding the ideology behind militant Islam. And major foundations are now gearing up to fund programs to ensure that religion is appropriately included and addressed at the major international relations graduate schools in America.
Still, the attitude that religion should not be a part of international discourse remains imbedded in the thinking of the U.S. foreign policy establishment (and even more deeply imbedded in the conventional wisdom of the rest of the West). In many ways, we are still collectively unequipped to engage a religious-based worldview — such that we can work with and promote its best in order to help it defeat its worst.
at the International Relations Table
Because it is so difficult to grasp the role that religion plays from a personal perspective, our analytic thinking suffers. Too many international relations experts worship at the wailing wall of “church-state separation” — often ignoring religion altogether — to their own detriment and that of the people they advise. A kind of secular “fundamentalism” in our government prevents religion from having its legitimate seat at the table of international relations.
In April 2003, before U.S. interagency teams went into Iraq to advise the various Iraqi ministries, there was debate about what to do with the “Ministry for Religion.” One official simply stated: “We don’t do religion.” As a result, when the leader of Iraq’s Shi’a majority issued a religious edict in June 2003 regarding American plans for elections, it was ignored. By November, however, Ambassador Paul Bremer was called home for emergency consultations because the U.S. plan was not working. The American leaders had finally realized that they had to find a way to incorporate the Shi’a leader and the 60 percent of the population that he represented.
We must find a way to bring together people who operate at the intersection of religion and realpolitik and invest in them. These “bilingual” ambassadors exist; and we need them more than ever.
Overcomes Bad Theology
Over the past four-plus years, we have responded to 9/11 in two ways. First, we have defined security in a defensive manner, focusing on gates, guns and guards. Natural enough after suffering a horrific attack, the explicit purpose has been keeping “them” out and “us” protected. Second, we have asked ourselves why “they” hate us. Our response here has been to yell louder, over the walls we have built, explaining why we are such good people — just ask us!
The problem with this approach, however, is that it remains about us. We have made no sustained effort to understand “them.” If we cannot begin to grasp the general Muslim worldview — including its historical and cultural manifestations in particular places around the world — then we will never be able to communicate.
In order to communicate, we must understand that the Muslim worldview is inherently rooted in “theology.” (This is a Christian term, but I use it to communicate the simple idea that Muslims think about and study God as much as Christians.) Islam is, of course, on the agenda of every security expert, but almost always in a way that is limited to the ideological dimensions of militant Islam. If we treat it only as an ideology, we will continue to swat at symptomatic flies and not deal with the real issues.
We must understand the theology behind Islam if we are appropriately to come alongside those good Muslims who are battling for the soul of Islam. This is where the so-called “war of ideas” will be won. For starters, we need anthropologists and theologians at the National Security Council, the State Department, and the Department of Defense.
The children of Abraham have something in common: a God-based worldview. While there are obvious differences, some of them irreconcilable, this God-based worldview does include common concepts of Justice and Mercy. Moreover, this worldview’s bedrock belief that we are each made in the image of our Creator provides a firm foundation for the concept of universal and equal human dignity. As a result, international experts who take their faith seriously are better able to discuss the common problem of militant Islam.
Americans, however, are not very good at communicating because we are unable to frame our message in the context of such common principles as Justice and Mercy. We would rather talk about democracy and human rights,” which most people in Asia now see as mere rhetorical whitewash for continued American dominance, if not outright imperialism. In politics, perception is reality — whether we like it or not, whether it is correct or not — and this perception rages across Asia, especially in Muslim countries. We need to find ways of speaking and relating that are honest and transparent, but that avoid needlessly alienating Muslims.
By way of an example, consider the Institute for Global Engagement’s current efforts in relational diplomacy in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province. Two weeks ago, as the province was rocked by riots in protest of the Danish cartoons, the Chief Minister of the province hosted the first meeting of the Interfaith Advisory Council in his official residence. Over the last eight months IGE has been working carefully and in a principled way with the Chief Minister to find practical ways to promote justice and mercy in NWFP by enabling educational and socio-economic opportunity for people of all faiths in this geo-strategically important region.
An effort like this is just one facet of a much larger engagement initiative that is urgently needed between the West and the Islamic world. Governments need to encourage and enable faith-leaders, and their institutions, to participate regularly in diplomacy (state-to-state); public diplomacy (state-to-society) and people-to-people diplomacy (society-to-society).
Too much tolerance can lead to terrorism. Consider Aum Shinryko in Japan, where, because of its religious cult status, it was constitutionally protected from investigation before its March 20, 1995 saran gas attack on the Tokyo subways. We saw the same thing with last year’s “7/7” bombers in London, among whom was a former disciple of the nonviolent extremist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT). HT is banned in Germany, where they have historic experience with hate speech, but not banned in the UK. There is a fine line between tolerance and terrorism. Still, this is not the real issue.
Tolerance is not good enough — we need respect. The Abrahamic faith traditions demand that we not just tolerate our neighbors, but respect them. For those of us who are Christians, we are taught that everything hangs on two principles: loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves. In other words, our identity is rooted in our respect for others, which in turn is rooted in love.
Civil Society is the balance between the “freedom to” something (liberty) and the “freedom from” something (security). The fulcrum will vary according to historical and cultural context, but the true test of the civility of any society will always be how it respects the minority in its midst. The sacred texts have something definitive to say here, and the Abrahamic adherents must re-claim the best of their faith, if they are to overcome the worst of religion.
Put differently, all of us must work to find the pre-existing principles of respect within different cultures, and build up traditions of religious freedom from there. Our national security depends on it, and the best of our faith demands it.
As a former officer in the Marine Corps and former Earhart Fellow at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, Chris Seiple has broad expertise in religion and security. The Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) has a two-fold mission:
1) Develop sustainable environments for religious freedom worldwide.Under the IGE, the Council on Faith and International Affairs publishes the academic journal, The Review of Faith and International Affairs three times annually.
2) Inspire and equip emerging leaders with faith-based methodologies of engagement.
NOTE:
See also “Engaging Islam” by Chris Seiple, 3 May 05, globalengage.org/issues/2005/05/ftp.htm
News:
Oppression of Minorities Flares in Iran
by Ann Johnson
from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
uscirf.gov
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is deeply concerned about the worsening situation for religious minorities in Iran. A consistent stream of virulent and inflammatory statements by political and religious leaders and an increase of harassment, imprisonment, and physical attacks against these groups indicates a disturbing, renewed pattern of oppression.
With limited policy options available and no direct diplomatic engagement, the Administration’s new request for $75 million to support democracy in Iran must include funding to promote human rights and the rule of law.
“The Commission is alarmed by the growing frequency of inflammatory rhetoric aimed at religious minorities by high-level Iranian government officials and clerics,” said USCIRF Chair Michael Cromartie. “This pattern unfortunately is reminiscent of language used by Iranian authorities during the early years of the Iranian Revolution, which preceded the severe atrocities committed against members of all religious minorities, particularly the Baha’i community.”
Before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assumed office in August, conditions for religious minorities already were deteriorating. For years, the government of Iran has engaged in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, including prolonged detention, torture, and executions, some based primarily or entirely on the religion of the accused.
The Baha’i faith, in particular, and its community – the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran – have no legal recognition and are viewed as “heretics” who face repression on the grounds of apostasy, an offense which carries the death penalty in Iran. In recent months, members of the Baha’i community have been harassed, physically attacked, arrested, and detained. Baha’i property, including historic holy sites, has been confiscated or destroyed.
In December, a Baha’i who had been jailed for more than ten years on charges of apostasy died in prison of unknown causes. Several other Baha’is remain in prison.
Further, over the last several weeks, a series of articles in the government-controlled newspaper Kayhan – whose managing editor is appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei – vilify and demonize the Baha’i faith and its community in Iran.
During President Ahmadinejad’s first six months in power, a series of ominous developments have unraveled with potentially devastating consequences for religious minorities. He and other top political and clerical leaders have made public remarks denying the existence of the Holocaust and anti-Semitic tracts have increased in the government-controlled media. Moreover, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the Guardian Council, referred to non-Muslims as “sinful animals” and “corrupt” and President Ahmadinejad reportedly has called for an end to the development of hristianity in Iran.
What is more, the Islamic regime’s reinvigorated anti-Israel policy and sentiment that Israel should be “wiped off the map” has created an increased atmosphere of fear and intimidation among Iran’s Jewish community.
Christians in Iran increasingly have been subject to harassment, arrests, close surveillance, and imprisonment. Over the past year, there have been several incidents of Iranian authorities raiding church services, detaining worshippers and church leaders, and harassing and threatening church members.
As a result of one of these raids last year, an evangelical pastor remains in prison even after being acquitted by an Islamic court on charges of apostasy. Even the small, unrecognized Mandaean religious community is facing intensifying harassment by authorities.
This atmosphere of increased intolerance also extends to Muslims. Those Shi’a Muslims in Iran who disagree with the Islamic regime’s interpretation of Islam or who do not espouse the ideology of the Islamic Revolution continue to suffer at the hands of Iranian authorities.
Hundreds of prominent Muslim activists and dissidents advocating political reform have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms by the Revolutionary Court, ostensibly on charges of seeking to overthrow the Islamic system in Iran. Others have been arrested and detained for alleged blasphemy or for criticizing the nature of the Islamic regime.
Reformists and journalists are regularly tried under current press laws and the Penal Code on charges of “insulting Islam,” criticizing the Islamic Republic, and publishing materials that deviate from Islamic standards.
Minority Muslim sects are also facing increasing repression. Recently, approximately 1,000 Sufi Muslims were arrested after clashes with Iranian authorities following the closing of a Sufi house of worship in the northwestern city of Qom. Sufi and Sunni Muslim leaders regularly are intimidated and harassed by intelligence and security services.
Since 1999, the State Department, at the urging of the Commission, has designated Iran as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, for its systematic and egregious violations of freedom of religion and belief. The Commission continues to recommend that Iran remain a CPC. The State Department itself has concluded that, in recent years, human rights conditions have worsened, including for religious minorities.
Interview:
What Is It Like After a Tsunami
An interview with a relief worker who went to Aceh, Indonesia in 2005
Q. What did you do in Aceh?
A. I helped recruit and advise for establishing a women’s center, especially with developing a counseling department. You know nearly three quarters of the tsunami casualties were women and children. Women in that culture were already struggling with feelings of inadequacy and inferiority while encountering heavy domestic and social demands. The tsunami has increased these demands while leaving deep emotional scars. Helping the women with their physical and emotional health as well has giving them better access to role specific education and resources will acilitate healing and recovery in Aceh. I also helped some to distribute relief supplies and got to do some informal crisis counseling.
Q. What did you see relief organizations doing?
A. They were providing shelter, food and water, medical care, psychological counseling, cleaning wells, constructing houses, building boats, providing jobs, conducting job training, etc.
Q. What did you see or hear of U.S. military personnel doing?
A. They repaired the infrastructure like roads and air fields and provided transportation for relief equipment and personnel. They purified water and did some of the really dirty work like recovering bodies.
Q.How did people react to you and all the outside assistance?
A. They were very grateful. One man remarked to me, “If the foreign soldiers hadn’t come, we’d all be dead.” They were especially surprised that so many people came from Christian countries. One man admitted, “We would not have gone to help you.” A few showed disappointment and impatience with relief workers who could not meet inadvertently built up expectations. One Indonesian man flatly refused to answer any more shelter related survey questions saying he’d been surveyed for three days by different relief workers and still had not received his tent. Overall, the gratitude I personally heard far outstripped the negative comments.
Q. How was the insurgency affected?
A. All of the attention of the warring factions got focused on dealing with the emergency at hand. The influx and influence of foreigners helped to get the fighting sides negotiating. After conflicting for over two decades, the government and rebels have stopped fighting.
Q. How have relief workers affected local attitudes towards Americans?
A. The Acehnese people generally believe that all Westerners are Christians. Many of the relief workers that went in were with Christian organizations. In general, all of the relief
workers were responsible and treated people respectfully, making a good impression for Christianity. When we asked one young project supervisor to cover her shoulders and not show her belly button she said after some silence, “That’s just not me.” Headcoverings were initially not an issue, since most of the women had lost theirs in the water. Whenever we wore ours people greeted us with surprise and delight. Some asked if we were Muslims, but reacted kindly when told we were not. The first time we wore head scarves to a women’s center meeting all the Indonesian ladies said, “Oh you look so beautiful today.” The foreign women who dressed modestly got treated much more respectfully than the ones who did not. One foreign worker couple thought they’d found a private place to make out. The next night it seemed the whole village turned out to stop them. Now that the severe part of the crisis is over, the Acehnese people will start taking more notice of imported appearance and behavior.
Q. What observations or lessons learned would you like to pass on?
A. First, on the importance of building consensus among the local leaders when starting a project. On agency set project objectives and salaries without thoroughly discussing needs and methods with surviving village leaders. After several months they had many houses started and none finished. Another agency came in, built relationships first, and had a completed house within a week.
Second, on being too trusting and dependent upon nationals who can speak English. One of the fluent local leaders was a real charmer and the relief organizations had a lot of money and supplies to distribute to needy people. This man wasn’t supervised very closely so he ended up building significant advantage for himself.
Third, on having very young, inexperienced, and headstrong project managers. In my experience, the kind of people who can pick up at a moment’s notice to risk life and limb half way around the world for just a few months of intense employment rarely make the best personnel and resource managers. This is not their fault. They simply do not have the practical life experience for doing a complex cross-cultural job under very difficult circumstances. That any progress gets made at all is a credit to the commitment and resourcefulness of everyone involved and the grace of God.
Q. How are you different from this experience?
A. I am still somewhat depressed. The tragedy and needs were overwhelming. There was and remains so much to be done and so little I could do. I am also in awe of how God can show himself as Lord in his world. Through all this, God is giving the Acehnese an opportunity to see his true, loving nature and to hear his call.
Analysis:
The End of the Spear Movie Can Speak to Muslims
Two things in the End of the Spear movie make it useful for dialog with Muslims about problems we are experiencing with reactions from them.
First, this movie can have a powerful corrective impact on people who are caught in cycles of vengeance.
The Waodani tribe was caught in such a cycle. If you killed one of my relatives, in order to preserve my honor and secure eternal life, I had to kill either you or one of your relatives. And of course, then your family would feel that way about my family, and so the tribe was slowly exterminating itself.
They had the same attitude towards outsiders because some of the neighboring oil and plantation workers had offended the Waodani either deliberately or inadvertently.
This is exactly what is happening in the Middle East today – especially in Israel. And this is one reason why Iraqis who are dependent upon Americans for security are using roadside bombs on American soldiers. They are getting back at the American “family” for the humiliation and collateral deaths that the Americans have caused. And it partly explains why Muslims are rampaging against “insulting” cartoons of Mohammed.
The film shows how the cycle of vengeance was halted in the Waodani tribe by the message and example of the missionaries, and it shows the associated price. It took someone to die whose relatives would not retaliate. And it took an explanation of such behavior that was based in the character of God.
Second, many are complaining that the Christian perspective is not clearly presented in this film. I’d challenge them to find one Hollywood production in which the Christian perspective is presented more clearly. But I digress.
This film tells the story from the view point of 8-yr-old Steve Saint and from the view point of the warrior who killed his father. Therefore, this film presents the Christian perspective with the metaphors and language of the Waodani Indians.
The Waodani knew nothing of sheep or of passover sacrifice, so Jesus as the substitutionary lamb would have made no sense to them. They didn’t even have written language, so that God’s word in the Bible would also make no sense to them.
The metaphor through which the Waodani understood verbal special revelation was God marking a trail by leaving carvings on trees. The metaphor for sacrifice is getting speared. And the metaphor for eternal life is “jumping the great boa.” The metaphor for eternal damnation is “becoming a termite.” The metaphor for “receiving Jesus Christ as your personal savior” is following him on the trail that he has marked.
We all understand the Christian perspective on gaining eternal life through metaphors. Don Richardson in his book Eternity in their Hearts calls these “redemptive analogies.” Examples of these include “adoption,” “receiving,” “redemption,” “purchase,” and “substitution.” We understand these concepts in salvation because they come from everyday life in business and legal transactions.
In conclusion, “End of the Spear” can have a powerful impact for peace in the Middle East for three reasons.
First, because it shows how revenge cycles are characteristic of primitive rather than civilizedpeoples.
Second, because it shows how to interrupt the revenge cycle.
And third, because it presents its perspective on true religion in new metaphors toward which Muslims have not built up hostilities.
Review:
The End of the Spear Speaks to Terrorism and Cross-Cultural Issues
The End of the Spear reveals what can happen when we assume other people are just like us (same dreams, same hopes, same fears) and what happens when those assumptions get dashed.
The Waodani gain strength to “jump the great boa” by killing their enemies. Missing revenge makes one a “termite,” and no termite can jump the boa when it’s his or her time to die. No white man has ever contacted the Waodani and lived.
As his father leaves to make contact, 8-year-old Steve asks, “What if the Waodani attack you? Will you shoot them?”
“We can’t shoot the Waodani.” Nate replies, “They aren’t ready for heaven.”
So, after cordial greetings and gift exchanges on the jungle-river runway, Mincayani and his warriors spear Nate and his buddies. Then, they burn their own homes and flee deeper into the jungle to escape certain retribution.
But it’s the widows, not great warriors, who pursue the Waodani and treat their polio outbreak. Dayumae, who had fled the tribe years earlier, returns with them and tells Mincayani that Waengongi also had a son who was speared so that he could show us the way across the great boa, and little Steve tells him, “My dad had always hoped that we would be good friends.”
Do we see these dynamics in the world today? Do people project their own perspective upon others? Are some “tribes” trapped in endless cycles of retribution? Are coincidences intelligently designed? Can great tragedy be redeemed? Is sacrifice always present in reconciliation?
Chariots of Fire may have been as profound, Passion of the Christ as intense, Lord of the Rings as exotic, but no film I have ever seen has all of these and is also as subtle and deep. The prophets said Jesus would open his mouth in parables and utter things hidden since the creation of the world (Matthew 13:35).
This movie is like the words of Jesus. Without preaching, without praying, without singing, without any of the piety expected in missionary biography, it delivers seeds of truth directly to the soil of the soul. Nate’s biography, read when I was twelve years old, helped make me the man I am today. Now it will help to make my sons into the men they will become.
Regardless of the Hollywood-lifestyle actors, Christians need to see this movie so the industry will make others like it, and because fully half of all profit is going to help indigenous peoples. Muslims need to see it for its alternatives to revenge.
Resource:
OpRev Creates Multimedia Show on Islam
- Where is the worst killing in the Global War on Terror?
- Who are the primary combatants in this war?
- Why are these people fighting each other?
- How do we facilitate long term solutions?
- Is Islam primarily a peacful or violent religion?
- Are all religions basically the same?
- What is the difference between Fundamentalist Christians and Fundamentalist Muslims?
Resource:
Good News Is Available in Baghdadi Arabic
Opportunity:
Intensive Muslim Studies Training Programs in 2006
| Organization | Program/Course | Dates |
|---|---|---|
|
Horizons International Int'l Summer Tng Inst For Muslim Evangelism Boulder, CO Phone: (303) 442-3333 www.horizonsinternational.org |
Foundations for Understanding: History, Theology, & Life of Mohammed Deeper Analysis: Apologetics, Sects, Qura'an, Hadith, Sharia, Women, & Fundamentalism Strongholds: Political Islam, Folk Islam, Dreams, & Success Factors Transforming: Discipling Converts, Contextualization, Worldview, and Church Planting |
06 - 09 Jun 12 - 16 Jun 19 - 23 Jun 26 - 30 Jun |
|
Summer Inst of Muslim Studies Colorado Springs, CO (2 classes each week) Phone: (719) 597-0609 www.mtmsims.org e-mail: katebryant(at)cs.com |
Islam Evaluated by Biblical Teaching Answering Islam with Christian Truth Church Growth through Persecution Evangelism and Discipleship in Honor/Shame Societies Holistic Ministry in Resistant Cultures Moving the Muslim from the Qur'an to the Bible Evangelism and Discipleship in the Persian World Lessons from the Past Twenty Years |
05 - 09 Jun 05 - 09 Jun 12 - 16 Jun 12 - 16 Jun 19 - 23 Jun 19 - 23 Jun 26 - 30 Jun 26 - 30 Jun |
|
Zwemer Center for Muslim Studies CIU, Columbia, SC 1-800-777-2227 ext. 3325 www.ciu.edu/summerstudies e-mail: muslimstudies(at)ciu.edu |
Intro to Islam (overview of faith & practice) Approaches (lifestyle & witness, conversion, discipleship, church planting) Folk Islam (beliefs, practices, animistic roots & local expressions Revelation (Quran & traditions in law, attitude, behavior & culture) |
03 - 07 Jul 12 - 16 Jul 17 - 21 Jul 26 - 30 Jul |
|
Southwestern Bap. Theo. Sem., Ft. Worth, TX (817) 923-1921 ext. 6400 e-mail: jwiese(at)swbts.edu |
MISSN 5273: Ishmael & the Arabs in Biblical History MISSN 5263: Islamic History, Culture & Philosophy MISSN 5213: Folk Islam Approaches |
08 - 11 May 15 - 19 May 22 - 26 May |
|
Fuller Theo. Sem., Pasadena, CA 1-626-584-5260 sis-masters(at)dept.fuller.edu |
MR 555: Folk Islam MR 554: Community Building in Muslim Contexts MR 569: The Gospel as Read by Muslims |
12 - 16 Jun 19 - 30 Jun 03 - 14 Jul |
|
Arab World Ministries (781) 334-4072 www.awm.org |
Summer Inst on Islam in Philadelphia Foundations for Effective Witness & Minsitry to Muslims | 25 May - 02 Jun |
|
CHRISTAR 1-800-755-7955 E-mail: info(at)christat.org www.christar.org/stop.htm |
Summer Training & Outreach Prog (STOP) in the New York Metro area morning classroom, afternoon application & cultural immersion | 01 - 31 Jul |
|
Crescent Project 1-888-446-5457 E-mail:info(at)crescentproject.org www.crescentproject.org |
Sahara Challenge
in conjunction with Wycliffe, Orlando, FL 1 wk orientation with study & community interaction Optional follow-on missions trip in USA or overseas |
02 - 10 Jun 1 & 2 week trips |
|
Assemblies of God Theo Sem. (417) 866-3313 www.cmmequip.org |
The Center for Ministry to Muslims at the Islamic Institute of AOGTS in Springfield, MO | 24 JUl - 04 Aug |
|
Caleb Project www.EncounteringIslam.org |
12-Week On-Line Curriculum "Encountering the World of Islam |
05 Jun - 27 Aug 04 Sep - 03 Dec |
Seminars and Workshops that Will Come to You
| Organization | Program | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Ministry to Muslims | Introduction to Islam | 1-719-597-0609 |
| Zwemmer Center for Muslim Studies Columbia International University | Muslim Awareness Seminars and Extension Courses | 1-800-777-2227 |
| Crescent Project | Sharing the Hope 1 Day Seminars | 1-888-446-5457 www.crescentproject.org |
| Horizons Interational | Reach out to Muslims Seminars | 1-303-442-3333 |
| Operation Reveille | Insights on Testimony for Christians in the Military | 1-719-572-5908 |
| People of the Book | Lessons on Islam and Cross-Cultural Understanding | 1-703-978-2506 e-mail: faysal(at)sharifclan.com |
| The Navigators | lectures by Dr. Nabeel T. Jabbour | 1-719-578-8973 nabeel(at)nabeeljabbour.com |
| Good News for the Crescent World (GNFCW) | Seminars on Islam and Reaching out to Muslims | 1-817-275-3413 www.gnfcw.com |
| Caleb Project | Encountering the World of Islam |
www.encounteringislam.org 303.730.4170 ext 302 |
| Operation Mobilization, UK | Markaz Tehquiq Al-Haq | MTH(at)care4free.net |