Posted on 04/04/2008 7:26:57 AM PDT by Renfield
Pope Benedict’s choice to publicly baptize the most prominent Muslim in Italy, Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, highlights a quiet worldwide exodus from Islam. In recent years, millions have moved on. With this high-profile action, Pope Benedict demonstratively blesses this massive conversion from the highest levels of the Church.
Interviewed by al-Jazeera in 2006, Ahmad al-Qataani, leader of the Companions Lighthouse for the Science of Islamic Law in Libya, explains the decline: Islam used to represent … Africa’s main religion and there were 30 African languages that used to be written in Arabic script. The number of Muslims in Africa has diminished to 316 million, half of whom are Arabs in North Africa. So in the section of Africa that we are talking about, the non-Arab section, the number of Muslims does not exceed 150 million people. When we realize that the entire population of Africa is one billion people, we see that the number of Muslims has diminished greatly from what it was in the beginning of the last century.
On the other hand, the number of Catholics has increased from one million in 1902 to 329 million 882 thousand (329,882,000). Let us round off that number to 330 million in the year 2000.
As to how that happened, well there are now 1.5 million churches whose congregations account for 46 million people. In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity. These numbers are very large indeed. Allam’s public baptism came just ten days after the body of Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq, was found in a shallow grave after being kidnapped by al-Qaeda February 29. The ceremony came just three days after an al-Qaeda tape threatening the pope and condemning cartoons of Mohammed. Muslims who convert to other religions or abandon religion entirely are subject to a standing order of death for apostasy. The baptism of Allam is an act of defiance in the face of Islamic threats.
The baptism of Allam also comes in the midst of papal “dialogue” with Muslims. The dialogue began unpromisingly with the catcalls from Islam and its secularist allies which greeted the now-famous September 20, 2006, papal address at the University of Regensburg. In October, 138 Islamic leaders presented the pope with “A Common Word Between Us and You” — nailed by critics as a craftily written call for conversion. On March 4, Pope Benedict approved formation of a permanent “Catholic-Muslim forum” scheduled to meet in November. And now he has thrown his own call for conversion into the discussion. Islam’s secularist allies were quick to echo Muslims, calling the baptism “provocative.” While accepting the Islamic death penalty for apostasy as a given, they complain the pope’s action could set back dialogue. While the secularists wring their hands, Allam writes that his mind “has been freed from the obscurantism of an ideology that legitimizes lies and deception, violent death that leads to homicide and suicide, blind submission to tyranny, permitting me to join the authentic religion of Truth, Life, and Liberty. … I realize what I am going up against but I will confront my fate with my head high, with my back straight, and the interior strength of one who is certain about his faith.”
Allam, author of numerous books and deputy editor of Milan’s Corriere della Sera, joins a list of converts from Islam which includes many other public intellectuals and millions of average people from all over the world. This is more than the normal flow between two large religious communities. Islam can point to little in the way of recent conversions. Its claim to be the world’s fastest-growing religion stems mostly from the high birth rate in Islamic countries, whose infant mortality rates have been cut by the introduction of Western medicine. Christian growth is based on adult conversion. As leading Christian evangelist Wolfgang Simpson writes, “More Muslims have come to Christ in the last two decades than in all of history.”
Although al-Qataani points to Africa, there is another phenomenon based on repulsion from Islamist dictatorship, corruption, and terrorist violence. In Iran as many as 1 million people have surreptitiously converted to Evangelical Christianity in the last five years. Pastor Hormoz Shariat claims to have converted 50,000 of them through his U.S.-based Farsi-language satellite ministry. He contrasts the upswing to the efforts of evangelical missionaries in Iran between 1830 and 1979, whose 149 years of work built a Christian community of only 3,000. One Iranian religious scholar believes youth are abandoning Islam because it is identified with the corrupt Iranian government. Now the Iranian Majlis (parliament) is debating the death penalty for conversion.
After years of al-Qaeda war on Iraq, a similar phenomenon is growing. The New York Times March 4 reports: “After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.” A high school girl tells Times reporters: “I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us. Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.” A 19-year-old man says: “The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore.” A Baghdad law professor explains that her students “have changed their views about religion. They started to hate religious men. They make jokes about them because they feel disgusted by them.” A 24-year-old female college student says, “I used to love Osama bin Laden. Now I hate Islam. Al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Army are spreading hatred. People are being killed for nothing.”
In southern Russia the same pattern is emerging. According to Roman Silantyev, executive secretary of the Inter-religious Council in Russia, freed from atheist control, two million Muslims converted to Christianity. Repulsed by bloody terrorist attacks, those living in areas such as Beslan have converted to Christianity in the greatest numbers of all. As many as 100,000 have converted to Christianity in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan.
After decades of Islamist war, evangelicals report thousands of sub-rosa converts in rural areas of Kashmir. Says one churchgoer: “I am interested in this religion. I hate violence. I hate fundamentalists in Islam. I come here to seek peace.” An Indian newspaper headline reads: “Urban Muslim Youth Out to Junk Faith.” Following decades of terrorist rule, Palestinians are being quietly converted, holding in-home services to avoid detection. Says one evangelist: “I’ve been working among these people for thirty years, and I promise you I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Islam is also losing adherents in areas where Islamist harassment is heavy on the streets. The London Times estimates 15% of Muslims living in Western Europe have left Islam — 200,000 in the UK alone. Those who leave often face harassment, threats, and attack.
The mufti of Perak, Malaysia, estimates about 250,000 people have abandoned Islam, making formal application for apostasy to the state — a right allowed to Malaysian citizens who are not ethnic Malays. Says he: “This figure does not include individuals who don’t do solat, doesn’t fast and breaks [sic] all the tenets of Islam.” Borrowing from the communist playbook, Malaysia operates “reeducation camps” for any ethnic Malay found guilty of apostasy. Unsurprisingly, ethnic Malays are at the bottom of the economic ladder in Malaysia.
In a letter published in Corriere della Sera on Easter Day, Allam points out the pope “sent an explicit and revolutionary message to a church that until now has been too cautious in the conversion of Muslims … because of the fear of being unable to protect the converted who are condemned to death for apostasy. “Thousands of people in Italy have converted to Islam and practice their faith serenely. But there are also thousands of Muslims who have converted to Christianity who are forced to hide their new faith out of fear of being killed by Islamist terrorists.”
Allam describes Islam as a system for taking and holding power. Threat of violence is its enforcement mechanism. Allam also points out: “Beyond … the phenomenon of extremists and Islamist terrorism at the global level, the root of evil is inherent to a physiologically violent and historically conflictual Islam.” So it is not coincidental that Muslims are abandoning the faith as U.S. and coalition soldiers smash al-Qaeda in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Islamist terrorists and street thugs are beginning to look impotent.
Appeasement-oriented opinion explains Islamic violence as a response to Western policy. For them, reality is incomprehensible. But in a 1998 ABC News interview with John Miller, Osama bin Laden explained his motivation: Allah had given the jihadis victory over one superpower (the USSR) and Allah would grant them victory over the other. But a decade later it is not coming to pass on the battlefield. The defeat of the Islamists puts the lie to the claim that Allah will cause the infidels to desire submission. As a result, the Islamists’ ability to intimidate their captive populations is weakened
bump for later...
Will someone please tell the Europeans?
WOW.
bflr = bump for later reading
Good news! Thank you for posting this.
Good news bump
And it’s happening rather more quickly than we’d have expected, too.
I sure did not know this was going on. Can these numbers really be true?
While only Catholicism was mentioned, Anglicanism in Africa is growing as fast as it can, along with Evangelism as well as other Protestant denominations.
Ironically, by forcing a split in the Episcopal church in the US, the liberal Episcopalians forced to conservatives to become Anglican African missionary churches. But these mostly white and wealthy conservative congregations are pumping enormous amounts of money to their African Anglican Archdioceses at just the right time.
Eventually this shift is going to cause major changes in Africa, such as the abolition of slavery and Sharia law.
AMEN. Some are finally realizing that islam is a hate filled sect, not a religion.
IMHO, is is the same as skinhead worshiping Hitler.
One of my friends is a Missionary Baptist minister and he went on a mission trip to Kenya about two years ago. While there, he witnessed six muslims convert to Christianity, including a young man from Saudi Arabia whose family will kill him (literally) if they find out about his conversion.
Maybe the numbers are declining because a 500 pounder just hit the living room or a mini gun just raked the bomb making factory.
I am a Roman Catholic New Yorker. For at least the last 20 years whatever Catholic Church I’ve attended has had a visiting African priest during the summer months...the American Catholic Church has not been able to replace parish priests as the older ones die off but they have been very successful in recruiting priests and nuns in Africa and Asia...the Church has been doing missionary work in Africa for decades...opening hospitals and schools in remote jungles has paid off with conversions...not enough American young people are willing to dedicate their lives to God so the schools and churches have suffered here at home.
I have a close friend who is a missionary in the Muslim former republics of the Soviet Union.
The original article has embedded links which lead to stories reporting these events.
Ping for later.
Well if you are intellectually honest and examine the facts between Christianity and Islam, it’s archeological record, it consistency in message, it’s harmony with the Old testament, predictive prophesy and the 100’s of thousands of REAL martyrs who died not for some selfish reason of hedonistic rewards in some demonic heaven but for the love of Jesus’ message it’s a no brainer. Islam is a demonstrable lie which comes str8 from Satan’s own playbook, twisting scripture, denying Christ’s divinity, adding to the scripture, advocating rape, murder, thievery and lying. I have heard some wonderful stories from Muslim converts, the main theme is “I just wanted peace in my spirit and wanted the angst and hate to stop”. Islam is dying, convulsing like other failed religions who had multitudes of adherents at one time. Have you ever heard a real good Christian apologist debate a Islamic apologist. It’s like William F Buckley debating Susan Estrich, a confused child arguing with their intellectually superior parent.
Interesting anecdotal story. We had a Muslim girl from Malaysia working as a contractor in our office. She came here to the US with the hijab, very meek and quiet. Fast forward 6 months I saw her in the elevator around xmas time, the hijab gone and a Christmas pin on her blouse. I asked her how she likes it here. She said said she loves it here, the freedom. I asked about the pin on her blouse, she sheepishly said she had been baptized and was a Christian now. I thinm if we could have 1 billion interventions with these folks and show them the truth unfettered we could convert all Muslims
yes.
At the time of President Reagan’s funeral I thought about all the new TV satellite dishes springing up in Iraq and wondered about the impact of such a beautiful Christian service seen for the first time.
“I just saw an article the other day that said that Islam had just passed Christianity in the number of believers, and that the reason was the high birth rate among Muslims.”
I do know that article. Re-read the last paragraph. Vatican officials stated they could verify only their own stats and relied on muslim countries for theirs....
Christianity is growing like wild fire in Arica. The average Christian in the future will be African.
That was Catholics not Christians as a whole. Source.
Thanks for the correction. I misread. This is one of those things that I love about freerepublic.
Catholic seminaries in Africa are full to bursting. Praise the Lord!
Growing fast in China, too.
The Europeans are more in the grips of leftist intimidation than they are in the grips of Islamic intimidation.
I think the conversion to Christianity will have a cascading effect. The more that leave and don’t literally lose their heads, the more that will feel safe to leave, and the less the Islamists can intimidate people into staying in such an oppressive religion.
don't forget China. Many estimate the underground Christian Church there to number between 100 and 200 million.
That is a good thing. Jesus was from Africa after all, although (despite Rev. Wright’s claims) not a Black man but a Semitic man.
Jesus was from Africa after all
Nazareth is. That is where he was raised; Jesus was born in Bethlehem for tax reasons.
The news report in question only cited Islam having just past the Roman Catholic Church in the number of members because of the birth rates in Islam. But overall, when combined, the RCC, the Anglican, Evangelical Protestant, and Orthodox Churches together, Christanity is still by far the largest religion, not Islam, with well over 2 billion members.
Yes, that strategy worked so well for the Roman Empire...
GOOD!
At the Catholic Church at my university there’s a map on the wall and you can stick a pin in the country you’re from. There was one in Saudi Arabia. There were also pins in Iran, Syria, and Jordan.
Christianity is alive in the Middle East, it’s just very covert. I pray someday the Mohammedans will convert to Christianity so that it will one day again dominate the Middle East, where it was born.
Nazareth is in Galilee in northern Israel. Jesus was in Africa only in his youngest years, after his parents fled from Herod the Great.
...And yet it ended up creating more Christians because of the blood of martyrs.
Exactly. Satan doesn't quite get it.
Very encouraging article. It is consistent in tone with what I have heard from missionaries. I hope the numbers are accurate.
At any rate, there is no doubt about the growth of Christianity in Africa and China.
Bush’s fault.
If this works, the man literally saved the world.
“He contrasts the upswing to the efforts of evangelical missionaries in Iran between 1830 and 1979, whose 149 years of work built a Christian community of only 3,000.”
The same thing has happened in China. After about 150 years of strong missionary presence in China, missionaries were forced out as Mao’s forces arrived. My sister-in-law’s mother and parents were among those who just barely made it out. The seeds were planted, however, and now China has many, many millions of Christians despite the fact that it could cost them their lives.
Hi Stonewall - I’ve got a friend who converted. He had three days to renounce his decision before he became “infidel” status and the family disowns him.
From what Tony told me, this guy’s father is a big muckity-muck in the Saudi government and having one of his sons converting to Christianity would have hurt his position in the government. Therefore, he or another family member probably would have killed this guy to save their family “honor”.
I am a Christian with an atheist for a sister. While I think she is crazier than an outhouse rat, I would not disown her. It would violate Christ's teachings.
I would like to believe this, but I’ve not seen anything about this on any other media.
That is fantastic!! Congratulations to the girl and thank you for sharing this with us.
And you won't see the media covering this story for fear of Islamic backlash. I do know of one priest in Lebanon who baptized 65 Muslims into the Catholic Church last year. But this was done quietly which is how the converts prefer.
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