I would ask “why is the world so resistant to the Gospel?”
I thought this was a pretty good summary. I believe the biggest barriers to successful witnessing to those caught in this counterfeit religion is the question of sin and that muslims are born into this false religion which encompasses every aspect of their life and to leave it means being separated from everyone in your life.
The sin problem is they deny original sin and don't believe in atonement, but believe in a works based salvation that they have no assurance of because their god is arbitrary and never clarifies what is enough.
Because the god of islam doesn’t fare too well at the end of the Bible.....
I thought I read somewhere about huge numbers of Muslims converting to Christianity.
Anyway, Islam is the only religion that allows and encourages its followers to kill anyone who strays. Heck, they’ll beat you if your beard isn’t long enough for someone’s satisfaction. The element of violence keeps a lot of good people in line who might otherwise seek out something different.
Islam denies the Holy Spirit
For the same reason you (proverbial) are resistant to the teachings of Islam.
To my mind, a necessary characteristic of any true "religion" is that continued belief is voluntary. Someone who believes in Christianity may believe that ceasing to believe would cause him to rot in Hell, but the notion of such punishment would only be relevant to a believer. Further, renouncing one's beliefs may alienate one's friends and associates, but someone who wants to renounce one's beliefs is free to do so and find other people to associate with.
Islam doesn't meet that requirement. Some societies may expel people who renounce their religion, but will bid them "good riddance". Members may reasonably expect that if they wanted to leave the society and establish associations elsewhere would be free to do so. By contrast, a Muslim who decides to openly renounce his religion is apt to be actively hunted down no matter where he goes. Some Muslims may manage to survive, but Islam does certainly does not encourage such expectation.
Political limits to evangelization in most islamic countries.
Muslims themselves are very open to Christianity.
For a Westerner, our lives are categorized, we have our work life, our personal life, our religious life, and so on. To witness to a Westerner is often like selling someone to a new job. For many who practice Islam, it is like asking them to give up themselves, like cutting off an arm.
A different approach is needed. No, I don't know the answer.
Churchill’s summation of Islam.
Here’s the original:
“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.
The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the infence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith.
It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”
Sir Winston Churchill (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50, London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).
Islam rules by the sword. Converting in most of those counties ends your life when it comes to light.
On the other hand, I know of LOTS of fruit being produced in the Muslim world - in those same countries.
Because many Muslims believe (and practice) that those who convert from Islam should be killed. I have friends in Islamic countries who are open with me about their non-Muslim status... but they are very careful not to allow such status to get anywhere close to public knowledge locally.
It's only recently (last 60 years), as a reflection of the idiotic western guilt about the Crusades, that muslims started using the history of the crusades as a propaganda point.
ping islam vs Christianity
Islam is Satan’s invention, and he uses fear to keep his victims in line.
http://www.citizenwarrior.com/2009/05/terrifying-brilliance-of-islam.html
3.... The Quran, the most important of the Islamic holy books, directly tells its followers that they can never change or modify or “modernize” any of the teachings within the idea-collection. It is perfect as it is. It is a capital sin to try to do so. This idea ensures the preservation of the whole collection.
These first three ideas are pretty standard for several successful religions. But now it gets interesting...
4. Islam commands its followers to create a government that supports it. This may be one of the most ingenious ideas in the whole collection. Islam is the only religion that uses it. Other groups of religious people have had political aspirations, but no other major religious group orders its followers — as a religious duty — to create a government that follows its own system of law.
Islam has a system of law, called Sharia, and all Muslims are obligated to continually strive to make their government — wherever they are — follow it. Because of some of the other ideas added to Islam, you will see that this political addition to the idea-collection has significant consequences. Not only is this perhaps Islam’s most brilliant innovation, it is also the most terrifying to non-Muslims. Read more about the political nature of the core doctrines of Islam.
5. Permission to spread the religion by war. This is another brilliant innovation. Although some other religions have spread themselves using force, they had very little justification from their own religious doctrines to do so.
Not so with Islam. Expanding by conquest is very much accepted and encouraged by the idea-collection. Islamic teachings present it this way: The poor non-Muslims not living in an Islamic state need to be saved from the sin of following laws other than Allah’s. If they won’t voluntarily change their laws to Sharia, then it is the duty of Muslim warriors to insist. The world cannot be at peace until every government on earth follows the laws of Allah.
http://www.citizenwarrior.com/2009/05/terrifying-brilliance-of-islam.html
3.... The Quran, the most important of the Islamic holy books, directly tells its followers that they can never change or modify or “modernize” any of the teachings within the idea-collection. It is perfect as it is. It is a capital sin to try to do so. This idea ensures the preservation of the whole collection.
These first three ideas are pretty standard for several successful religions. But now it gets interesting...
4. Islam commands its followers to create a government that supports it. This may be one of the most ingenious ideas in the whole collection. Islam is the only religion that uses it. Other groups of religious people have had political aspirations, but no other major religious group orders its followers — as a religious duty — to create a government that follows its own system of law.
Islam has a system of law, called Sharia, and all Muslims are obligated to continually strive to make their government — wherever they are — follow it. Because of some of the other ideas added to Islam, you will see that this political addition to the idea-collection has significant consequences. Not only is this perhaps Islam’s most brilliant innovation, it is also the most terrifying to non-Muslims. Read more about the political nature of the core doctrines of Islam.
5. Permission to spread the religion by war. This is another brilliant innovation. Although some other religions have spread themselves using force, they had very little justification from their own religious doctrines to do so.
Not so with Islam. Expanding by conquest is very much accepted and encouraged by the idea-collection. Islamic teachings present it this way: The poor non-Muslims not living in an Islamic state need to be saved from the sin of following laws other than Allah’s. If they won’t voluntarily change their laws to Sharia, then it is the duty of Muslim warriors to insist. The world cannot be at peace until every government on earth follows the laws of Allah.
IIRC, Islam loses about 6,000 each day to Christianity. Their conversion numbers from Christianity are miniscule and are primarily women who marry a muslim.
There is a good deal of evidence that Christianity is eating Islam.
Who is Satan?