One former Moslem thinks so – as a measure of self defense:
Born Muslim in Somalia, Ayaan Hirsi Ali grew up in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya, fleeing to the Netherlands at the age of 22 to escape an arranged marriage. Ten years later, she was elected to the Dutch parliament. A prominent feminist and critic of Islam, she received numerous death threats when she renounced her faith following the 9/11 terrorist attacks…
…Q: One of your more startling arguments in Nomad is that Christian churches should proselytize in immigrant communities to try to convert Muslims.
A: Look at the amount of money Saudi Arabia spends on coming into Muslim communities in America and Europe, building schools and also taking leaders and training them in Mecca and Medina, then replanting them. It’s surprising that no other group of people is targeting the same communities. If you look at Western civilization, at the institutions [and movements] that were engaged in changing people’s hearts and minds—the Christian Church, humanists, feminists—they are doing next to nothing in these Muslim communities. When I was in Holland [recently], I heard about a Christian mission that had been proselytizing in Morocco. The government kicked them out and sent them back to Holland. I thought, “You don’t have to stop proselytizing—just go to the Muslim community in Amsterdam west and carry on there.” But of course there, they’re not only going to face the radical Muslims as opponents, they’re also going to face the multicultural opponents, saying they’re not supposed to be telling people to leave their religion.
Q: So how would they do it?
A: Next to every mosque, build a Christian centre, an enlightenment centre, a feminist centre. There are tons of websites, financed with Saudi money, promoting Wahabism. We need to set up our own websites—Christian, feminist, humanist—trying to target the same people, saying, we have an alternative moral framework to Islam. We have better ideas.
Which is all a very good idea, but most liberals don’t believe in their own ideals, and neither do most Christians. Not to the point of being willing to present those ideas without apology to non-believers. What startles about some of the Christians who do preach in public is not what they say so much as that they are saying it in public. Proclaiming that Christ is Lord is all fine and dandy behind closed doors on a Sunday…but try that in a park almost all Christians within hearing will wince and turn away rather than offer an “amen”.
You have to believe in something in order to offer it so another. And you have to at least try to live your faith in order to be in any way credible as a witness. Feminists who slander someone like Sarah Palin; liberals who are fabulously wealthy; Christians who won’t lend a hand – these are not the sort of people a doubter will listen to. But an Islamist who offers a quick and easy explanation for all the ills of the world and who appears to live a devout life (easy in Islam as there isn’t much externally to being a Moslem, other than the requirement of prayer) can sway someone who is miserable (even if through personal failure) and wants a purpose in life.
I’m afraid that we are first going to have to re-convert ourselves. Then we’re going to have to convert our surrounding culture. Only then will we have a good alternative to offer the Islamist rank-and-file.
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