ISLAM IN USA - LET US COUNTER IT ! ~ by A. Shaikh -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a report about the increase of Islamic population and its influence in USA as written by Wendy Murray Zoba who is Associate Editor of Christianity Today. I have added the sub-headings in between in capital letters to enable the reader to focus and understand specifically each issue being discussed in the report. OVERVIEW OF THE GROWTH OF MUSLIMS IN THE WEST Between 1989 and 1998 the Islamic population in Europe grew by over 100 percent, to 14 million (approximately 2 percent of the population), according to United Nations statistics. During the same period, the Muslim population in the United States grew by 25 percent. Islam is the second-largest religious group in the world, with more than a billion members worldwide (some estimates put it closer to two billion). An estimated 4 to 6 million Muslims live in the U.S today and that number is growing. Islam could be the second-largest religion in America by 2015, surpassing Judaism, according to some estimates. By other estimates, Islam has achieved that rank already. WHO & WHEREFROM THE MAJORITY US CONVERTS COME Islam is gaining most of its U.S. converts in prisons and on university campuses. The majority of American converts to Islam85 to 90 percentare black. Of the estimated 6 million Muslims in the U.S., 2.6 million are black. One out of every 15 blacks identifies him or herself as Muslim, notes Carl Ellis. Anglo women make up another demographic with a surprisingly high conversion rate in the U.S. INFLUENCE OF MUSLIMS IN USA Muslims moving to the West are changing the cultural and religious landscape. A hospital in Detroit offers Muslim patients copies of the Quran; Denver International Airport includes a chapel for Muslim prayers; the U.S. Senate has invited a Muslim cleric to open its session in prayer; the military has hired four Muslim chaplains; the White House sends greetings (like its Christmas cards) on Id al-Fitr, the feast that ends Ramadan; the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington D.C. sends 100 Qurans a month to prisons while imams (spiritual leaders) send volunteers to teach Arabic. On Capitol Hill. weekly Muslim prayer services and forums to expose congressional staffers to Muslim viewpoints have become regular fare, notes Ira Rifkin of Religion News Service (Nov. 30, 1999), and a bill has been introduced in Congress to issue a postage stamp commemorating Ramadan. Muslims are fully exercising the rights and freedoms available to them in the West. Last fall, the watch dog Council on AmericanIslamic Relations (CAIR) objected to the season premiere of Touched by an Angel, which featured a story line about slavery in Sudan and forced conversions of Christians living in the south. A CAIR official said the show was tantamount to thinly disguised anti-Muslim propaganda and political partisanship. Also last fall, American Muslim groups called for a boycott of Disney theme parks and merchandise to protest the Jerusalem exhibit at Disney Worlds EPCOT. They cited Israels illegal occupation and annexation of Jerusalem, saying Disney ignored the citys significance to Islam. Since Disney has elected to venture from entertainment into politics, the corporation must see that our community will not accept its endorsement of Israels acquisition of territory by force, said Khalid Turaani, executive director of American Muslims for Jerusalem. CAIRs 1999 annual report on Muslim civil rights stated that American public schools are a major area in which Muslim apprehension about the lack of religious accommodation is growing. Still, the report cited progress in Chicago, where alternative foods are available when pork is served; Fairfax County, Virginia, where a pig sign on school menus indicates items that include pork; and in Paterson, New Jersey, where the school district cancels classes on two Muslim holidays. NON TOLERANCE OF EACH OTHER (CHRISTIANITY & ISLAM) While Muslims gain religious rights in the West, persecution of religious minorities by extreme Islamic elements in some Muslim countries in Asia and the Middle East continues unabated. The 1999 U.S. State Departments Annual Report on International Religious Freedom notes that in Pakistan, for example, discriminatory legislation has encouraged an atmosphere of religious intolerance. The report says that Christians face harassment and intimidation. In Saudi Arabia, any attempt to convert a Muslim to another faith is subject to criminal prosecution. Public religious worship by any non-Muslim is a criminal offense. In Sudan, Christians, practitioners of traditional indigenous religions, and Muslims who deviate from the Governments interpretation of Islam are subject to severe limits on religious freedom, including killing, prolonged arbitrary detention or imprisonment, threats, violence, and forced conversion to Islam. Conversely, Muslims have suffered persecution at the hands of Christians, as the Serbian atrocities against Muslims and the war in Chechnya attest. These and other forms of persecution incline them to view the Christian West with similar foreboding. MISSIONARY MANDATE OF ISLAM The Mecca-based Muslim World League spearheads a massive Islamic missionary effort, notes Mission Frontiers (October 1999). Vast sums of [oil] money are used to propagate Islam around the world: aid to countries considered sympathetic, building mosques, sending missionaries, literature, radio, etc. The worlds largest printing presses are located here, and they churn out 28 million copies of the Koran every year for worldwide distribution. Islam has a missionary mandate and the West is one of its final frontiers. They see us [in the West] as having forsaken the foundations of our faith and view Western nations as ripe for conversion to Islam, says David Echols, who worked in Pakistan for 25 years and now serves as outreach director at the South Asian Friendship Center (SAFC) in Chicago. In their minds and hearts Muslims believe firmly that Christianity has failed on the racial, social, and religious perspectives, says SAFC director Samuel Naaman, a Pakistani whose Muslim father was a terrorist before converting to Christianity. Look at society and the people who claim to be Christians. What is the difference between them? Muslims believe they have a mandate from God that the whole world has to come under the banner of Islam. Robert Douglas, former director of the Zwemer Institute of Muslim Studies and now director of the Chicago Center for Urban Mission described a Muslim missionary conference several years ago at which one speaker expressed the need to target 75 million Americans for Islam. Another speaker cited successes in Egypt and Indonesia [both nominally Christian before Islam took over]. If it takes 500 or 1,000 years, thats OK. Were here for the long haul, the speaker said. SOURCE: Christianity Today Now Our Concern: It is high time we roll up our sleeves and introduce some really dynamic measures not only to safeguard but also to inform people about the dangers of Islam. Let us rethink and rearrange our strategies keeping into consideration the acute needs of the present times.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 08:53:20 +0000
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