Lausanne World Pulse – Closed Doors/Open Windows: The New Challenge in World Missions
By Arne Fjeldstad
Fatima loves chatting on the Internet. Several hours usually go by quickly in the Arabian Peninsula Internet café. The web is new, exciting and fun; you can even chat with foreign boys from other countries! And you can ask questions that the clerics in the mosque do not want to hear.
Some time ago Fatima chatted with two boys from another Arab country. She noticed something special about them and started wondering if they were Christians. She had wondered about their Holy book, the Bible. She knew there were many false things in the book, but she still wondered what the Bible taught about the Prophet Isa (Jesus). But in her country it is no easy task to get a Bible, and most Christian websites are blocked by government censorship. Maybe these boys could help her. Fatima hinted carefully about her sensitive subject and the boys understood her half-coded language. They promised to look into it and get back to her the next day.
The two Christian boys used the rest of the evening downloading each book of the Bible in Arabic. It didn’t take long before Fatima had the entire Bible available on her computer.
New technologies enable us to communicate more effectively and widely. The Internet includes not only web pages but chat rooms, instant messaging capabilities, inexpensive phones and voice mail, blogs, searchable databases, email groups and news groups. When you surf, you can watch television, listen to live radio broadcasts, download broadcasts, download podcast files and more. Emails and instant messages are changing the way we express ourselves. We communicate more directly and use fewer words. New digital tools are becoming multifunctional as well. Cell phones can act as simple photo and video cameras, hold addresses, keep track of appointments and act as alarms.
New information technologies also give millions of people around the world a much better opportunity to communicate directly in cheaper and easier ways. The number of people using the Internet has virtually exploded and it will continue to grow rapidly in many parts of the world in the years ahead. The following statistics (from 2000 and 2005) indicate the number of people with Internet access in key Muslim majority countries.
Number of People with Internet Access in Key Muslim Countries
| Country | 2000 | 2005 | Growth in % | % of the population |
| Algeria | 50,000 | 845,000 | 1,590.0% | 2.6% |
| Bahrain | 40,000 | 152,700 | 281.8% | 21.6% |
| Egypt | 450,000 | 4,200,000 | 833.3% | 6.0% |
| Iran | 250,000 | 4,800,000 | 1,820.0% | 7.0% |
| Iraq | 12,500 | 25,000 | 100.0% | 0.1% |
| Jordan | 127,300 | 600,000 | 371.3% | 10.4% |
| Kuwait | 150,000 | 600,000 | 300.0% | 23.7% |
| Lebanon | 300,000 | 600,000 | 100.0% | 13.4% |
| Libya | 10,000 | 205,000 | 1,950.0% | 3.4% |
| Morocco | 100,000 | 3,500,000 | 3,400.0% | 11.7% |
| Oman | 90,000 | 245,000 | 172.2% | 10.2% |
| Palestine (West Bank) | 35,000 | 160,000 | 357.1% | 4.0% |
| Qatar | 30,000 | 165,000 | 450.0% | 21.5% |
| Saudi Arabia | 200,000 | 2,540,000 | 1,170.0% | 11.0% |
| Sudan | 30,000 | 1,140,000 | 3,700.0% | 3.3% |
| Syria | 30,000 | 800,000 | 2,566.7% | 4.3% |
| Tunisia | 100,000 | 835,000 | 735.0% | 8.3% |
| United Arab Emeriates | 735,000 | 1,384,800 | 88.4% | 36.9% |
| Yemen | 15,000 | 180,000 | 1,100.0% | 0.9% |
| 2,754,800 | 22,977,000 | |||
| Bangladesh | 100,000 | 300,000 | 200.0% | 0.2% |
| Indonesia | 2,000,000 | 15,300,000 | 665.0% | 7.0% |
| Malaysia | 3,700,000 | 10,040,000 | 171.4% | 37.9% |
| Pakistan | 133,900 | 2,000,000 | 1,393.7% | 1.2% |
| Uzbekistan | 7,500 | 880,000 | 11,633.3% | 3.4% |
| 8,696,300 | 51,497,000 |
Source: InternetWorldStats.com, Updated 9 November 2005.
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Rev. Dr. Arne H. Fjeldstad is the CEO of the Media Project of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life. Fjeldstad served as the theologian for the Information and Technology issue group at the Lausanne 2004 Forum for World Evangelization. He has more than thirty years of experience as a journalist, editor, journalism professor and pastor. |