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After September 11, evangelicals in the United States and in other countries have awakened to a mission field that’s been all around them, often for years. Suddenly, they’re wanting to know more about that field, and how to reach it.

“I’ve been flooded by calls to speak in churches,” said Roy Oksnevad, an Evangelical Free Church missionary and an associate at the Institute of Muslim Studies in the Billy Graham Center of Wheaton College. He specializes in training evangelicals to minister to Muslims. “We know that we’ve got Muslims around us, and we don’t know anything about [Islam]. The American church has all of a sudden awakened to the Muslim presence. It will embolden the Christian community to share the gospel.”

While Oksnevad has never been busier than in the weeks after September 11 as he teaches Christians how to share with Muslims, interest in Muslim ministry has grown in the 16 years that he and his wife, Darla, have ministered to them. When the couple first went to the mission field in 1985, they were the only ones in their denomination with a Muslim outreach. Now there are 65. “You go across any denomination or mission group and you’ll see the same pattern,” he said. “People are saying, ‘I feel called to work with Muslims.'”

So far, the response has been quite the opposite from what some had feared after September 11, that Christians would perceive Muslims as their enemies and stop funding ministries to them. “I think there will be an upward turn [in mission work to Muslims] because of the [September 11] events,” Oksnevad said. “This event has brought it to the front burner. There’s now a renewed sensitivity to want to reach out and do something. I think that we will see within the next year or two a lot more [missionary] candidates going to the Muslims.”

Jim Dretke, executive director of the Zwemer Institute, agreed. “What we’re anticipating is that this is generating much deeper interest in the Muslim world than there has been before,” he said. “We anticipate this is going to open doors to Muslim hearts that have been closed before.”

The events of September 11 could have a positive or negative impact, said Robert Douglas, professor of intercultural studies at Lincoln Christian Seminary in Lincoln, Illinois. He served as a missionary in the 1970s in Libya, Egypt and Lebanon. “People are suddenly aware of Muslims as never before,” Douglas said. “And with the right kind of preaching and guidance, there is the potential to focus more prayer, money and effort on Muslims.”

On the other hand, Douglas cited the danger of stereotyping all Muslims as fanatics and terrorists and allowing fear to carry the day, “resulting in a psychological if not physical withdrawal from Muslims,” he said.

“Generally, Christians in Muslim lands have had Muslim neighbors extend words of shock and sympathy to them,” Douglas said. “Most Muslims do not endorse the kind of acts that occurred on September 11.”

Darla Oksnevad said that some of the recent interest that Christians have had in learning more about Islam was motivated by the fear factor. She said people are asking, “Should we be afraid of the Muslims who live near us? Should we ignore them? Or should we befriend them?”

Definitely the latter. Divine providence has placed Muslims next door to many Christians for a reason. “According to Acts 17: 26-7, God determines the time and the exact places where they should live so that they would seek him and reach out for him,” Darla Oksnevad said. “Therefore, it’s our responsibility to befriend them and reach out to them with the gospel. And many of them are very receptive.”

The events of September 11 may create conflicts within the belief systems of individual Muslims. “Often, there’s a crisis in which the person’s world view comes crumbling down, and the person says there’s got to be another truth that’s out there,” he said.

Oksnevad cited a post-September 11 case in point as an example of Christians reaching out to Muslims. An Illinois church invited members of a local mosque to attend a service. “Seventy-three came,” Oksnevad said. “The following week, the Muslims invited them to the mosque.” While the Christians declined to join the Muslims for prayers and the sermon, they did come to the mosque afterward for fellowship.

Dretke foresees more Muslims becoming Christians, both in the United States and elsewhere in the world. “We have seen a goodly number of Iranian Muslims coming to know the Lord,” he said. “[Ayatollah] Khomeini was going to change things for the better. No one anticipated everything was going to get worse. When people are totally down and out as so many of those people were, the gospel is truly good news.”

He believes if Afghans had a way to hear the gospel, they would clamor to the Lord. “Makes me wonder how many Afghans are going to really look at where they’re at [spiritually] in their down-and-outedness to see what the Good News really is, [and] where you truly find peace,” Dretke said.

What should Christians’ response be to followers of Islam, the faith that terrorists claimed to inspire them to murder thousands?

First of all, Oksnevad said, prayer. “Jesus said to pray for our enemies,” he said. Second, speak ill of no one. “Definitely, we have to stop any negative attitude. Number three, instead of being self-centered and walking around and not noticing Muslims or strangers, we need to reach out and share with them,” he said.

“These terrorists have lived among us in our neighborhoods and had melted within our society. We never know who we may come into contact with. The urgency is that we have to share the gospel. The job of reaching Muslims isn’t just for the missionary going overseas. We have to do it here,” Oksnevad said.

Dretke says that the September 11 events could radicalize nominal Muslims or turn them off to Islam. “That’s why we have to be urgent in prayer so God intervenes in very special ways to keep this conflict from becoming a worldwide conflict, letting it be resolved sooner rather than later.”

Those who have a saving faith in Jesus must respond to Muslims as Christ himself would. “We’re called upon to adopt the mind of Christ,” he said. “We can only pray for our enemies, serve them, love them, pray for those who hurt us and spitefully hurt us.”

November 12, 2001