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Missionaries To Follow U.S. Forces In Iraq
By Aymen Qenawi, Khaled Mamdouh IOL Staff CAIRO, March 28 (IslamOnlien.net) - Enhancing the conviction among some Arabs and Muslims that the U.S.-led war of aggression on Iraq is part of a new "crusade" campaign, the Beliefnet.com and Newhouse.com websites recently reported that two leading evangelical Christian missionary organizations were readying teams to enter Iraq to address "the spiritual needs" of the population. The Southern Baptist Convention, the U.S. largest Protestant denomination, and the Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse said workers were on the Iraqi-Jordanian borders ready to go in as soon as it is safe. A free lance translator told IslamOnline.net Friday, March 28, that he was approached by ?some organization? to forge up a team of translators to carry out a translation job from English into Arabic, adding that ?extracts I saw from the project were of a missionary nature, targeted to three countries; Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq?. The 45-year-old translator was forced to quit a translation project he was working on after disclosing what he termed ?alarming data?. However, he did not even know ?who or what was behind the whole thing?. ?But, having failed to get me to recruit translators, I believe they will go ahead and make an ad on the net,? he said, adding that he ?was bent on disclosing their identity?. Observers believe such news consolidate the conviction shared by a large section of public opinion in the Arab and Islamic worlds that the Iraq was is a new ?crusade? campaign. However, a host of prominent Arab intellectuals, including renowned scholars such as Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, refuse to regard the Iraqi war within such a context. They underline that their opposition to the U.S.-led war on Iraq, which they share with hundreds of millions of people across the globe of different religious and political affiliations, is based on rejection of injustice, respect of countries? sovereignty and abidance by international laws and conventions. Both Graham and the Southern Baptist Convention have been at the heart of controversial evangelical denunciations of Islam. The Southern Baptist Convention and Graham?s Samaritan's Purse claimed their priority will be to provide food, shelter and other needs to war-ravaged Iraqis, but asserting that when convenient they will also share their Christian faith with Iraqis, 98 of whom are Muslims. Franklin Graham, one of the U.S.?s most outspoken critics of Islam, told Beliefnet.com Wednesday, March 25, in a telephone interview from Samaritan?s Purse headquarters in Boone, N.C., ?We realize we?re in an Arab country and we just can?t go out and preach.? ?I believe as we work, God will always give us opportunities to tell others about his Son?.We are there to reach out to love them and to save them, and as a Christian I do this in the name of Jesus Christ.? In his interview with Beliefnet.com, he renewed allegations that "the Qur'an teaches violence, not peace..." Two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, Graham called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion" during an interview on NBC television network. In his book published last year, "The Name," Graham wrote that "The God of Islam is not the God of the Christian faith." He went on to say that "the two are different as lightness and darkness." He admitted that his Samaritan?s Purse is in daily contact with Bush Administration agencies in Amman, Jordan, about its plans. Graham didn?t seem concerned that the public presence in Iraq of Samaritan?s Purse could prompt already-skeptical Muslims worldwide to view the war as a crusade against Islam. ?We don?t work for the U.S. Government, so we don?t get our permission from them.? "We go where we have the opportunity to meet needs," said Ken Isaacs, international director of projects for Samaritan's Purse, located in Boone, N.C. "We do not deny the name of Christ. We believe in sharing him in deed and in word. We'll be who we are." Muslims were outraged that Graham would be allowed to help with Iraq?s humanitarian effort. "Franklin Graham obviously thinks it is a war against Islam,? said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. ?This is a guy who gave the invocation at President Bush?s inauguration and believes Islam is a wicked faith. And he's going to go into Iraq in the wake of an invading army and convert people to Christianity? Nothing good is coming of that.? A spokeswoman for the U.S. Agency for International Development said Wednesday night she could not comment. Meanwhile, officials from the Southern Baptist Convention are also planning a large ?relief? effort in Iraq once the war ends. ?This is not just a great opportunity to do humanitarian work but to share God's love,? said Sam Porter, state disaster relief director for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. ?We understand that the individual people of Iraq have done nothing to hurt us. We want to help them to have true freedom in Jesus Christ.? "Conversations about spiritual things will come about as people ask about our faith," said Mark Kelly, a spokesman for the Southern Baptists' International Mission Board Kelly, based in Richmond, Va. "It's not going to be like what you might see in other countries where there's a preaching service held outside clinics and things like that," he claimed. "Evangelicals need to be sensitive to the circumstances of this country and its people," said Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, based in Washington, D.C. "If we are perceived as opportunists we only hurt our cause. If this is seen as religious freedom for Iraq by way of gunboat diplomacy, is that helpful? I don't think so. If that's the perception, we lose." On the eve of the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis last year, the Rev. Jerry Vines, a former denomination president, told several thousand delegates that Islam's Allah is not the same as the God worshipped by Christians. "And I will tell you Allah is not Jehovah, either. Jehovah's not going to turn you into a terrorist," Vines claimed. Widespread condemnation of those comments followed from other Protestant leaders as well as from Catholic and Jewish groups. U.S. President George Bush, an evangelical Christian himself, has close ties to both Franklin Graham, who gave a prayer at his inauguration, and Southern Baptists, who are among his most loyal political supporters. "Where determination exists, failure cannot dismatter the flag of succes" Mr Gboko (7th grade english teacher) Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! |