Source: St. Francis Magazine, April 2014
D. Alexander Miller recently published “Religious Freedom in Israel-Palestine: May Muslims Become Christians, and Do Christians Have the Freedom to Welcome Such Converts?”
This article seeks to understand the challenges and context of Christians who are also ex-Muslims in the Holy Land. Attention is paid to the difference between the contexts in the West Bank and Israel, and how the established Christian churches sometimes safeguard their own precarious sense of security by turning away Muslims who seek to know more about the Christian faith and converts from Islam.
Converts often feel a great sense of internal emotional and spiritual liberation/freedom in discarding Islam for Christ. The challenge to the churches in Israel-Palestine is to be a home where that new identity can flourish, and where, if possible, other challenges facing the convert, from physical danger to the loss of a job, can be addressed as well. To date, most churches, including evangelical ones, have not been up to this dangerous task.
» See also Roland Muller’s article In Search of Community (EMQ, via COMMA Network) and David Garrison’s Why Muslims Are Becoming the Best Evangelists (Christianity Today).