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Permalink: http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/546
Fulcrum Subjects: Mission / Other Faiths Other articles by Matthew Vaughan are available from this site Discuss this Article on the Fulcrum Forum See the 11 comments on this article Islam and Mission Opportunities in the UKby Matthew Vaughan
A few months ago a lady rang me up at work asking for advice. She had heard that “the Muslims” – always a telling phrase, I find – were planning to march through London to express their desire that Britain become a Muslim country and that Buckingham Palace be turned into a mosque. She was absolutely livid and refused to believe me when I assured her that it was an event organised by a handful of extremist crackpots who were shunned by just about every mainstream Muslim in the country. For her this was a direct attack on British democracy and the freedoms we enjoy and she was furious. An indicator of how utterly incensed she was feeling was the fact that she intended to write a letter to her MP about it which, for a British person, is the equivalent of burning down an embassy in protest. Similar levels of sentiment can be witnessed whenever certain trigger issues pop up – the Islamic veil, the construction of mosques and the treatment of those who convert away from Islam are good ones. You can almost hear the grinding coming from the teeth of tabloid readerships as they try to cope with the rage boiling up within them. If you want to fill newspaper space, it seems, all you need to do is cobble the words “no-go areas”, “shari’ahlaw” and “burqa” into some semblance of an article, add something about “indigenous British people” or “traditional freedoms” or, preferably, an unemployed Muslim person living on benefits, and wait for the angry letters to start flying in. As soon as an angry white person says “it’s time to stand up and be counted” you know you’re onto a winner.
One of the saddest things about this combustible state of affairs is the fact that the presence of millions of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and people of other religions in Britain represents a missionary opportunity of proportions which are unprecedented in British history. Did you know, for example, that there are currently something like 20,000 students from Saudi Arabia currently studying in the UK? That there may be as many as 250,000 Somalis currently living in the UK, 55,000 Afghans, 75,000 Iranians and 60,000 Moroccans as well as millions from the Indian subcontinent? Can you imagine how difficult it would be to get enough missionaries into Saudi Arabia to have daily contact with 20,000 Saudis? Or how much time and effort you would need to invest to get millions of Bangladeshis and Pakistanis to the point where they could have regular contact with Christians? I work for a mission organisation and getting missionaries into these countries takes a lot of time and money. And even once they’re there, they are often unable to witness as boldly and openly as they might like. Yet here we are, in a country with a church in virtually every village and probably at least one Christian on every street and in every block of flats, and the world has come to us. People from the most unchurched countries on earth, from the regions which are most hostile to Christianity, are living on our streets, working in our shops, are sharing our parks and our buses and our Underground carriages. Thousands and thousands of people who would probably otherwise never have met a Christian in their lives are living within earshot of a church. Up to about fifty years ago you would have had to spend two months on a boat if you wanted to meet a Muslim from Pakistan or Somalia; these days you can meet one by popping across the road to buy a pint of milk. By failing to recognise the historical magnitude of this epic diaspora and of its arrival in what is still a strongly Christian country we run the risk of missing out on one of history’s biggest missionary opportunities.
This wouldn’t be the first time that Christians have missed out on a missionary open goal. In the 13th century the Mongol Empire was the largest land empire the world had ever seen, stretching from Korea to Poland and from China to Arabia. It was bigger than the Roman Empire and the Islamic Caliphate put together. Mongol armies were pushing into the Middle East and threatening to destroy the territory of Islam. By 1241 Mongol generals were invading Europe, had conquered Hungary, Poland and Transylvania, and were knocking at the gates of Vienna. In 1258 they sacked Baghdad, the centre of Islamic power, and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants. The Mongol khanssent a string of letters to the Pope requesting him to submit to their authority or be destroyed. It’s hard to imagine the threat that this horde of battle-hardened warriors posed to the Western world as well as the Muslim world. And yet, amazing as it may seem, Christians had the chance to influence them at the highest possible level.
In 1266 the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan sent a message to Pope Gregory X via Niccolo and Maffeo Polo (the father and uncle of Marco Polo) requesting that one hundred Christian scholars and engineers be sent to the Mongol Empire to preach the Christian gospel and to strengthen the Christian faith that was already present there in the form of Nestorian Christians. He also requested that some holy oil from the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem be sent to him. The Pope decided that he could only spare two Dominican friars and duly sent them out, together with a 17 year old Marco Polo. Even this rather lame effort came to a premature end when the two friars, presumably after taking a quick look at a map of the world and realising just what they’d signed up for, decided to give it a miss. The 17 year old Polo actually made the trip, amazingly, but by sending a single gawky teenager instead of a hundred experienced Christian missionaries the Pope had clearly missed the boat. It’s impossible to know how things might have turned out if a hundred experienced and dedicated Christians had arrived in Mongolia and had been given free rein to spread the Christian message. Might the Bible have been translated into the local languages? Might court officials have embraced this faith? Might Kublai Khan himself have become a Christian and expected his subjects to do the same in the way that Constantine the Great did back in Roman times? The implications for the global church and particularly for the church in Eastern and Central Asia might have been staggering.
But we’ll never know, because Christians either failed to recognise the opportunity when it presented itself or failed to make the most of it. I wonder if, in fifty years, Christians might look back at Britain in the early 21st century and admit that we did the same thing. My worry is that, with the intense debate and anxiety over the presence of several million Muslims in the UK and the accompanying debates over issues such as the veil, community cohesion and radicalism, we’re losing sight of the fact that the multicultural makeup of 21st century Britain represents one of the greatest missionary opportunities in the UK for many, many years, perhaps the greatest ever. There are thousands, even millions, of people from the most unchurched countries in the world living on our doorstep. Men, women and children from the most anti-Christian states in the world – Somalia, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen – have done us the favour of coming to the UK, thereby saving us the trouble of paying for an airfare to go to them. Furthermore, this epic diaspora often retains strong links with their original communities back home, opening up even greater vistas of missionary potential. I was at a church on the south coast a while ago where an Indian Hindu lady had come to know Christ. As she flew back home regularly to catch up with family and friends she took her new-found faith with her until the whole community, in a remote and rural area of north India, had followed her example and converted to Christ. The diverse ethnic and religious makeup of our country presents challenges, of course, but we need to recognise that it also presents opportunities of incalculable potential. The tragedy of this situation is that, while we have often been quick to highlight the potential dangers of immigration from Muslim countries, we have been lamentably slow to recognise the missionary potential that is staring us in the face.
For Christ’s sake – and I mean that very literally – let’s not repeat the Mongol mistake. This opportunity to reach out to people from so many unchurched countries might not last forever. God, in his sovereign power, has brought people from all over the world to live in the UK, a country which, despite what you might think, is still strongly Christian in many ways. As Christians it is incumbent upon us to be hospitable to these new arrivals (have a gander at Leviticus 19: 33, for example) and to show the love of Jesus to them through what we do and say. When we’re dealing with people from different religious and ethnic backgrounds then obstacles do emerge: language barriers, issues surrounding interfaith apologetics, cultural differences like the roles played by men and women, for example. With training, all of these are surmountable. I wonder if the biggest obstacles, on the other hand, are the ones inside our own heads: the fear of outsiders changing “our way of life”, the fear of people who don’t speak our language or understand our customs, the fear that some Muslims may seek political power. Let’s pray that God would enable us to see beyond the fear which mass immigration may provoke and to recognise the opportunity which we have. If followers of Christ engaged wholeheartedly with the diaspora on our doorstep it could have consequences for the world church which are as thrilling as they are huge. Matthew Vaughan works for the mission agency Interserve, editing their quarterly magazine “Go” and working as PA to the Director, Steve Bell. He is a keen writer, has been published in a range of Christian and secular publications, and also works with Muslims in his spare time. Discuss this Article on the Fulcrum Forum Forum Posts About This Article:Posted by: WATERANGEL Monday 23 August 2010 - 08:07am David B I wondered if you saw this post, or whether you just considered it was not worth a response, for despite the light hearted nature of the end of the post it was a serious genuine question. There is the Muslim faith, and there is terrorism, the Qaran has many many sentences in it which instructs the followers of the muslim faith to Love and Serve in much the same way as the bible. There are muslims who will kill but they are not genuine to the call of Allah who does not tell his followers to kill, there are bits that would indicate that that might be the case but mostly it is not. Taken at face value the bibles old testament without explanation and clarification instructs the same thing you read in the bible all that. if it offends you "it would be better to cut it off business" We are also told OUR GOD is a jealous God etc. The main difference i see between the two faiths being Jesus and the concept of repentance opening the way to forgiveness and eternal life after life on this earth which would have a "life is a rehearsal for the real thing element." On the other hand if they offend Allah "the cutting off becomes the head, which of course parallells to John the baptist. in both outlooks to a relationship with God and serving and the ultimate what happens if God is not pleased, and how that is acted out in human form from the limited understanding that we have, in respect to we are what we learn. People learn who they are and thier worth from those who teach them. What happens to the radicalized who genuinely feel because it is deep within them that God will kill them if they dont kill themselves. It seems to me its all based around the need for human acceptance, I dont get a sense of "God is working his purpose out" when it comes to Islam so it is all of the moment irradicting the present fear is the way forward for them. Sometimes the way i explain things may seem simple, i do that because it often seems to me that the obvious is often overlooked. It is easy to assume that people are able to compare and contrast faith systems side by side but actually most are not able to do that and cannot make informed choices because of it. Angela, Posted by: WATERANGEL Friday 13 August 2010 - 09:46pm David Baker Do you think that we will all be forced to only pray at home or inside a recognized church building for the sake of security? Doves are the birds of peace and freely fly whereas the slippery snake cant even get off the ground, Christianity is already flying but with increasingly clipped wings. But i hope i am not being naive when i say or think that if the wisdom of Jesus is within me, he is always with me, even if sometimes that is where he stays and does not always get the expression he deserves. I find all this a bit scary sometimes, I am reading the Grace for Muslims book at the moment, it is very interesting and resonates with my own experience. In some ways they remind me of the Mormons, though they are not so militant, you know with their five extra books like the five pillars of faith in the Muslim world. Then i looked at the Pentateuch and see where the chaos humans before the ten commandments or the halal laws that are in Leviticus which were the same as the Jewish laws of basic health and hygiene, sometimes 'i dont get it' honest Mount Sinai to this day is in tact but full of salesmen doing things deemed unclean to Muslims and Christians. There are Christian Jews and Muslim Jews and there are Christian Muslims. "Muslim activist tend to minimize the religious aspects and emphasize the political issues"( Grace for Muslims 1st paragraph Page 4 Steve Bell ). Politics does not say you have to die for Allah the Spirituality emphasizing the sacrifice is what dictates that, so here to me it would highlight that Grace becomes about a Muslims self worth, I am worthy enough to die and unworthy to live, but this is in direct contradiction to the ultimate aim that Allah is the one God because if they all in their worthiness die, there will be no Pilgrims to promote world domination. So this would indicate that the political agenda and the spiritual agenda are at definite odds with each other. Or it indicates that INDIVIDUAL Muslims are promoting a guerrilla message which has nothing to do with faith life styles but to do with dictatorship No-one let Hitler stay around, and nobody thinks Mugabe is right , The article you recommended, i thought was very good and valid, freedom for all faiths in a multicultural society but not financial support for those who wish others harm through any kind of domination. Freedom is only Freedom when it has boundaries, for it is the boundaries that prevents cross contamination, and therefore maintains the freedom. I admit to being naive sometimes, but hopefully i am not slippery. I hope you manage to read and feedback on this. Angela Posted by: David Baker Thursday 12 August 2010 - 09:47am We do well to be innocent as doves and yet wise as serpents: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/moderate-muslim-groups-share-al-qaedas-goal/ Posted by: Paul Dyson Tuesday 10 August 2010 - 10:43pm For an interesting, and enlightening, insight into a Muslim community in Britain, presented by themselves, I recommend the following link. http://www.barbodhan.org.uk Posted by: WATERANGEL Tuesday 10 August 2010 - 12:39pm I am awaiting arrival of Steve Bells book and looking forward to reading it. Waterangel I have read most of this book now, i found it clear to read and learnt alot from it, it made me smile with acknowledgement in a few places as i had had the same experiences he describes. There was one in particular, where a muslim student was eager to share with him that he was a christian, i had the same experience in Eygypt and the connection was that both the student and the person who spoke to me were from Cairo. Are you a Christian? he said i replied yes he was genuinely pleased to share for that brief time.In much the same way the man thrust his arm at me showing where he had tataoed his wrist it was the mark that said we were brother and sister in Christ. waterangel Posted by: Tony Tuesday 10 August 2010 - 11:55am Without doing a full scale review (which would be premature), can I recommend a book I've just got into which brings a really fresh perspective? Ray Gaston, A Heart Broken Open (published this year by Wild Goose Publications -- www.ionabooks.com) Ray Gaston is an Anglican Priest and an authorised Methodist minister working at the Queen's Foundation in Birmingham but his book documents his time at All Hallows, Leeds (and no, it's not an '"Evangelical" church') in the period after the July bombings in 2007. Posted by: Deleted user 2205 Thursday 5 August 2010 - 10:47pm The book recommendation is most helpful. Thank you. I believe that you have a great ministry in front of you Matt. George. Posted by: Matt Vaughan Wednesday 4 August 2010 - 04:47pm Thanks for the comments. George - you're very kind. I agree that Muslims are generally very open to discussing issues of faith, perhaps more so than the average secular "indigenous British person" (whatever that means). Meeting Muslims on a personal level does so much to dispel any myths which we may have imbibed from the press, both Christian and secular. They stop being the faceless drones which the Daily Mail (and others) make them out to be, and start being real people with real senses of humour, real problems, real personalities. As for required reading, I'd go for "Cross and Crescent" by Colin Chapman, "Grace for Muslims" by Steve Bell, or just about anything which encourages Christians to meet Muslims personally and go beyond the stereotypes. Paul - you don't live in Luton, do you? I did, until a week ago...anyway, I agree that it's easy not to meet Muslims if you don't want to. In Luton I found that I had to make an intentional effort to do so, despite the large number of Pakistanis living there. The number of converts from Islam to Christianity is a bit unknown, for various reasons. I know of perhaps twenty or thirty personally; I would imagine there are a few thousand in total from various countries across the UK. Naturally it goes both ways, and Christians also convert to Islam. The point you raise about Muslims leaving Islam and needing to find a community is essential. This seems to be a real felt need in a number of contexts. I know of a few places where such communities do exist (Birmingham, Southampton, Oxford, London) and also some where they do not (Luton being a good example). This is a key issue if these new Christians are not to drift away as a result of being deprived of the strong sense of community which Islam seems to generate and which English Christianity often doesn't. We have learning to do! Posted by: Paul Dyson Wednesday 4 August 2010 - 12:34pm An interesting article from several points of view, though some may think it rather simplistic due to the context. A few observations - in no particular order and acknowledging that other contributors may well be better informed: Similar points were being made about forty years ago when there were already significant Hindu and Muslim communities in some large towns and cities. Some efforts at bridge-building and evangelism were made by churches, individual and co-operative, and Interserve's predecessor, BMMF (Bible and Medical Missionary Fellowship) supported various projects. There were (and still are) conferences and conventions of those with an interest. There are individuals and small teams who make dedicated efforts to reach Asians, sometimes (? unfortunately) from what might be called rather extreme Christiam positions. There are some Christian congregations among those who came here from India, Pakistan and elsewhere and even some pastors who speak the appropriate languages. I know of one CoE clergyman who is of Pakistani origin and serving in a parish with a high concentration of Muslims (mainly Indian!). I am not aware how much or little integration there has been with "indigenous" churches nor how successful such congregations have been in reaching out to Asian British of other faiths. From observation I would say that Asian Christians have considerable anxiety, even fear, in regard to Muslims, which is understandable when they hear of some events and persecutions in the sub-continent. British Christian churches were not generally welcoming to Christian immigrants from Africa and the West Indies. Hence, in part, the rise of the "black" churches. On the whole tthe other-faith communities have concentrated in inner-urban areas where churches were already weakening in the 60s and 70s and have generally declined even further since then, even to the point of disappearance. Everywhere is part of an Anglican parish of course, but inner-urban parishes are often now parts of larger amalgamations, understaffed and with congregations who come in for services and events but have little if any engagement with the area and its community. When mosques and temples have strong presences the remaining Christians tend to be on the defensive, trying to preserve what they have rather than feeling the confidence to reach out. I have not observed much interest from the stronger evangelical churches, Anglican or other, which tend to be in the suburbs, nor am I aware that the eclectic congregations which sometimes take over redundant buildings are doing much in relation to other faiths. From observation in my own locality (large once-industrial town with about 20% varied Asian population) it is very easy for white British, even for Christians with a real desire to reach out, to live lives which only rarely bring them into contact with other faiths, and even that only superficial - at the supermarket checkout. One need never set foot in Asian areas and can easily find schools with no Asian children. The article is right to resist stereotyping of other faith groups - "The Muslims" etc. There is probably as great a variety amongst Muslims as there is amongst Christians, despite the cultivated images and apparently unified practice and belief. Groups/denominations of Hindus and Muslims have considerable community spirit, perhaps more than all but the best Christian fellowships, cemented by family connections and links to the village back home, as some of the news items about response to the floods in Pakistan demonstrate. Converts to Christianity would need to find something similar in the churches because they would be most likely leaving behind their ties and supports as well as possibly facing serious consequences - does that level of fellowship exist? I have been told, but cannot personally verify, that there have been significant numbers of conversions from Islam in London. Other-faith groups have their vulnerable points. Many people who were immigrants are very anxious about the perils modern British culture has for their children and grandchildren, involvement in crime, lack of employment opportunties. Some as a result are keen to keep their young people, especially girls, away from the influence of white youth. But I sense that the influence of "the elders" may be waning. Do university CUs have any "success" in reaching those from other faiths? Posted by: Deleted user 2205 Wednesday 4 August 2010 - 12:16pm Matthew - thank you for an outstanding article. It is one that needs to be taken to heart by us all. Some of the most reliable, hardworking and humorous friends that I have are those who follow the Islamic faith. My friends are approachable, sincere and hospitable. They are surprisingly open to the Gospel and happily consider the importance of Jesus. I agree with the training suggestion – perhaps some recommended books would be helpful? I remember the shock and fear to my friends when 9/11 took place. The West couldn’t comprehend the fear that caused within the Muslim communities, and were so grateful when local Christians stood by them with maturity, warmth and understanding. 
Posted by: Graham Kings
Monday 2 August 2010 - 11:58pm
We have just published on Fulcrum, 'Islam and Mission Opportunities in the UK' by Matthew Vaughan, editor of the magazine, 'Go', a quarterly of the mission agency Interserve. |
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Dearie me, this whole Islam debate can get a bit heated, can’t it? It seems that just about any news story which is related in any conceivable way to Islam is guaranteed to make the front page. The cultural clash between Islam and the West is particularly newsworthy. As soon as a British teacher in the Sudan is jailed for naming a teddy bear “Mohammed” or the Archbishop of Canterbury mildly suggests that British law might accommodate elements of Islamic legal practice swarms of journalists start hammering away at their laptops, forests of trees are cut down and turned into newsprint, and angry people from Middle England start writing letters to the Daily Mail. The strength of opinion, on both sides, is really something to behold. You should have read the letters sections of the Luton newspapers a