Difficulties in Leaving the Cult of Islam
This story doesn’t deal directly with men in ministry, but it does deal with an interesting part of religious culture I have recently learned about. Apparently some countries put your religion on your identity card and other papers. if you live in one of these predominantly Muslim countries and you are blessed enough to learn about Christ and convert to Christianity, you have to go to court to petition to get your religious identity changed. I have seen several stories of this nature in the last several months, the current one about a woman from Malaysia.
Now here in the US people petition the courts for things like name changes all the time without any problem. But in these cases of Muslim countries, they do not want to see their citizens converting to Christianity. So in most cases the converts are given the run around or simply flat out denied their request. Some of these countries have both civil courts and Muslim Sharia courts. The civil courts will say the decision is out of their jurisdiction, while the Sharia courts will claim the conversion illegal or impossible. If this is not the case, Even worse, some countries only have Sharia courts.
At first I found these stories surprising, one because I never even considered the need to have my religious preference on my ID, and then because if there is a need to have this information on there, it should be a matter of filling out paperwork. But after some consideration I realized how much these hassles makes sense. Christians are the avowed enemies of Islam. Their religion teaches (despite what you hear in the mainstream media) that they are to convert the world or destroy it. So having someone convert in their home country is like having someone choose to defect, or commit treason. Allowing the light of Christ into their hearts is like living in darkness, thinking it’s the only way to live, and have someone come through with a bright beacon of light, and rejecting it as something strange and frightening.
I think we need to pray for these converts, that God will show them favor in the eyes of the Jurists in their community. That they will recognize their citizen’s right to choose their religion, and that Christ will continue to work in the hearts of these people, slowly working His way into every part of the world.
Amen.
