confronting islam in the west

Jesuit Scholar: Islamic Extremists Are the True Muslims

Islamic extremists who carry out acts of terror are simply applying what their faith requires of them, according to Jesuit Father Henri Boulad, an Islamic scholar of the Egyptian Greek Melkite rite.

by THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.
16 Jun 2017

In an interview with the National Catholic Register, Father Boulad said that “Islam is an open-ended declaration of war against non-Muslims” and those who carry out violent jihad are true Muslims who are applying exactly what their creed demands.

Those who fail to recognize the real threat posed by Islam are naïve and ignorant of history, he said, and unfortunately many in the Church fall into this category.

Citing a letter he wrote last August to Pope Francis, Father Boulad said that “on the pretext of openness, tolerance and Christian charity — the Catholic Church has fallen into the trap of the liberal left ideology which is destroying the West.”

“Anything that does not espouse this ideology is immediately stigmatized in the name of ‘political correctness,’” he said.

The priest went so far as to chastise Pope Francis himself—a fellow Jesuit—suggesting that he has fallen into this trap as well.

“Many think that a certain number of your positions are aligned with this ideology and that, from complacency, you go from concessions to concessions and compromises in compromises at the expense of the truth,” the priest wrote to Francis.

Christians in the West and in the East, he wrote the Pope, “are expecting something from you other than vague and harmless declarations that may obscure reality.”

“It is high time to emerge from a shameful and embarrassed silence in the face of this Islamism that attacks the West and the rest of the world. A systematically conciliatory attitude is interpreted by the majority of Muslims as a sign of fear and weakness,” he said.

“If Jesus said to us: Blessed are the peacemakers, he did not say to us: Blessed are the pacifists. Peace is peace at any cost, at any price. Such an attitude is a pure and simple betrayal of truth,” he said.

The priest also stated his belief that the West is in an ethical and moral debacle, and its defense of Islam is a denial of truth.

“By defending at all costs Islam and seeking to exonerate it from the horrors committed every day in its name, one ends up betraying the truth,” he wrote.

To back up his argument, Father Boulad enumerated a number of texts from the Koran that call on Muslims to employ violence in their conquest of the world for Allah.

The many passages he cited included: “Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them” (Koran 2:191), “Make war on the infidels living in your neighbourhood” (Koran 9:123), “When opportunity arises, kill the infidels wherever you catch them” (Koran 9:5), “Maim and crucify the infidels if they criticize Islam” (Koran 5:33), “Punish the unbelievers with garments of fire, hooked iron rods, boiling water; melt their skin and bellies” (Koran 22:19), and “Terrorize and behead those who believe in scriptures other than the Qur’an” Koran 8:12.

Father Boulad is not the first Jesuit scholar to criticize the West for its naivete in dealing with Islam. Last year, Georgetown scholar Father James V. Schall contended that decades of students have been given a “sanitized education” that systematically excludes an honest portrayal of the history and theology of Islam, which limits their ability to assess what is going on in the world.

In his essay titled “Realism and Islam,” Father Schall argued that Islam “is actually and potentially violent throughout its entire history” and the basic reason for this method is religious in nature: “obedience to the Law of Allah.”

Therefore, he wrote, the Western tendency to simply call Muslim violence “terrorism” is insulting to believing Muslims who “see themselves carrying out the will of Allah, even sometimes to their own death in doing so.” Rather than terrorism, he insists, Muslims see their violence as “a religious endeavor to conquer the world,” which they understand to be “an act of piety.”

Because of this gaping educational void, “most citizens are simply not equipped to face the forces now reappearing in the world,” he wrote.

“And while it may be politically incorrect to state these things, they need to be stated and are in fact the truth—things that both Muslims and non-Muslims need to hear and consider,” he said.

Christian clergyman arrested as a "threat" to the Bishwa Ijtema Islamic pilgrimage

Asia News
January 13, 2016

Police took into custody Rev Gilbart Biswas in Tongi, where one of the largest Muslim gatherings is held each year, for his “suspicious behaviour,” namely preaching the Gospel and selling booklets. Two million pilgrims from 150 countries attended this year’s event.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) – Bangladeshi police detained Rev Gilbart Biswas for preaching the Gospel and selling religious booklets during Bishwa Ijtema, the second largest Islamic pilgrimage in the world after the Hajj, which is held every year in Tongi (near Dhaka), on the banks of the Turag River.

The clergyman was taken into custody last Saturday. Deployed to provide security to the event, police justified his arrest on "security grounds" because of his “suspicious behaviour”. One officer said that "no one can proclaim the Gospel on other religious sites."

In reality, the Constitution of Bangladesh guarantees every citizen the right to profess, practice and propagate their faith.

"We are very concerned about the arrest of Rev Gilbart Biswas,” said a fellow clergyman, anonymous for security reasons. “He did not commit any crime and was arrested illegally by the police, which has not yet released him."

Now the “judge wants to read the booklet Rev Gilbart Biswas distributed,” he added. “After reading it, he will give his verdict."

The Bishwa Ijtema (Global congregation or World Meeting in Bangla) is an annual event organised by the Tabligi Jamaat (Society for the spread of the faith), a transnational religious and non-political movement that seeks the spiritual reform of Islam.

The event, which includes moments of prayer and preaching, draws millions of people from all over the world. This year some two million people from 150 nations took part in the event. The government deployed more than 5,000 police agents to ensure security.

'Satanic Islam' sermon Belfast pastor James McConnell says he faces six months in jail

Controversial preacher James McConnell says he faces up to six months in jail for calling Islam satanic.

In an exclusive interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Pastor McConnell last night defiantly said he'd go to prison rather than withdraw the remarks.

"I am 78 years of age and in ill health but jail knows no fear for me," he said.

"They can lock me up with sex offenders, hoodlums and paramilitaries and I will do my time.

"I have no regrets about what I said. I do not hate Muslims but I denounce Islam as a doctrine and I make no apologies for that. I will be pleading 'not guilty' when I stand in the dock in August."

He called for the PPS to withdraw the charges and said pursuing the case was "an absolute waste of scarce public funds".

He revealed plans to turn the case into a landmark trial and call a range of political, religious and academic witnesses from across the UK to give evidence "in defence of freedom of speech and freedom of religion".

In an interview in his Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle, Pastor McConnell spoke for the first time about the serious health issues he faced. And he revealed that after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, the PSNI had warned him that his life was in danger. He said the decision to prosecute him, and not extremist Muslim preachers in Britain, showed that Christians were being "persecuted" by the authorities.

Pastor McConnell has been charged under the 2003 Communications Act with "sending, or causing to be sent, by means of a public electronic communications network, a message or other matter that was grossly offensive".

The charges centre on a sermon he gave in his church last year in which he said "Islam is heathen, Islam is satanic, Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell". The sermon was streamed on the internet.

Pastor McConnell said: "I am facing up to six months in jail and a hefty fine for saying what I believe. I have had four heart bypasses, a liver operation and I have cancer and diabetes.

"All I need to get by in prison is my tablets, my reading glasses and books from the library.

A group called 'Stop Islamization of America' is promoting ads on major city public transportation that urge people to leave the Muslim faith. The anti-Islamic campaign is sparking thought about the religion's place in American society.

By Stephanie Rice, Contributor / July 28, 2010

San Francisco

The growing debate over Islam's place in America, which is escalating in light of plans to build a mosque near ground zero, is increasingly playing out on city streets across the country. On the sides of buses, to be precise.

Several groups are engaging in something of a religious ad war over the merits and misconceptions of Islam, a religion that remains a mystery to many Americans.

Ads by a group calling itself Stop Islamization of America, which aims to provide refuge for former Muslims, read: "Fatwa on your head? Is your family or community threatening you? Leaving Islam? Got questions? Get answers!"

Those ads, appearing on dozens of buses in the San Francisco Bay Area, Miami, and New York, are a response to ones from a Muslim group that say, "The way of life of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. Islam. Got questions? Get answers."

In New York, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community sponsored this campaign: "Muslims for Peace. Love for All – Hatred for None."

The ads are part of a larger conversation over Islam's image, which Muslim organizations say has been hurt by extremists both at home and abroad. But many conservative groups say that concern about the spread of Islam isn't alarmist, pointing to evidence of imams in this country inciting militancy and a growing number of American Muslims arrested for plotting terror attacks.

A self-described "anti-jihadist," Pamela Geller is the conservative blogger and executive director of Stop Islamization of America who conceived of the "Leaving Islam" ad campaign. Her bus posters, she says, were partly inspired by the ongoing Florida case involving a teenage girl who ran away from her Muslim parents after converting to Christianity. The girl, Rifqa Bary, made headlines last year when she claimed her father threatened to kill her for becoming a Christian.

Ms. Geller described her campaign as "a defense of religious freedom," in an e-mail response to questions. The goal, she says, is mainly "to help ex-Muslims who are in trouble" and also "to raise awareness of the threat that apostates live under even in the West."

But some religious rights organizations contend that the real intent is to incite fear about a faith that, according to recent studies, remains misunderstood. A 2009 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 38 percent believe Islam is more likely to encourage violence than other religions.

"In this post-9/11 world … it's almost like there's some political and spiritual currency to be gained by being anti-Islamic," says Steve Spreitzer, programs director for the Detroit-based interfaith group Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion.

RefugeFromIslam.com, the website promoted on Geller's ads, contends that Muslim Americans who "long to be free" of their religion are in danger of being killed, and offers protection, including "safe houses," for those who want out. Muslim rights groups and religious leaders say there is no penalty for leaving Islam and that the Koran condemns killing as a sin.

The campaign has whipped up controversy in several cities. In Detroit, which has one of the highest Muslim populations in the country, Geller sued the SMART transit agency in federal district court after it rejected the ads.

In the Bay Area, more than 125 religious leaders of various faiths signed a statement in July denouncing the ads as "Islamophobic" and saying they "promote fear of Muslim Americans."

Geller says calling the ads anti-Islam is "a tactic to divert attention" away from the "plight" of ex-Muslims.

In Florida, the Miami-Dade Transit agency initially pulled the ads but then reinstated them days later after Geller and her group threatened to sue. Miami-Dade Transit spokeswoman Karla Damian says the county attorney had reviewed the ad campaign and determined that "although considered offensive by some, it did not constitute removal."

And in the Bay Area, where both tolerance and free speech are regarded as sacred, the 30 bus ads that recently began rolling through San Mateo County have been met with surprise and bewilderment.

Omar Ahmad, a Muslim city council member in San Mateo who also sits on the board of directors for SamTrans, the bus agency running the ads, says he found the campaign "bizarre" but didn't think it would have much effect. "I have a great deal of faith in folks in the Bay Area to take a critical eye to what they see and read," he says.

Geller and her supporters point out that transit agencies in Detroit and elsewhere had no problem with a controversial campaign sponsored by a group of atheists last year. Those ads, also on buses and billboards in many cities, read: "Don't believe in God? You're not alone." Although the ads offended some, they were deemed free speech.

The ads in New York City sponsored by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community recently began appearing on 100 New York City buses and promote the website MuslimsForPeace.org, which condemns terrorism and advocates for a separation of church and state.

Waseem Sayed, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community spokesperson, says the campaign is not a response to Geller's ads but an ongoing effort to reclaim the public image of Islam, which he says has been "hijacked by extremists."

"It's an effort to have the Muslims, the silent majority, snatch the flag of Islam away from these extremists and hoist it above ourselves," he says.

Anti-Muslim ad sparks suit

Bus system refused to show ad aimed at those leaving Islam

Mark Hicks / The Detroit News
Last Updated: May 28. 2010

Detroit -- An ad aimed at Muslims who want to leave Islam that was rejected for display by a regional bus system has prompted a lawsuit alleging violation of constitutional rights.

"Americans have a right to know the truth -- Islam is a religion of intolerance and violence," said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, the Ann Arbor public interest law firm that filed the lawsuit with the Law Offices of David Yerushalmi P.C. Thursday in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

"Christians, Jews and other non-Muslim minorities are persecuted in every country where Islam dominates," Thompson said in a news release.

The suit was filed on behalf of the Freedom Defense Initiative, which sponsored the ad and had sought to display it on Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation buses.

The Freedom Defense Initiative's website says its objective is "to go on the offensive when legal, academic, legislative, cultural, sociological and political actions are taken to dismantle our basic freedoms and values."

According to the lawsuit, SMART this week refused to display the group's bus ad, which read: "Fatwa on your head? Is your family or community threatening you? Leaving Islam? Got questions? Get Answers!"

The lawsuit alleges the transportation authority violated First and 14th Amendment rights dealing with free speech and equal protection.

Attorneys also said SMART previously displayed an ad from the Detroit Area Coalition of Reason, an atheist group, which read: "Don't Believe in God? You are not alone."

"In Detroit, government officials grant atheists the right to express a view that God does not exist, not worrying about offending Christians," said Robert Muise, senior trial counsel with the Thomas More Law Center. "Yet, these same politically correct officials censor speech that might offend Muslims. Such blatant discrimination is offensive, and it violates our Constitution."

Elizabeth Dryden, a SMART spokeswoman, said it would be "inappropriate to comment" until company officials speak with the bus agency's attorney.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Extracts from Nomad, her new book

She talks about family, faith and terrorism

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The Guardian
Saturday 8 May 2010

On losing her faith…

"Working my way through university as a Dutch-Somali translator, I met many Muslims in difficult circumstances: in homes for battered women, prisons, special education classes. I never connected the dots – I could not see the connection between their belief in Islam and their poverty, between their religion and the oppression of women and the lack of free, individual choice. It was, ironically, Osama bin Laden who freed me of those blinkers. After 9/11, I found it impossible to ignore his claims that the murderous destruction of innocent (if infidel) lives is consistent with the Qur'an. I looked in the Qur'an, and I found it to be so. To me, this meant I could no longer be a Muslim. In fact, I realised then that I had not been a Muslim for a long time."

On her father

"I learned he was sick in June 2008, only a few weeks before his death. I didn't tell my half-sister Sahra that I planned to visit him in hospital in the UK. It's a hideous thing to write, but I didn't really know if I could trust her with that information. I assume the closest members of my family don't actually want to kill me, but the truth is that I have shamed and hurt them; they have to deal with the outrage that my public statements cause, and undoubtedly some members of my clan do want to kill me for that.

"When I arrived at Heathrow, a large black car from the Dutch embassy was there to greet me; another, smaller but even safer, held men from Scotland Yard. We drove to the hospital. To my relief, my father lay alive before me.

"I felt heavy with the burden of everything I had never said to him and the sheer waste of all the years we'd been apart. The only words I could find were trite messages of love, and I said them over and over again. It was too late for anything else."

On her family

"Reconnecting with my extended family – cousins and my own half-sister – who live in the US, the UK and elsewhere, I found them tragically unsteady on their feet. One has Aids, another has been indicted for attempting to murder her husband, and a third sends all the money he makes back home to Somalia to feed the clan.

They all claim to be loyal to the values of our tribe and of Allah. They are permanent residents and citizens of western countries, but their hearts and minds lie elsewhere. I believe that the dysfunctional Muslim family constitutes a real threat to the very fabric of western life. It is in the family that children are groomed to practise, promote and pass on the norms of their parents' culture. It is therefore of the utmost importance that we understand the dynamics of the Muslim family, for they hold the key to the susceptibility of so many young Muslim men to Islamic radicalism. It is above all through families that conspiracy theories travel from the mosques and madrasas of Saudi Arabia and Egypt to the living rooms of homes in Holland, France and America."

On terrorism

"Many people in Europe and the US dispute the thesis that we are living through a clash of civilisations between Islam and the west. But a radical minority of Muslims firmly believes that Islam is under siege, and is committed to winning the holy war it has declared against the west. A larger group of Muslims, most of them in Europe and America, believes that acts of terror committed by fellow Muslims will unleash a western backlash against all Muslims indiscriminately. With this collective feeling of being persecuted, many Muslim families living in the west insulate themselves in ghettoes. Within those ghettoes, the agents of radical Islam cultivate their message of hatred and seek foot soldiers to fight as martyrs. Unhappy, disoriented youths in dysfunctional immigrant families make perfect recruits to such a cause. With continuing immigration from the Muslim world and a significantly higher birthrate in Muslim families, this is a phenomenon we ignore at our peril."

On Muslim integration

"I see three main barriers to the process of Muslim integration. The first is Islam's treatment of women. The will of little girls is stifled by Islam. They are reared to become submissive robots. They are required to comply with their father's choice of a mate, and after the wedding their lives are devoted to the sexual pleasures of their husband and to a life of childbearing.

"The second is the difficulty many immigrants from Muslim countries have in dealing with money. Islamic attitudes toward credit and debt, and the lack of education of Muslim women about financial matters, means that most new immigrants arrive in the west wholly unprepared for the bewildering range of opportunities and obligations presented by a modern consumer society.

"The third obstacle is the socialisation of the Muslim mind. All Muslims are reared to believe that the Qur'an, as "revealed" to Muhammad, is infallible and must be obeyed without question. This makes Muslims vulnerable to indoctrination in a way that followers of other faiths are not. Moreover, the violence that is endemic in so many Muslim societies, from domestic violence to the incessant celebration of holy war, adds to the difficulty of turning people from that world into western citizens. I can sum up the three obstacles to the integration of people like my own family in three words: sex, money and violence."

On racism

"The west tends to respond to the social failures of Muslim immigrants with what can be called the racism of low expectations. This western attitude is based on the idea that people of colour must be exempted from "normal" standards of behaviour. There are many good men and women in the west who try to resettle refugees and strive to eliminate discrimination. They lobby governments to exempt minorities from the standards of behaviour of western societies; they fight to help minorities preserve their cultures, and excuse their religion from critical scrutiny. These people mean well, but their activism is now a part of the very problem they seek to solve. Their efforts to assist Muslims and other minorities are futile because, by creating the illusion that one can hold on to tribal norms and at the same time become a successful citizen, the proponents of multiculturalism lock subsequent generations born in the west into a no man's land of moral values. What comes packaged in a compassionate language of acceptance is really a cruel form of racism. And it is all the more cruel because it is expressed in sugary words of virtue."

On her security

"I have had to pay a price for leaving Islam and for speaking out. I have to pay for round-the-clock security because of the death threats against me. People often ask me what it's like to live with bodyguards. The short answer is that it's better than being dead. It's also better than wearing a headscarf or a veil, which to me represents the mental and physical restrictions that so many Muslim women have to suffer.

"Bodyguards keep me safe. When you live with death threats all the time, you do feel fear, and have horrible nightmares. When a car is parked outside for too long, I ask myself whether I am being watched. If a delivery boy rings the bell, I hesitate. Is he really who he appears to be? Should I answer the door?

"I try to stay vigilant. I don't keep a routine. But I have decided not to stop writing, not to stop drawing attention to the plight of Muslim women and the threat that extremists pose to free thought, free speech and democratic governments. If I were to stop, I don't think it would help my situation. Once an enemy, always an enemy."

• Edited extracts from Nomad: A Personal Journey Through The Clash Of Civilisations, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, published by Simon & Schuster at £12.99. To order a copy for £9.99 (including UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop.

PJI Defends Pastor Accused of Hate Crime for Distributing Tracts
2006-12-12 -- USA Religious News

(AgapePress) - A California pastor has won a major victory for free speech after being accused of a hate crime by a Muslim individual who objected to the tracts the minister was distributing.

Pastor Audie Yancey is a retired U.S. Marine Corps veteran with 20 years of service. Recently, he appeared at the Palmdale City Council meeting holding a copy of the Qur'an and handing out a Christian tract that illustrated the link between Islam and the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

The tract featured a picture of an American flag and beneath it the words, "Remember 9/11: In the name of Allah they brought destruction and death to thousands. In the name of Jesus Christ you can have eternal life."

A Muslim cleric who saw what Yancey was handing out contacted the Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force and filed a grievance. In his complaint, he accused Yancey of committing a hate crime by distributing 200 of the gospel tracts.

Attorney Karen Milam, senior counsel for the Southern California office of the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), represented the pastor before the task force, arguing that the "hate crime" allegations were completely unfounded.

PJI president Brad Dacus says the case has now been resolved. "The good news is that the charges were completely dropped, and a message was clearly [sent] that religious freedom in this country is still protected," he says.

The Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force's legal counsel, Superior Court Judge Stella Owens Murrell, agreed with PJI that no hate crime had been committed, and the matter was dismissed. But Dacus says while he and PJI "are pleased that freedom prevailed in this case," that organization and others must press forward to protect Christians' religious liberty and free speech rights.

PJI will continue to work hard to ensure that pastors like Audie Yancey are not muzzled by intolerance, Dacus insists. "If we allow Islamic clerics to silence pastors and Christians in this country," he adds, "then we have lost, without question, not only the war against terrorism but, even more importantly, the war against Christianity and religious freedom."

California Senator Barbara Boxer is being praised by conservatives, including the chairman of a terrorism watchdog group, for rescinding an award the senator’s office gave to a Muslim leader who has allegedly referred to Israel as a "racist" and "apartheid" state.

Senator Boxer recently announced that she has withdrawn a certificate of achievement for "outstanding service" that her office had awarded to Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR. In revoking the award, Boxer "expressed concern" over CAIR’s ties to terrorist groups like Palestinian Hamas and Hezbollah.

Joe Kaufman is chairman of Americans Against Hate and founder of CAIR Watch. He was among those who had called on Boxer to rescind Elkarra’s award and believes the senator made the right decision in doing so.

Kaufman says Elkarra has defended an individual who trained in an al Qaeda jihad camp as well as an imam who called for attacks on America ; and he also "defended another imam that, according to the United States, was trying to create a school specifically to teach children how to attack Americans." Also, Kaufman asserts, the CAIR leader has moderated an event that featured a Hamas operative who spent five years in an Israeli prison and who is currently on trial in the U.S.

According to CAIR, Boxer rescinded Elkarra’s award because she got "caught up in our nation’s rising tide of Islamophobia." However, the Americans Against Hate spokesman insists that the California legislator made a wise move in taking back the certificate her office had awarded the Sacramento CAIR official.

"This organization should not be granted any type of legitimacy whatsoever," Kaufman states. In fact, CAIR "should not be in any type of meeting with any type of law enforcement or intelligence agency or any government official — or a religious official, for that matter," he says.

"We believe this group should be persona non grata," the CAIR Watch founder adds, "and that this organization, because of its direct ties to Hamas, should be placed alongside Hamas on the State Department’s terrorism list and should be shut down."

Both Elkarra and the organization he represents exhibit behavior that is unworthy of the honor bestowed by Senator Boxer, Kaufman contends. He points out that Elkarra has defended anti-American Muslim leaders and jihadists and also notes that CAIR is currently the defendant in a lawsuit put forth by the family of FBI agent John O’Neill for the Islamic organization’s alleged role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Led by a California pastor, a group of Christians will gather outside some Seattle-area mosques today in hopes of winning converts among Muslim worshippers coming to midday prayer.

They will also take their message of salvation to those attending this weekend's Arab Festival at Seattle Center and to the parking lots of shopping centers popular among people from Islamic or Arab cultures.

It's a bold — and some say audacious — gesture, coming at a time when choices over religion have grown increasingly sensitive.

But the way Pastor George Saieg sees it, many Muslims come from countries in which people lack the freedom to choose their own religion. An Arab who grew up in a Christian home in Sudan and attended Muslim schools, Saieg said Islam is a religion that offers its followers no assurance of salvation.

"In some countries, the penalty of leaving Islam is death," he said. "I want people to know that they have freedom in this country to hear about Jesus Christ."

So he feels an obligation to reach out to them through his "Ministry to Muslims" campaign, in which, he said, "Praise the Lord, 42 people came to the Lord from Michigan." He believes many in Seattle will similarly convert.

Elsewhere in the country, his message has been met with varying degrees of accommodation or anger.

Mohamad Joban, imam of the Muslim Association of Puget Sound, said he thinks Saieg is driven either by "arrogance or ignorance." He and other Muslim leaders say they aren't threatened by him and are open to talking with him.

Joban points to a growing consensus that Islam is the nation's fastest growing religion and also notes that the Quran is clear in its teachings against proselytizing.

Islam and Christianity, like Judaism, trace their roots to Abraham, considered the spiritual father of all three faiths. But while Christians have historically regarded Jesus as the son of God and God incarnate, both fully human and fully divine, Muslims do not see Jesus as divine or consider him the son of God, though they do regard him as a great prophet.

Further, spreading faith — what some call proselytizing — is a tenet of Christian theology, while the Quran teaches against it. Saieg founded Arabic Christian Perspective in 2003, with a two-fold mission: convert Muslims to Christianity and "expose teachings of Islam that they're trying to hide."

He expects about 100 to 200 local Christians to attend his weekend conference at Seattle Revival Center, a nondenominational church in Newcastle, where they will be trained on what the Quran says about salvation, on Muslim objections to Christianity and on ways to respond to those objections.

Saieg did not specify which mosques he and his followers planned to visit, saying he wants worshippers open to his message and not cowed by warnings from their leaders.

Greg Daley, an associate pastor at the Revival Center, said his church joined Saieg's campaign because Saieg doesn't preach a political or right-wing message.

"Our Mission is ... to go out into the world and preach the gospel, whether it's to Muslims, Jews or anyone who doesn't believe," Daley said.

Pastor Joe Fuiten of Cedar Park Assembly of God church in Bothell, e-mailed several thousand people statewide on his Positive Christian Agenda mailing list, encouraging them to attend Saieg's conference.

He believes "Islam is seriously an issue in the world today. The ultimate answer is conversion, because radical Islam flows from Islam," he said.

But the Rev. Craig R. J. Darling of Seattle First Baptist Church said that as a Christian pastor he doesn't condone the actions of Saieg's group, saying, "God is bigger than that and with him there's room for all religions."

Saieg's followers brought his campaign to Tacoma last year, and earlier this year to Kent and Seattle, where local Muslim leaders say the group interfered with Muslims leaving a mosque after Friday prayers.

"They were harassing women for wearing scarves," said Aziz Junejo, who writes a column from the Islamic perspective for The Seattle Times Faith & Values page.

Local Muslim leaders were advising worshippers not to engage Saieg's people, to take whatever material they are given, and not to resort to physical violence but to call authorities if necessary.

Jeff Siddiqui, a local Muslim leader, said he's not convinced Saieg's methods can convert any Muslims.

"If his call to faith is that good, and Islam is that terrible, then he wouldn't have to harass us and block our paths and barrage us with haranguing," he said.