Dr Paul Allen

English: Kaaba at the heart of Mecca. As the night goes on pilgrims visiting the Holy House. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Islam is the second largest religion in the world. In 1995 about 1,122,661,000 Muslims inhabited this planet. Count the commas, folks—that’s a billion plus a hundred million. That means of every living person, one in five is a Muslim. As citizens of what is yet a superpower, we tend not to notice the worldwide Islamic population, of which merely sixteen percent are Arabs. But this blindness to our situation needs to change, not only so we can be more aware of the need for foreign missions, but so we can be aware of the needs of our neighbors. Islam is moving to where you live. And it looks like it is here to stay. Islam and Early America After the United States was founded, Islam had more influence than many would expect on certain segments of the population. For example, after being converted to Christianity, the Virginia statesman John Randolph of Roanoke

Miniature of Muhammad re-dedicating the Black Stone at the Kaaba. From Jami Al-Tawarikh, c. 1315 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8). Before we begin our comparisons of the specific doctrines of Islam and Christianity, it will be helpful for us to trace the origins of the Islamic religion . We will do this by offering a brief survey of the life of Mohammed , the founder of Islam. Mohammed was born in 570 A.D. in the city of Mecca, which is located in modern day Saudi Arabia . The culture into which he was born was largely polytheistic, although Jews and marginally Christian sects were also present in Arabia. Mohammed early on grew dissastisfied with the polytheism of his surroundings but remained religious, traveling into the hills surrounding Mecca to pray. At age 40, while on one of these retreats, Mohammed claimed to have been visited by the ange

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim is married, 27-years-old, mother to a 20-month old son, 8-months pregnant, and last week was sentenced to death for being a Christian.   Her story is not all that uncommon. Her father was Muslim, and her mother was an ethnic Christian. As is common in much of the world—including the United States —Muslim men frequently marry non-Muslim women, because by Islamic tradition their children are considered Muslim. It frankly doesn’t matter what the children of that religious mish-mash marriage actually believe about God or faith; because the father was Muslim, so are the children. Period. These kind of marriage don’t often last—but that is not their point. Their point is simply to expand Islam through the children. Such was the case for Meriam. Her parents had two children, herself and a brother. Her father then left her mother to raise both of them. Her mother came to faith in Christ, and raised her children in the church. Meriam’s grew up, and (as Christians