There are many Muslims coming to our country as college students or refugees from the Middle East and so many more who already live here in the US, but how do we reach them? This series is dedicated to sharing a few of the different angles that my team and I have used to reach out to Muslims. But, before we go into strategies, we need to set the ground work.
First, focus on the relationship. If you can’t be a Muslim’s trusted friend first, they will never listen to what you believe. As the saying goes “they won’t care about what you know until they know how much you care.” Be careful not to offend them on unimportant topics. For example, it doesn’t matter whether or not Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac or Ishmael. If you need to tell that story avoid the unnecessary conflict and just say Abraham’s son. When it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, take a neutral stand. After you have built up your relationship, you can discuss the harder topics that could be uncomfortable for Muslims. Arabs are usually very forgiving and understanding if they know you care about them, so it is important to wait to talk about such conversations until after they understand your heart toward them.
Second, you will need to be patient. Often times it takes Muslims 2-5 years of hearing the gospel to be able to see the truth of it and turn to it. This is because what they believe has been so ingrained in their minds that their form of logic has molded around Islam. It can take years of exposing them to the truth for them to recognize the logic and see the contradictions in Islam. So be patient. Be encouraged in the growth that they show and stay persistent. Define your success by the growth in each individual, not in the number of people who have trusted in Christ.
Lastly, don’t assume anything you have heard about Islam to be true until you hear it from them. Ask questions about what they believe, don’t state facts you have heard. The media does tell a lot of lies, but also a lot of Muslims believe different things. Just like a lot of people in a lot of religions, even Christianity, there are a large number of Muslims who really don’t know what they believe. Even if you hear something from a Muslim, don’t assume that what they say is actually what the Quran says. Usually I ask to see a verse that backs up what they say, otherwise I wait until I have heard three Muslims say the same thing separate from each other until I believe that what they said is actually true about Islam. If you can’t verify it by cross-checking what other Muslims say, then take what they say as truth for their individual understanding of Islam and theirs alone. Muslims have Hadeeths that aren’t in the Quran, so often a group of Muslims will take a Hadeeth as truth when it could conflict with what the Quran actually says or what other Muslims say.
If you remember these three points, you can’t really go wrong. I’ll discuss later how to be more effective in witnessing to Muslims, but these areas are most important in starting a good relationship with Muslims when it comes to speaking about what you believe. If you have any questions, as always, feel free to comment below.
Click here for Reaching Muslims Part 2: Reaching Heaven
