[tickerinet]

I received a letter today. I was curious who it could be from. The envelope was a nice little Hallmark card envelope but it was the stamp that really caught my attention as it is something that interests me. Hmmm... who could this be from? The address: a PO box number in the States written in a hand unfamiliar to me. Oddly, my address was a white label... other than that, everything about this envelope looked 'personalized.'

I opened the letter to find an impersonal, unsigned, black-and-white typed pamphlet in Turkish explaining who Jesus is and calling me to Christianity. If I wanted to learn more, I was asked visit a certain site or watch some television program available via satellite in Turkey and Germany...

My first response was "oh geez... where are these people getting my info from?" Then I thought about all those times Jehova's Witnesses came knocking at my door. Then I remembered a story about one stopping my parents in the middle of Istanbul, Turkey, back in the 70s. Then I recalled a Turkish friend (who knew no English at the time) received Jehova's Witnesses at her home and figured out a way to communicate that she did not speak English and that she was Turkish; one week later, they were at her door with the same colourful pamphlets in Turkish!

I recall initially trying to have conversations with the JWs. Then, as years went by and different people would appear at the door, and I realized they were so focused on their mission that they didn't care about what I had to say nor would they stop... I went from having conversations to politely, with a smile, saying "I'm Muslim" and "I'm not interested." No violence or aggression... just polite disinterest.

Now, after a number of years I receive a letter and I am thinking to myself: what is my duty here? I can't throw this piece of paper with Allah (SWT) and the names of His messengers written on it. I want to know where these people get my information from. I have the urge to dissect the whole presentation (why that particular stamp? why that particular envelope?... why now?). Should I write back to the PO box with an 'I'm Muslim, I'm better than you' attitude and include some information regarding Hz. Isa (as)? Should I send a 'thank you but no thank you' note?... should I just ignore it?

Then I decided to dig a bit to see who may be involved (based solely on where the envelope was mailed from) and came across an organization that does missionary work in Turkey and other Turkic countries. Now, I don't know if this is the same group but that does not matter... what matters is that there is this persistent dawah work being done.

What to do? On a personal, individual, practical level... in keeping with the teachings of Islam... while keeping check on anger and ill feelings as well as arrogance... without getting into any debates... what can the average person do? What should a Muslim do and say? How should one respond?

[qzgCVHex]

ws,
hidden house to house dawah is something that i thought of too.
the article i wrote on Lal Masjid on my blog for example: i plan to translate the entire thing in urdu, give references at bottom and then anonymously give it door to door. posting it might be dangerous.

can also work for dawah.

[JewJoleSole]

missionaries,

say hello,thankyou ,bye
with politeness

then increase youre own istighfaar,ibadah and dawah
and remind other muslims that others are busy in dawah
and we should be too

[usaneisfiecup]

?

Take down the key points write a letter in refutation point by point then write a positive Dawah about Islam and post it, anonymously if you so wish.

[tickerinet]

for your responses.

Yes, it is an opportunity for dawah - at least by way of pleasant character. I did not read the pamphlet, I only skimmed a few paragraphs but you are right: if we are approached, regardless of the fact that it is unsolicited, we should be able to reply with at least a polite 'thank you but no thank you, I am Muslim' and even better if we can respond in greater detail. Insha'Allah I will spend a few minutes going through the pamphlet and do as you suggest - posting it anonymously insha'Allah in order to avoid any further back-and-forth/debate/correspondence/talk.

Brother mh16388, may Allah (SWT) make it easy for you to do accomplish hidden dawah work in your area.

[diplmixxxx]

, The fact that they took the pains to translate their material in turkish for giving dawah to one person (or a few more), shows their commitment to the game. We have a long way to go!

[sitescools]

السلام عليكم

Lol, the missionaries seem to get more and more desperate. No worries, Christianity is dying out as a religion anyway, people are starting to catch-up with its fallacy's.


But anyway, I agree with Sidi Colonel Hardstone, write a response letter refuting their points, give them the Islamic view of Isa (as) and cordially invite them to Islam.

[Nadin Maison]

Writing to them is pointless. Writing on a blog with a scan of the pamphlet would be better so that there is a greater access to their propoganda.

If what they do is illegal in your country then inform the authorities.

And also bringing a Christian to Islam is better than wasting your time arguing with them.

[Nadin Maison]

Missioneries have stepped up their ccampaign against Muslims and internet has become a medium to spread attack points among missioneries. But at the end their best weapon still remains check book conversions and "Jesus love you" line of talk, while their neo-liberal watered down Christianity might get some attention of some bitter ignorant modernists.

[gomosopions]

السلام عليكم

Lol, the missionaries seem to get more and more desperate. No worries, Christianity is dying out as a religion anyway, people are starting to catch-up with its fallacy's.


But anyway, I agree with Sidi Colonel Hardstone, write a response letter refuting their points, give them the Islamic view of Isa (as) and cordially invite them to Islam.

In my experience Christianity in the historical sense is dying but they have a luxury we for obvious reasons do not have . They 'remorph'. Its an easy step for them as they are already established on Batil.

The clever thing about christian missionary think tanks is they always change the image of Christianity to fit their customer . There is one selling at Turkey , another in India and so forth always taking into consideration language , local culture details . Note the use the names of Allah and Rasul Allah in their literature .

In my local community library I came across a booklet once , It was named 'Love of Ilah' It had the title in Arabic text and translated in Bangla . Some one donated it and no one noticed . Its a public library .

Of course the subject matter was the trinity and how the son of god sacrificed himself for us , the usual things you hear from them . It was done with imagination so the sermon style resembles the islamic literature used by imams in the subcontinent .

Its time we stopped under estimating the efforts by christian missionaries .

[Tribas4u]

Assalamu alaykum

Dealing with missionaries is never ending job. If the reply is reactive, then we shall be loser.

But we have been given a responsibility of amar bil maroof and nahi anil munkar. If we believe that to be our responsibility and act accordingly, then these missionaries will pack off empty handed.

Our elders give an example. During elections in India, if someone has already hosted his party flag and displayed a banner on his house, no other party will dare to give their pamphlets to them.

So let us be pro-active.

[sitescools]

Its time we stopped under estimating the efforts by christian missionaries .

Assalamu alaykum
Dealing with missionaries is never ending job. If the reply is reactive, then we shall be loser.

السلام عليكم

Though I agree that we should do something to stop the missionaries, I honestly think they're not much of a problem. Yes, they have stepped up their game and their missionary work is now more global than ever, but no one buys what they say anymore. Like I said, now more than ever people are starting to be aware of the stupidity and illogicality of Christianity.

Being unbiased, I can say for sure that Islam will continue to grow at the fastest rate and we will soon out number the Christians. Not only that, I can say for sure that Christianity will drastically decrease in number. Its only a matter of time. We shouldn't underestimate our own ummah and our own dawah work, after all, we are the fastest growing religion.

We shouldn't be completed laid back when its comes to these missionaries and dawah work, but our priority should be our own ummah. We need to solve our own problems first, and get non-practicing 'muslims" to become practicing Muslims. This, I think, is more important than going out their and begging a narrow-minded kafir to look into Islam.

By this, of course, I don't mean to belittle or discourage any dawah work.