Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Who is the brilliant person responsible for sending Christian missionaries into Iraq? I ask this as we read more news about the killing of US Christian missionaries in Iraq. . Sending Christian missionaries to convert Muslims in Iraq is as dangerous as sending armed troops. And would the US (the self-designated "beacon of freedom") grant visas to, say, Saudi Wahhabi preachers who wish to enter the US to convert Americans? A friend of mine who is active in Christian missionary circles told me that Christian missionaries now operate "under cover." A plumber by day and a missionary by night. But that is quite dangerous as well as it may jeopardize the status of all those Americans who work and live in the Middle East and in Muslim countries, and most of whom do good work. And how does that work? A missionary under cover? Do they wait for the right moment to ask Husayn--or Husniyyah, innocently, whether he/she has seen the lastest Mel Gibson movie? And the presence of the missionaries will be used, and has been used, by the religious extremists in the region who want to convince their audiences that there is indeed a clash of civlization, and who want to make the current conflict a religious one.