Southern Baptist pastor Carlos Liese recalls entering a mosque near Dearborn, Mich., sitting on the floor with Islamists and sharing the gospel. An elderly Muslim man who said little during the conversation invited Liese to his home.
“And they had just told us we were going to hell, and we had gently told them that they were going to hell too, in a gracious way,” Liese said. “But we stood our ground. We shared the gospel and it was well received again, even though we ended up not agreeing.”
Such encounters are not uncommon for Liese, who helps lead monthly evangelism efforts in Middle Eastern coffee shops, hookah bars and restaurants in Dearborn, a city where at least a third of the population is Arab-American, according to U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 report, “Arab Population in Selected Places,” and 2009 numbers from the Arab American Institute.
Southern Baptist pastors say rumors of Dearborn being under the control of Sharia law have hampered evangelistic outreach there. Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly has refuted the claim, helping to remind the public that Dearborn is a democracy governed by a mayor and seven-member city council elected by a vote of the public.
Contrary to news reports dating to as early as 2010, Dearborn is not under Sharia law, a strict and sometimes tortuous theocratic form of civil and criminal law based on the Quran, Southern Baptist pastors in the Detroit suburb of about 100,000 say.
Liese, who lives in Dearborn Heights and served as pastor of First Spanish Baptist Church, Detroit, for 25 years, called such reports “yellow journalism,” aimed at riling people and increasing readers and viewers.
“And making statements like that only frightens people and that doesn’t accomplish anything,” said Liese, who today serves as pastor of Good Shepherd Baptist Church, Lansing, 60 miles away.
While Sharia law varies in implementation in Islamic countries that impose it, common Sharia punishments, according to the Duhaime.org online law dictionary, include prison or death for criticizing the government, which is considered blasphemy; death by stoning for a woman who has a child out of wedlock, even in cases of rape; and jailing or caning (beating) for vagrancy, the crime of being intentionally unemployed and failing to care for one’s family.
Regardless of rumors 37 percent of Christians fear the establishment of Sharia law in the United States, according to a September–October 2014 poll by LifeWay Research.
The rumors are so well established, O’Reilly has refuted the claim in letters to individuals, appearances on international media and in an Oct. 30, 2013, press release stating emphatically, “Dearborn is not under Sharia law and has never at any time even considered such an action. … One unique aspect of our community is the strong working relationship that exists among our diverse faith leaders, who foster understanding and tolerance.”
Through an outgrowth of the Greater Detroit Baptist Association, Liese has partnered since 2012 with Dave Ferraro, pastor of discipleship at Merriman Road Baptist Church, Garden City, to spread the gospel among Muslims in Dearborn.
“We set out in hopes of putting together a coalition of like-minded … Michigan Southern Baptists who have a passion to reach Muslims for Christ,” Liese said. “We’ve not seen anybody added to the church but we’ve done a lot of seed planting and people have been very, very receptive.
“People have always been gracious,” Liese said. “In all these years that we have been doing this we have been able to share the gospel with many people, so many seeds have been sown and we have never been mistreated or disrespected, ever.” The two men have been invited to the homes and family events of Muslims, including weddings, and Muslims have visited the homes and churches of Southern Baptists.
The North American Mission Board has adopted Detroit as a Send City for targeted evangelism and church planting, but the area remains largely unreached for Christ, said Dearborn resident Eli Garza, current pastor of First Spanish Baptist Church.
Garza said, “Dearborn is a largely unreached city; there’s lots to do here. But not only Dearborn, but I would say our suburbs as well. Even though they’re populated by a large number of Anglo-Americans, they are not evangelical.”
Rumors of Sharia law in Dearborn only hinder outreach efforts, said Garza, who strives to build relationships with Muslim neighbors.
Garza strives to be a Christian witness among the diversity of Muslims in his immediate neighborhood.
“I go out of my way to shovel the sidewalk for [my Muslim neighbors]. I’m going to show my respect for them by helping them out,” Garza said. “We’re making headway.
“But let our good works open doors; obviously good works do not present the gospel, but [good works] demonstrates to them that if we say we are followers of … the Messiah, then we’d better behave like it.”
Matthew Vroman, pastor of Eastside Community Church, Harper Woods, served nearly 10 years as a church planter in Turkey.
“Dearborn is full of a community that likes to go to Walmart to shop, loves to eat (and) wants to educate their kids in their values. And a lot of their values are good. It’s not full of a bunch of jihadis who want Sharia law,” Vroman said. “In general people just want to live there. … They just want to make a living and they’re worried about their kids [and] families.”
However, Muslims do want to rear their families with Muslim values and whether the public images of Muslims in Dearborn mirror their private lives can only be left to speculation, Vroman said.
“The leaders … do want to be able to marry and bury and divorce and live according to the rules of Islam, and that’s true,” Vroman said. “They do want their people to live according to Islam. … The other thing they want to show is that … there’s a peaceful side to the Muslim culture. … So many Muslims really want their voice to be heard because they’re tired of [it] being said, ‘You’re a terrorist, you’re a terrorist.’ Talk about profiling.”
Among Muslim leaders, Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi of Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn has spoken frequently and publicly against Islamic State (ISIS) and terrorism.
“It’s a big lie to call yourselves Islamic State,” Elahi said of ISIS at an August 2014 anti-terrorism rally in Dearborn. “You are not Islamic and you are not a state. You are a bunch of gangsters and criminals who choose the tools of torture, intimidation, explosion, theft and disruption against innocent people.”
Elahi promotes Islam as a religion of peace.
“There is no such thing as radical Islam,” Elahi said in a Jan. 15 CNN interview. “Islam is a religion of reason, a religion of peace, a religion of respect for human rights, a religion of responsibility.”
“And any mentality and any kind of teachings that are against human common sense, against peace, against rationality, against respect for human life, human property, human intellect and human integrity, it is against Islam,” he said.
Obeying the Great Commission
Vroman said Southern Baptists who allow fear to inhibit their outreach to Muslims are living in disobedience to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
“I think we need to repent of our walking in fear and not caring about the souls of Muslims, and I think as Baptists we need to get intentional about showing love to Muslims so we can reach them,” Vroman said. “We need to believe what the Bible says and not talk radio. I wish that Christians would befriend Muslims, because they’re not the enemy, but we act like they are.”
Muslims and Christians are united by our sin problem and need for a Savior, Liese said.
“The same place that all religions lead to is an attempt to deal with our sin problem; all of us deal with that,” he said.
Liese often asks Muslims how their religion absolves them of sin and finds they often can’t identify a particular point at which their sins are forgiven.
“They say, ‘We fast at Ramadan and we pray [five] times a day and we give to charity,’” Liese said. “They’ll say, ‘If I’m lucky I might be good enough.’ … And so I’ll say, ‘Well, that right there is the great difference, not that I’m any better than you, but I have a Savior, and this is what I believe.’
“Eventually we get to share the gospel, and that’s what we do.”
(BP)
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