Feature: On conversions of Muslims

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Risking execution, citizens of strict Islamic countries are secretly converting to Christianity in increasing numbers, missionaries from various denominations told United Press International.

"This is especially true in Iran," one minister specializing in communist and Muslim nations said Friday on condition of anonymity. "Thousands upon thousands of young Iranians, especially women, have been accepting Christ in recent years."

The minister added, "These converts are saying that the Ayatollah Khomeini was the best evangelist. He showed the people a face of Islam they did not like."

Gary Lane, news director of the highly respected Voice of the Martyrs organization, confirmed this statement. As an example, he told the story of a covert VoM representative who gave an Iranian woman a Bible, which is a felony in Iran.

"The woman carried the Bible under her chador (cloak) around town to read it with friends. Later they all asked to be baptized," Lane said. He added that VoM was smuggling substantial numbers of Bibles to Iran.

"But our hottest item is a Farsi-language Bible concordance. As a tool to study scripture, it is so much in demand that we cannot get it into that country fast enough."

These reports correspond to similar phenomena in and Egypt and Afghanistan where small mosque congregations in the countryside have clandestinely become Christian, according to a prominent theologian from a European mainline denomination and a highly respected Pakistani church leader, respectively.

Lane cited several cases of conversions that followed claims of miracles and apparitions. He said he had personally met the people involved.

"There was the case of a Pakistani I know. He broke a leg in a road accident. A Korean woman came by and prayed over him, and the leg was healed on the spot."

According to Lane, the woman gave him a Bible, which he read eagerly "to find out what that power was that had healed him."

"The man then became sick, probably because he was poisoned," Lane continued. "He prayed to Christ, 'Save me.' Jesus appeared to him, and he was cured. Today this Pakistani is himself an evangelist."

He said, "Apparitions of Christ or angels to Muslims have become a common occurrence."

Other church officials have reported similar stories from other parts of the Muslim world.

The Rev. Stephen L. Snyder, president of the Washington-based group International Christian Concern, told UPI that Saudi converts had spoken to him about apparitions.

Richard Braidich, Washington spokesman of the United Churches of Saudi Arabia, a consortium of house congregations in that country, said, "I know several cases where Christ has appeared to a Muslim and asked him to become his disciple.

"In one instance, a Muslim told Jesus, 'But Christianity is wrong,' whereupon Jesus replied, 'No, you are the one who is mistaken.'"

UPI has not been able to obtain independent verification of this miraculous story --understandably given that such Christian evangelizing is illegal in countries like Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Muslim world; but such stories are undoubtedly believed by missionaries and new Christians in that they are themselves a powerful source of conversions as they were at the time of St. Paul.

According to biblical Christian doctrine, Christ transferred his healing ministry to his apostles after his resurrection and before his ascension into heaven.

The apostles then passed on this gift to their successors, who handed it down to subsequent generations.

The gift of healing is considered rare. Miraculous cures are exceptional occurrences, and there is also a history of bogus "miracle cures" performed by charlatans.

However, genuine healings have happened throughout church history, especially in times of spiritual awakenings.

Many Protestant churches have played down this phenomenon, following post-Enlightenment rationalism.

However, mainline denominations such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America do have healing liturgies in their rubrics. In many of their congregations such liturgies are celebrated in regular Sunday services at least once a month.

Missionaries have always considered Muslims as particularly hard to evangelize, especially as they consider Islam as practically synonymous with their own culture, according to Lane, whose organization has been supporting persecuted Christians around the world for decades.

Short-wave radio, international television, and then the Internet have contributed to an increased interest in Christianity in Muslim countries, particularly radical ones such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, Lane and other missionaries told UPI.

"Especially biblical miracle stories about the healing power of the Christian faith tend to attract Muslims to Christianity. A Turk I know became a Christian after doctors had told him that his wife was incurably ill," said Lane.

"He had heard that the God of Christianity healed. So he specifically prayed to him, promised to serve him if he made his wife well. When she recovered, both became baptized."