By William Wagner
Few Christians in the West are familiar with the Arabic word Da’wah. Many other words such as Jihad, Allah, Koran and Ramadan are now accepted words in many English language dictionaries, but Da’wah remains unknown. One of the reasons is that it is the quiet way that Muslims are attempting to make new converts to Islam especially in the West. Da’wah is their quiet revolution. They like to compare it to a story that is popular in the Middle East. It goes like this:
An Arab was making a long trip across the desert. During the day the heat can be scorching, but at night it can get bitter cold. On one especially cold night, the Arab was in his nice warm tent where some embers kept the environment warm. As the man began to go to sleep, he noticed a large camel nose sticking in under the tent.
“Camel,” he said, “why is your nose in my tent?
“O Master,” he replied, “ it’s so cold out here, and if only my nose were warm, then I could have a good night’s sleep.”
The Arab thought it over and allowed him to keep his nose in. A little later the man awoke and saw that the camel now had his whole head in the tent. “What are you doing, Camel? You said you only wanted your nose in the tent.”
“O Master, you just do not know how cold it is out here, and if my head is in the tent, then I will be satisfied.”
After thinking it over, the Arab agreed and he went back to sleep. Once again he was awakened, this time to find that the camel had his head, neck, and two feet in the tent.
“Camel, this is too much. You must stop.”
“O Master, now I am really comfortable. I can sleep the whole night through.”
“O.K. said the Arab, “but this is the last time”
Later in the night the Arab awakened to discover that the tent was now full with the whole body of the camel inside the tent, and the Arab had little room. “Camel” he shouted. “What are you doing?”
“If you are not happy with the ways things are then get out of my tent, you stupid Arab.” Was the camel’s reply’
Da’wah is Islam’s method of taking a little bit at a time always using somewhat convincing arguments as to why we should accept them. The results could be rather dangerous for us in the West.
Da’wah could be compared to our word “Missions.” The meaning of the word is “to call” or “to invite.” It is an activity that embraces Muslims going out into the world and inviting non-Muslims to come to Islam. One of the reasons that Islam is one of the world’s fastestest growing religions is the fact that many within Islam practice Da’wah. Another important word in Arabic is the word daa’i that means missionary. As Christians send out missionaries to the far corners of the earth so does Islam. In fact my studies have convinced me there are now more daai’s working in the United States that there are Christians missionaries from the U.S. working in all the Muslim countries in the world. They are being very successful in their mission work.
The leading institution in this renewal of missions from Muslims is “The World Muslim League” located in Mecca. They are the ones that both developed their modern strategy and also finance most of their work. They continuously claim great success. They are developing a form of Islamic Ecumenicalism whereby they are trying to bring together the various branches of Islam to work together for the purpose of establishing a worldwide umma (Nation of Islam). In Iraq the Shiites and the Sunnis might be waging a civil war but there is much more of a unity in their attempt to make the World Muslim.
But what is their strategy? Who are they targeting? Here are some examples
- University students. One group they specialize in is foreign students going to school in the United States. They see them as being future leaders in their countries of origin and since many daai’s are also foreign students it gives them a natural bridge for contacts. An important part of their strategy is to work with the foreign students studying in America. They send students here to study and also as act as missionaries to their fellow foreign students. They have had much success. Another strategy is to build large expensive buildings for a University’s department of religion. Once the building is finished they retain control of the program by insisting that the head of the department be a Muslim.
- Prisoners. They have an active Da’wah work in many prisons in America. It has been estimated that they win about 30,000 prisoners every year to Islam. Often those they win are the more aggressive types thus they are easy recruits in the future for Islamic terrorist organizations. In a recent book written about this entitled Islam in the Big House by Stephen Schwartz, the author states that there is a real danger that our prisons in America are becoming training centers for Wahhabi extremism.
- American Indians. Islam feels that the Native American religions have much in common with Islam. They even claim that many early Indians converted to Islam via slaves that came to the United States. In Gallup, New Mexico, the so-called Indian Capital of America you will find a large new Mosque on the main street. One of their main training centers for the West is located in the Indian populated area of Northern New Mexico. Their Mosque and training center is in Abiquiu, New Mexico.
- Hispanics. Not only in the U.S.A. are they active but also in Central and South America. Since Spain at one time was Muslim they feel that this could convince many Hispanics that their natural religion is really Islam. In a recent article it was estimated that between 40,000 and 70,000 illegal Latin Americans had converted to Islam in the USA. Again they are having success with this group.
- Public schools. Muslim speakers bureaus offering to come and give free cross-cultural lessons to their students have contacted most schools in America. They claim that all students need to know more about other cultures. In California they have been successful in that many schools have invited Muslim teachers to come to the school and teach the basics of Islam. In some cases young people take Muslim names put on Muslim clothing and practice some Muslim religious procedures such as prayers, Ramadan and the pilgrimage. In a textbook used in the California schools dealing with world history for seventh graders, there were 74 pages dedicated to Islam and only two pages for Christianity and most of this was for the Roman Catholic Church. Their infiltration into the schools is not accidental but a well-planned strategy. Of course it would be forbidden for Christians to do the same.
Islam sees Da’wah as an important and useful tool in their search for world dominance. It is not correct for us as Christians to condemn what they do through Da’wah but it is necessary to understand the dynamics of Da’wah as we seek to reach Muslims with the message of Jesus Christ.