Miller, Duane Alexander. 2010. ‘Woven in the Weakness of the Changing Body: the Genesis of World Islamic Christianity.’ Presented at Coming to Faith in Christ 2, Buckinghamshire, UK, February.
This is the paper I presented at the Coming to Faith in Christ 2 (CTFC2) conference in Buckinghamshire, England, in February of 2010. In this paper I try to analyze some of the main trends that have allowed for a global space wherein conversions from Islam to Christ have increased very substantially since the second half of the 20th Century.
Here is a sample:
One common theme that surfaced again and again was how closed Islamic society has been for many centuries. Closed in terms of not allowing certain forms of critical discourse, an ancient custom reaching back to the Prophet himself, who in one instance, for example, upon being ridiculed by a poet, procured her assassination. In Islamic law this act of execution is not a crude thing indeed to affront the Prophet is to affront God and must be met with the appropriate response. The lack of room for critical discourse in Islamic societies for many centuries has also led to a good deal of conflict, the most famous recent example being the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet of Islam, which led to multiple violent outbursts in many Islamic societies, including in the West, that included arson, murder, and the death threats. Examples could be multiplied, the publication of The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie being another fine example of the use of coercion to force a cessation of critical discourse or even discourse that has been misinterpreted as critical.
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