Posted by: jeffmooney | March 26, 2008

Islam’s Public Enemy #1

National Review recently ran this article concerning the Coptic Priest, Zakaria Botros, — “named Islam’s “Public Enemy #1” by the Arabic newspaper, al-Insan al-Jadid.”
Here is an excerpt from the article.

Though he is little known in the West, Coptic priest Zakaria Botros — named Islam’s “Public Enemy #1” by the Arabic newspaper, al-Insan al-Jadid — has been making waves in the Islamic world. Along with fellow missionaries — mostly Muslim converts — he appears frequently on the Arabic channel al-Hayat (i.e., “Life TV”). There, he addresses controversial topics of theological significance — free from the censorship imposed by Islamic authorities or self-imposed through fear of the zealous mobs who fulminated against the infamous cartoons of Mohammed. Botros’s excurses on little-known but embarrassing aspects of Islamic law and tradition have become a thorn in the side of Islamic leaders throughout the Middle East. . . .

. . .The result? Mass conversions to Christianity — if clandestine ones. The very public conversion of high-profile Italian journalist Magdi Allam — who was baptized by Pope Benedict in Rome on Saturday — is only the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, Islamic cleric Ahmad al-Qatani stated on al-Jazeera TV a while back that some six million Muslims convert to Christianity annually, many of them persuaded by Botros’s public ministry. More recently, al-Jazeera noted Life TV’s “unprecedented evangelical raid” on the Muslim world. Several factors account for the Botros phenomenon.

Go here for the entire article.

[ht:TH]

Responses

I think Zakaria Botros is one-sided in that he only mentions the questionable aspects of Islam and none of Christianity. However, I applaud him for exposing the hypocrisy and bigotry in Islam, some of which are in direct contradiction to the Qur’an (not that the Qur’an is completely faultless). I just wish it’s not done with such an evangelical bent. An open discussion, without any proselytising, would be better.

Thanks Penny.

Concerning your comment “I just wish it’s not done with such an evangelical bent. An open discussion, without any proselytizing, would be better.”

I would think that the only world in which such discussions could take place between a Muslim and Christian would be one where neither actually believed what they were saying.

I think Botros is convinced of the claims of Christianity, which would necessitate the “evangelical bent” of which you speak.

I do appreciate your sensitive comments. Thanks for contributing. Hope to hear from you again.

Mooney

Dr. Mooney, do you know more about Botros? is he a muslim convert? educational background? etc it’s very suprising to see that such a show would even be allowed on t.v. don’t they hold a pretty tight grip on media contents?…. i stand corrected on my assumption.
thanks for the article.

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