One Way Streets

One of my missionary friends, who is now serving in an Islamic country that shall go unnamed and previously worked in Uzbekistan before being thrown out, sent me a sad and hardly shocking email today.

Dear prayer partners

There is a young brother in Uzbekistan who needs God’s help. Would you pray for him.

Please pray for D***. He is a faithful young man (about 22 I think) who, because of his unique maturity, has been leading and pasturing a group of believers in ******, Uzbekistan. I’ve sat and prayed with this brother many times and have heard first hand his heart for the Lord.

He is facing probable arrest by authorities because he leads an ‘illegal’ Christian house church (who have tried to register and become legal and been rejected with no explanation). He has already faced rejection from his parents and other family. He feels that he may have to flee the country to avoid arrest. Another complication is that his wife is pregnant.

It is no exaggeration to say that Uzbek prisons are some of the worst in the world. Please cry out to God for this dear brother!!

I’ll let you know when / if I know more.

Blessings,
G*****

This sort of thing happens every day throughout the Islamic world, as a hard and vicious wall is thrown up against any belief other than Islam. Children are thrown out of the house, or worse. Customers leave a business. Pastors are thrown in prison. Bibles are burned.

And this sort of thing happens every day throughout the Christian world:

First, we heard about a large group of Somali Muslim airport cabbies in Minneapolis refusing to provide service to travelers carrying alcohol or using dogs. At first, the airport moved to accommodate, but then the Somalis lost the battle to impose coercive interpretations of sharia (Islamic law) upon airport travelers. We recently have also seen airports, schools and universities agreeing to install foot-washing stations for Muslim airport cabbies and students at a significant cost to taxpayers in the name of special accommodations for Muslims. In Lincoln Park, Michigan, a few Muslim women insisted that a co-ed health club to which they signed up provide them a women’s-only room for exercise. Fitness USA acquiesced under fears of litigation despite the fact that the Muslim women signed up for no such guarantee with their enrollment contract. (Islam Watch)

We allow this to happen in our land because we believe in freedom, of course. But that doesn't mean we should ignore the prosecution of minority religions to go on throughout most of the Muslim world? How about for each church the Saudis or the Uzbeks allow to remain open, we will install a foot-washing station?