Missionaries of the 90's Target Muslims
By Masood Cajee

They don't show up at pansy Interfaith breakfasts. They make adept use of the Internet and e-mail to network deep in their assigned fields.

They're obsessed with winning the souls of Muslims. Call them the foreign legion of the Christian Coalition, call them missionaries of the 90s, but don't call them unwilling or unprepared to act.

For today's eager evangelical Christian missionaries, Muslims are like China for the Coca-Cola company: one billion people dying to hear.

Mike and Cindy Bowen of LaGrange, Georgia first went to Malaysia in 1987, on a short-term outreach for the Pentecostal Holiness Church. According to the Bowens, it was on the plane home that God confirmed His call to them.

"We both knew that God would eventually bring us back home to Malaysia to teach and preach to the Malay people who haven't heard," says Cindy Bowen, of her husband-and-wife team.

This year, the Bowens will leave their home in Georgia and commit full time to proselytise in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. They have been preparing nearly ten years for this opportunity. Since their first trip to Malaysia, Mike got a bachelor's degree in Missions and Evangelism from the South-western Assembly of God College in  Waxahachee, Texas; Cindy majored in Christian Education. They will join an estimated contingent of 559 Christian missionaries (370 Catholic, 189 Protestant) in Malaysia.

'The Bowens plan to help establish two Pentecostal Holiness churches in Kuala Lumpur by training the pastors and bringing forth leaders to start plant more churches in this emerging Southeast Asian Muslim-majority nation of 19 million. A spokesperson for the National Evangelical Fellowship of Malaysia claims that 600 Christian churches have started there since 1992. Evangelical Christians like the Bowens tout Muslims as the largest block of unreached peoples in the world. Having scored remarkable successes among Catholics in Latin America, notably in Brazil, and spurred by the fall of the Soviet Union, missionaries in the 1990s regard Muslims as a "final frontier" for evangelism. Their strategies call for ''creative access, cultural sensitivity, and church-planting in the 10/40 Window." The 10/40 Window is evangelical-speak for the rectangle with boundaries of latitudes 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator; encompassing most of the Muslim World.

Muslim countries especially targeted are the newly independent states in Central Asia - particularly Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and the Southeast Asian tigers, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Nevertheless, Frontiers and other Christian groups strive to place missionaries throughout the tough "10/40 Window." Most Muslim countries remain closed, either because of the strong linkage between ethnic and religious identity amongst Muslims, or because of heavy restrictions on proselytization. This restricted access has led U.S. Christian mission groups such as Frontiers to lobby Congress on the issue of "the persecuted Church" in Muslim countries. These lobbying efforts have spurred the creation of a US State Department Commission on Religious Freedom, albeit one whose original stress on persecuted Christians has been slightly diluted. The Commission will now include representatives from multiple denominations and faiths, including Dr. Laila AlMarayati of the Muslim Womens League.

The "persecuted Church" primarily within the 10/40 Window has been a rallying point and foreign policy crusade for the Religious Right in their quest to gain wider access to the untapped millions of non-Christians within the Window. Frontiers, a mission group devoted completely to converting Muslims, boasts that "through creative approaches, patient sowing, and fearless proclamation, more Muslims have come to Christ in the last 25 years than in the previous 1400 years combined!"

The Mesa, Arizona-based group claims to have 500 missionaries in 30 countries, or about 20% of all North American Protestant missionaries serving among Muslims. Frontiers seeks missionaries for the 90's with the motto: "Muslims. It's their turn. It's all we do. Whatever it takes." From Bosnia to Bangladesh, American missionaries apparently have been doing whatever it takes to penetrate often resistant and hostile Muslim target countries. Two popular missionary approaches to Muslim countries involves setting up business ventures or non-profit relief and NGO work.

Christian relief groups have made inroads in places like Somalia (which is 99% Muslim) by taking advantage of humanitarian crises like the famine in 1992 that precipitated U.S. intervention. Some missionaries reportedly even hook up with the CIA, blurring religious and political goals. The Washington Post revealed February, 22 that CIA officials admitted a "controversial loophole" exists that permits the agency to "employ clerics and missionaries for clandestine work overseas.

By far; however; the most popular long-term method has been to establish front export businesses, a growing strategy used by missionaries to gain access into a target country. Often, missionaries start branch offices of American companies overseas or enter as consultants. Cindy Bowen speaks proudly of her husband's creative access to Malaysia, which capitalised on his landscaping business in LaGrange, located 6O miles Southwest of Atlanta.

"It's real tough getting into Malaysia because its such a closed Muslim nation," says Cindy Bowen. "But the good Lord has been opening doors. We couldn't openly go for a while, but then Mike got hired as a consultant with permanent resident status there through a landscaping company." The Bowens' photo album shows Mike Bowen landscaping a golf course for the Agrigreen Machine & Landscape Company of Petaling Jaya and pastoring in a small apartment church in Kuala Lumpur. "We wouldn't have been able to go in otherwise," says Cindy Bowen. "The company that hired us is owned by Muslims, but there are some Christians on the Board of Directors who helped us get in. It's kind a funny that a Muslim-owned company has opened the way for us to spread the Gospel in Malaysia. You gotta love the wicked!"

To better love the wicked, today's mission teams also make an early effort to get secure e-mail access, which has proved a vital link to the home base. Frontiers has established an e-Mail Assistance Program, assigning e-mail "gatekeepers" or resource persons in the U.S. to provide expertise and encouragement for overseas mission workers. According to Frontiers, "team members in their 'tentmaking' roles often need the help of people knowledgeable in a certain line of work."

The Bowens maintain a regular mailing list on the Internet, keeping them in touch with their sponsors and supporters. Many of the posts are prayer requests for Muslims: Pray that the Muslim World be covered with a 24 hour prayer chain. Continue to pray for the salvation of Ali as he investigates the claims of Christ. Pray for "Sam", a Malay believer who is engaged to a Muslim girl. Pray for growth in his Christian walk and for the salvation of his fiancee. Pray for Ani, a Muslim girl in Malaysia, as she continues to learn about God and open herself up to His truth.

Ahmad Baharrudin of the Malaysian Islamic Study Group, a leading Muslim student organisation, says the problem of attrition among Muslim Malays, particularly among young women, has alarmed him. "Every year, the Department of Religious Affairs changes many Muslim names to Christian names, says Baharrudin. "Many Muslim activists say the Ulema should step out of their air-conditioned offices and reach out to the people."

The Bowens of LaGrange, Georgia, preparing to leave for Malaysia, are brushing p on their Malay language and customs. "We encourage our friends to pray for our success in this stronghold of the 10/40 Window," says Cindy Bowen. "Please pray especially for a supernatural move of God to reveal Jesus to man Muslims on the Night of Power in Ramadan."