Jay explains ISLAM'S AGENDA IN THE WEST, & our RESPONSE

A few weeks ago Jay was asked to speak at a large church in the Philadelphia area on the subject of Islam, to help the members there understand what Islam's agenda for the West was, and what our responsibilities as Christians should be in engaging with them. He noted that most Americans still assumed that the majority of Muslims in the world were Arab speaking, a common misunderstanding, due perhaps to the fact that the countries with the largest percentage of Muslims in them were mostly found in the Middle East. Yet, Arab speaking Muslims only make up between 15%-20% of all Muslims worldwide. In fact, of the 10 largest Muslim countries, only two of them are Arab speaking, while the 5 largest Muslim countries are Indonesia (240 million), India (220 million), Pakistan (210 million), Bangladesh (185 million), and Nigeria (107 million). None of those five are Arab speaking countries. Yet, almost all of our methodologies here in the West, and in particular, here in the USA are geared towards the Arab Speaking world, whose countries don't allow missionaries to evangelize freely at all, and certainly don't allow missionaries, or for that matter any Christians the freedom to be critical of Islam in public. Thus, all of our methods for evangelism come out of that environment, and favor the "Irenical approach", which is better known as "Friendship Evangelism", or the "Grace Method", or any other variety of names. But they all start from the premise that you never confront Islam, but spend your time 'loving people into the Kingdom', by using love and reconciliation. Yet, the majority of Muslims today come from countries where it is quite possible and even permissible to engage in public religious discussions, or dialogues, and even in public debates. This is especially true of many of the Asian countries. What's more, in the West where we live, public religious discussions, or dialogues, and even debates are absolutely permissible, and even encouraged, especially in our universities, and on-line, and certainly on YouTube. The problem is that we just don't have any experience in this area of engagement here in the West, because it isn't taught academically anywhere, except in Jay's MAPI courses on-line, or in a few Bible Schools or Seminaries who are brave enough to even teach it. In his talk at CCCS Jay went briefly through the 10 most popular methods used in public evangelism today, pointing out that only one of them, that of Apologetics and Polemics employed any form of a strong public engagement with Muslims. He noted that both Apologetics and Polemics had strong Biblical support, and then ended by showing who were our best Apologists and Polemicists in the West today, noting that the numbers were finally increasing, and the caliber of our engagements with Muslims was improving massively. © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, May 8, 2026 (129,300)