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The New Christians of North Africa&The Insider MovementBy Rev. Bassam M. Madany
St Francis Magazine, a missiological journal dedicated to the study of
“Religions andmission in the Arab world,”
devoted its August 2009 issue to the subject of the
InsiderMovement.
The Rev Dr John Stringer, editor of the magazine, wrote this Introduction tothe ten articles that dealt with this subject:
“The Insider Movement, also called C5 or Messianic Islam, has been a pervasive,outspoken presence in the world of missions for the last three decades. Missiological journals, Christian magazines and newspapers have been awash in anecdotes from the field extolling this purportedly new, biblical, approach to ministry. At times, it has seemed almost unthinkable to offer criticism of this broad movement. That is why thisentire issue is dedicated to a detailed examination of the Insider Movement, itstheology, methodology and tactics.“Is the heart of the Christian faith a matter of making an individual choice? Is it fundamentally just a matter of having a personal love for Jesus? Or is the Church,organized and visible, at the heart of God's plan for the world? The subject soundsalarm bells. Evangelical Christians become increasingly susceptible to the siren song of post-structuralist (some might say anti-) postmodernism and liberalism, lacking a foundation in a theology that biblically respects the historic Church as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
http://www.stfrancismagazine.info/ja/I would like to contribute a further perspective to the discussion of the
InsiderMovement
, which would shed light on the way
Muslims who convert to the Christian faith view themselves.
Materials that have been appearing lately on reformist Arabicwebsites reporting on this phenomenon are quite intriguing. The European media have picked up on the conversion stories as well. One might ask why those promoting the
Insider Movement
seem so unaware of these reports about converts from Islam toChristianity. The conversion stories they document, do not fit the schematics of their own paradigm. The reformist Arabic websites and the European press indicate that theconverts are bold and forthright in their
marturia
and enthusiasm for their new-foundfaith.It was around three years ago, that I came across the use of the term
“Masihiyyoo al- Maghreb”
(The Christians of North Africa,)
in the Arab media. That indicated the presence of a considerable number of North African Muslims who have embraced theChristian faith. In March of 2007, a conference was convened in Zurich, Switzerland, by
“Copts United,”
under the leadership of an Egyptian Christian engineer named
Adli
Yousef Abadir,
and chaired by
Dr. Shaker al-Nabulsi,
a Jordanian Muslim intellectual.The theme of the conference was
“The Defense of Minorities and Women.”
The Arabiconline daily
Elaph
reported on the proceedings of the conference.One of the lectures was entitled
“The Christians of the Maghreb under the Rule of Islamists,”
where it must be noted that the
Maghrebi
converts to Christianity werecalled,
“Masihiyyoo al-Maghreb”
and not
“followers of ‘Issa,”
the way the
InsiderMovement
likes to refer to converts from Islam.
نييملسا كح ف برغا وييم
Another term referred to them as
“Al-Masihyyoon al-Judod”
i.e. the New Christians inthe countries of the Arab Maghreb.
رعا برغا د ف دجا نيييا ةرهظ
Here are translated excerpts from that lecture delivered in 2007 at the Zurich Conference.
“The New Christians’ phenomenon throughout the Arab Maghreb
has come to theattention of the media. For example, the weekly journal,
Jeune Afrique,
devoted threereports on this subject with respect to Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria. In March 2005, theFrench daily
Le Monde
devoted a complete report about this topic. And
Al-‘ArabiyyaTV
channel telecast two reports on the subject that had been recorded in the
Kabyle
district of Algeria.
“Jeune Afrique
estimated that the number of people who have embraced Christianity inTunisia was around 500, belonging to three churches. A report on the website of
“Al- Islam al-Yawm”
prepared by
Lidriss el-Kenbouri,
and dated 23 April 2005, estimated thenumber of European evangelists in Morocco to be around 800, and that quite often, their evangelistic efforts are successful. The report further added that around 1,000 Moroccanshad left Islam during 2004. The magazine
“Al-Majalla,”
in its No. 1394 issue, claimedthat the number of
New Christians
in Morocco was around 7,000; perhaps the exactnumber may be as high as 30,000.“The report that appeared in the French daily
Le Monde
claimed that during 1992, between 4,000 and 6,000 Algerians embraced Christianity in the Kabyle region of Algeria. By now, their numbers may be in the tens of thousands. However, the authoritiesare mum about this subject, as an Algerian government official put it; ‘the number of those who embraced Christianity is a
state secret.’”
The lecturer went on to refer to the newspaper report and mentioned several factors thatled people to convert to Christianity:“When we enquired from those who had come over to the Christian faith to learn aboutthe factors that led to their conversion, they mentioned several factors, among them was
‘The violence of the fundamentalist Islamist movements.’
A Christian evangelistworking in Algeria reported:
‘These terrible events shocked people greatly. It provedthat Islam was capable of unleashing all that terror, and those horrific massacres!Even children were not spared during the uprising of the Islamists! Women wereraped! Many people began to ask: Where is Allah? Some Algerians committedsuicide! Others lost their minds; others became atheists, and still others chose theMessiah!’”
2
“Quite often, the
‘New Christians’
testified to the fact that
what they discovered intheir new faith was love; it formed another factor in their conversion.
These are someof their words: ‘
We found out that in Christianity, God is love.’ ‘God loves allpeople.’ ‘What attracted us to Christianity is its teaching that God is love.’”
It is quite evident that the testimonies of these new
Maghrebi
Christians are extremelyimportant. The Christian message came to them through various means, but it struck themas
a word of a loving God in search for His lost sheep.
They embraced the Messiahwho died on the cross, and rose again for their justification. Notwithstanding all thedifficulties that they were to face in the future, they clung to the Biblical
Injil
that had brought them peace with God, and the gift of eternal life.The link to this Arabic-language report that dealt with the plight of
Maghrebi
Christiansshould the Islamists succeed in taking over the reigns of government is:
Almost two years after the Zurich Conference that dealt with the plight of
Maghrebi
Christians should the Islamists succeed in taking over the reigns of government;
نييملسا كح ف برغاوييم
, I read the following report posted on 22 January, 2009,on the Arabic-language
Aafaq (Horizons) website.
It detailed the news of youngAlgerians who have converted to Christianity because they had become disaffected withIslam. Here are excerpts from the report datelined Algiers:
This photo of a worship service accompanied the Aafaq report
“Some
Amazigh
websites have disclosed that many Algerian young people have leftIslam and adopted Christianity. They confessed that they did so due to the ugliness of thecrimes perpetrated by the
Salafist
‘Da’wa and Combat Movement’
against civilians.They were tremendously disappointed and disenchanted with Islam, claiming that it wasresponsible for nurturing these
Jihadists
who have been terrorizing and murderinginnocent people.“The website noted that the spread of Christianity in Algeria has even reached areas thatwere entirely under the influence of the
Islamists
, such as in eastern Algeria.3
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