Three Christians Arrested in Outreach to Muslims in Michigan

by Mark Ellis, ASSIST News Service

DEARBORN, MI - Three Christians were arrested today at the Arab International Festival as they shared their faith with Muslims. The three were arrested by police as they engaged in intense, but respectful dialog in which they proclaimed their faith in Christ.

“I never thought I would see this in America,” says Steven Atkins, a resident of Toronto, Canada, who was visiting the festival and observed the incident.

The three arrested include Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, David Woods, and Paul Rezkalla. Dr. Quereshi is co-director of Acts 17 Apologetics Ministries. He holds an MD from Eastern Virginia Medical School and an MA in Christian apologetics from Biola University.

“When Dr. Quereshi was arrested I heard people clapping and applauding, and some said ‘Allahu Akbar,’” Atkins said. There was a crowd of 15-20 people watching the exchange and subsequent arrest.

The festival attracts several hundred thousand Arab Americans each year, and some Christian groups find it an ideal venue for Christian outreach.

This year, the city of Dearborn banned the distribution of Christian literature near the festival. Some accused the city of catering to its large Muslim population when the law was passed. On June 17, a three-judge panel from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency motion on behalf of Pastor George Saieg, allowing him to distribute literature and talk about his faith to Muslims at the festival.

“It was an intense discussion, but it was not unruly,” Atkins noted. “There was no threat of violence,” he said. “It’s becoming more restrictive here than in Canada.”

Link


Source: AssistNews.net

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Mike

Brother thanks for posting this!

Dearborn, MI is the main center for Muslims in the US. I just recently heard a minister give a conference on how to witness to muslims. He has a pentecostal church in Dearborn and He said that the newly elected officials are Muslims. He said God led him there to reach out to Muslims. He also said that he was having some success at reaching out to muslims and even had seen two converted to Christianity this year.

He told how very difficult it is to reach muslims and that the church needs to be able to witness to them and needs to be enlightened on their culture and how to approach them.

The church needs to be praying to reach them for Christ because they have a plan to take over the whole world. They have a strategic plan with a lot of power and money to try and take over the U.S. Also the Muslims in Dearborn were very pleased with the one who was elected president of the U.S. and they let it be known around their city as they have the largest population there.

Blessings to you!

Here's the link to the ministry members post incarceration interview on their blog:

http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2010/06/arrested-for-being-christian-preachers.html

rbanks, can we look up this brothers ministry?


This is just a repeat of above!!! Sorry for the repeat.


I tried to find him but found this blog instead....

http://www.answeringmuslims.com/

It had a pretty good q & a about what happened and pictures and updates!!

God bless,

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Lisa

It is not surprising that this is happening, it is in the word. If we are doing what God has sent us to do, we will suffer persecution.

Mar 10:30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

Jhn 15:18 ¶ If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you.

We can expect to be persecuted. In fact, the fact that we haven't been is because we have been too like the world.

My question in all this is why were they taking video cameras to protect them against false charges. If God sent them, He is their defense. I have to agree that if they knew cameras would further ignite the situation, they would have been better off to have left their defense in God's hands. This is His promise to us:

Mat 10:19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

It would seem that they were looking to the arm of the flesh to protect them rather than God. However if God allowed them to be thrown in jail for His name sake, if they truly are dead men already, they would rejoice for being counted worthy to suffer for His name sake.

Act 5:41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

I feel they would have been more effective in witnessing without sticking a camera in the faces of those they witnessed to. How many of us would respond well to a invitation with a camera recording the event?

We better get used to it, persecution it come to America. The good news is that when persecution has come to other lands it made them even more effective because they knew the price they would have to pay to be called christians. For the most part the church in the USA, of which I am a part, is comfy and demanding of it's rights. Dead men have no rights other that the ones God gives us. I am not saying we need to throw in the towel and let it go it's course. We need to defend our constitutional rights as US citizens, but we need to also know that those rights are being eroded, and will continue to be so. Look up our redemption draweth nigh. Let's take as many with us to those pearly gates as we can.

We need to understand that He is our defense. If we come up with our own defense it will be powerless. If you read the accounts of the early christians being hauled before judges, they had an opportunity to share the entire gospel before many, and large numbers believed. God spoke through these men and accomplished more than a video camera ever could.

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KLC

The heart of evil men think they can quash God's will when it comes to an arrest. While these men spoke the word of God to them, some heard, others got angry, and others called the police. There will be Muslims who have gone home that day questioning their faith, some may even given their lives to Christ, while others are holding meetings for the next round of persecutions.

The evil heart of men hate the light and will not come to it, but when light does come and flashes it's rays many are affected by it. Some continue to hate it going further into darkness, while some want more and will seek some way to obtain it.

Paul experienced this time and time again whenever he preached the gospel and afterward beaten, shipwrecked, persecuted and jailed, there were those that heard and believed while he was being tortured behind closed doors. He no doubt prayed for them while there in that dark hell hole.

This is a time to rejoice with our persecuted brethren, not to feel sad, it would do them an injustice if we did. For this is the gospel, that light has come into the world and men hate darkness.

Quote:

"We better get used to it, persecution it come to America. The good news is that when persecution has come to other lands it made them even more effective because they knew the price they would have to pay to be called christians. For the most part the church in the USA, of which I am a part, is comfy and demanding of it's rights. Dead men have no rights other that the ones God gives us. I am not saying we need to throw in the towel and let it go it's course. We need to defend our constitutional rights as US citizens, but we need to also know that those rights are being eroded, and will continue to be so. Look up our redemption draweth nigh. Let's take as many with us to those pearly gates as we can."




The thing that is shocking to me is not that these Christians are being persecuted by Muslims but that they got arrested for preaching the gospel. They had no grounds to be arrested.

The same thing will happen one day to pastors that are preaching the true gospel in our churches. Christians are being called intolerant for preaching against sin, and will one day be arrested for so called "hate crimes."

Put the shoe on the other foot in Dearborn. What if Muslims were preaching from the Koran in a Christian gathering? Do you think that they would have been arrested? I don't think so. You would expect something like this in a Muslim country, but not here in the U.S. where the constitution guarantees us freedom of speech.

Mike

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Mike

So true Mike, but surely a sign of the times.

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KLC

you know, if you watch some of their videos on youtube, I hope they are not trying to make it an Islam vs. Christianity "thing."

Praise the Lord for such a witness, but "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

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Michelle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEPod-hxD7g&feature=related

last year's...this is just ridiculous

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Michelle