Ministry Leader: Foiled Airliner Plot Reflects Ongoing Spiritual Battle
by Allie Martin
August 11, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The president of a ministry that works with Christians in the Middle East and other persecuted nations says the failed plot by terrorists to bring down passenger airplanes shows the true nature of the spiritual battle between Christianity and Islam.According to an Associated Press report, officials say most of the suspects arrested in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners are believed to be British Muslims, at least some of Pakistani ancestry. Accounts leaked by investigators described a plan, just days away from being carried out, that would have used liquid explosives to bring down ten planes in a nearly simultaneous strike.
A federal law enforcement official in Washington says that at least one martyrdom tape was found during ongoing raids across England on Thursday. Such a tape, as well as the scheme to strike a range of targets at roughly the same time, is an earmark of al-Qaida. President Bush said the foiled plot is a reminder that America "is at war with Islamic fascists."
Officials with the Washington, DC-based Council of American-Islamic Relations are worried that such language used to described the suspects could spark a "religious war." The group takes issue with President Bush's statement that "his nation is at war with Islamic fascism," saying that it "contributes to a rising level of hostility to Islam and the American-Muslim community."
The group's executive director says Muslims do not link Christianity to fascists or terrorists, and he would like the same courtesy extended to Islam, which he calls a "religion of peace."
A Reason to Live vs. a Reason to Die
Dr. Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors USA, says the failed plan is evidence of the spiritual darkness in which Muslims exist. "In the war against terror," says Moeller, "we have to give Muslims a reason for living before they come to us with a reason for dying."
Moeller's group assists Christians living and serving in persecuted countries such as Pakistan, the country of origin for most of the terror suspects in the foiled plot. "These suicide bombers, these suicide terrorists, are laboring in a hopeless reality, without Christ, without hope of eternal life," he notes, "except -- in their belief -- if they martyr themselves for the cause of Islam.
The Open Doors president says the failed plot shows the importance of Christians living and working in Islamic nations to reach others with the gospel. "We have to reach out in Christ's love to witness to these people so they don't come to us with bombs," he says. "We can go to them with the weapon of love in Jesus Christ."
In the aftermath of the planned terror plot, Moeller is concerned that Christian missionaries in those nations are on the front lines in a war that has eternal consequences. "It is a spiritual battle that has real, physical results on the ground," he explains. "These days are extremely tense right now throughout the Middle East with Israel's and Lebanon's war going on."
And these latest developments, he says, certainly do not help matters. "[W]ith this terror plot unveiled about our transportation between the U.S. and the U.K., these things create increasing tension for our brothers and sisters on the ground in those countries.
"We need to pray for them," he says. "We need to pray that their witness remains strong."
Moeller expects persecution and tensions to increase in Muslim nations as more come to Christ throughout the region.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.Associated Press contributed to this story.
