As a missionary who has also worked among Muslims (12% of the population of Bulgaria is traditionally Muslim), I can certainly appreciate such news, and I know what it means for the convert from Islam to Christianity. Even though Islam in Bulgaria is rather of the more liberal variety, a conversion of a Muslim to Christianity still creates certain risks from his immediate family. For a member of the royal family of Kuwait, a nation that is officially Muslim and its legislation is Sharia-based, such conversion can easily mean death.
The Iranian Christian News Agency, Mohabat News, reports the news from an Arabic Christian agency, Al-Haqiqah, that Abdollah Al-sabah, a Kuwaiti prince, has publicly denounced his Muslim faith and has embraced Christianity. The agency broadcasted an audio file where the prince declared, “First of all, I totally agree with the distribution of this audio file and I now declare that if they kill me because of this audio file, then I’ll go into the presence of Jesus Christ and be with him for all eternity.”
He also said, “I’m satisfied with whatever they do to me, because the truth in the Bible has guided me to the right way.”
This comes to show that Christianity, although small and oppressed, is still very active and alive in the Middle East, if it can reach even members of the royal families in the region. Over the centuries Arabic and Persian Christians have taken active part in their societies, in some instances even working to turn their nations into more civilized and free nations than Islam would have them.
This small but vibrant Christianity has been attacked viciously in the last several years only in the areas which the United States had under their military control, or where the United States government has helped new regimes replace the old ones. The attacks against churches in Afghanistan and Iraq have been numerous under the new regimes, and the US military has been prohibited from helping the local Christians by the administrations of both Bush and Obama. Two years ago, the distribution of Bibles was banned in Iraq, and even the sale to the military of assault weapons with Bible verses on them was stopped. In Egypt, the new authorities helped and financed by the Obama administration and supported internationally by Hillary Clinton, encouraged pogroms against the traditional Christian minority in the country, the Copts.
It seems that one of the main strategic goals for the US military presence in the Middle East is the eradication of traditional Christianity there.
Which also gives us some foresight of one of the possible outcomes of a war with Iran and the occupation of Iranian territory. Iran has a large Christian minority which, while under oppression, is left relatively alone by the authorities. If Afghanistan and Iraq can teach us anything, a US military invasion will only lead to its extermination. That’s what so many evangelical voters who vote for neo-conservative war-mongers refuse to even consider.
The conversion of a Kuwaiti prince is important news. It is shameful that the American church is not there with its missionaries to complete the task but supports the war drums banging of the liberal-progressive government in Washington DC.
