(Part VI) Islam's Vision for the World: Immigration & Deportation

When many people think about the Islamic conquest they often think of a violent take over of nation-states and forced conversions. This, of course, is true to a large extent, but it is often exaggerated to the degree that other important factors related to Islamization are missed.

A truer picture is that muslim populations immigrated in mass to places like Spain, Asia Minor, North Africa and the Middles East. At the same time Christians were either deported or went into exile to flee the onslaught of foreign migration. Overtime, Muslims simply outnumbered the native residents.

From the earliest times migration played a greater role than birth rates in altering the balance between religions. Governments recognized this and did much to try and regulate migratory trends. Population transfers were deliberately aimed at depleting the religious minorities. Muslim rulers worked hard to remove Christian populations from the Arabian Peninsula. This combination of Islamic immigration and Christian deportation radically undermined the minority populations and eventually stripped them of their influence, power, and rights. In turn, the political, social, and religious pressure pushed the older Christian populations into accepting Islam, or forced them into exile. The presence of these new populations into North Africa and the Middle East contributed greatly to giving places in the region a Muslim coloring by the late Middle Ages.

This policy often resulted in conflict, war, plague, and economic downfall, but like so often in history it is the minorities that get the blame for it. And only the dominant faith would be eligible for official assistance. Thus "dominance reinforces dominance."

With this in mind, in order to defeat Islam the trend ultimately has to be reversed. Christians need to immigrate into the predominantly Islamic states. They need to learn the language, work there, study there, raise families there. That is to say that they need to have a ministry of presence there. Christians need to be willing to get off the carer track of upward mobility, always looking for advancement, always seeing the call of God in taking a the higher paying job, buying the better car, or purchasing the bigger house. If we want to defeat Islam and re-Christianize the Muslim world we need to peacefully and quietly immigrate to Muslim countries.

In addition, we have got to give Christians in these parts a reason to stay in their homelands. If Islam is ever going to lose its stronghold on the region then the best and brightest of Christians in the region need to stay put. The temptation to immigrate to the USA, Canada, or Europe is great. The religious discrimination is intimidating and frustrating especially to younger people who now see no hope of ever reversing the trend. Young Christians are overlooked for the best schools, the best jobs, and for political office. As a result it is far too attractive to seek opportunity outside of their homeland. However, this only further exacerbates the problem and strengthens the hand of the oppressors.

The solution is not going to come from our government. As said before, our government isn't looking to overthrow Muslim power. They are only interested in removing one sect of Muslims form power to replace them with another sect. This has had dire consequences for Christians in the region. Christian populations around North Africa and the Middle East, in most cases, are shrinking as a direct result of our previous and current foreign policy. While the USA and Western Europe may be against radical Islam, they are in every other way pro-Islam when it comes to the Arab states. That is to say, that the minority Christian populations are not even on their radar.

Therefore, the solution is not going to come from any nation-state. It is only going to come from the those who belong to the kingdom of God--the church. Foreign Christians must be willing to immigrate, and native Christians must be willing to stay put. Increasing the population (through birth rates and immigration) is one of the most important means in changing the religious imbalance in North Africa and the Middle East.

*I am indebted to Philip Jenkins in general for many of the ideas in this series, and in particular for much of what has been said in this post. See his book The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia--and How It Died.