As anti-Muslim sentiment grows in the West, European evangelical consultant urges a better response than burqa bans.
Jayson Casper| Image: loeskieboom / iStock / Getty Images
A minaret tower of a mosque in front of the Austrian alps in Telfs, Tirol, Austria.
Within three decades, Muslims may comprise 14 percent of Europe.
The face of the historically Christian continent, tallied at 5 percent Muslim in 2016, may dramatically change by 2050 if high migration patterns hold.
And as Muslim families have a birth rate one child higher than the rest of the continent, the Pew Research Center projects nearly 1 in 5 people will be Muslim in the United Kingdom (17%), France (18%), and Germany (20%). Sweden is projected to become 30 percent Muslim.
Trac5 President & Founder Shares His Journey
In this 2015 podcast recorded by the Zwemer Center for Muslim Studies, former Congressman Mark Siljander recounts his journey of discovery and transformation starting as a young Evangelical and Cold War-era Hawk to eventually become a peacemaker, both pre and post-9/11, especially between Muslims and Christians in countries such as Libya, Iraq, and Sudan. The success of these peacemaking efforts was viewed as unfavorable by those with political and/or financial motivations for promoting “regime change” wars.
This tumultuous life chapter of an indictment, prison, and cancer was ultimately brought to a redemptive conclusion on December 23, 2020, when President Trump granted Mark Siljander a “full and unconditional pardon” in a press release that cited his devotion to “traveling in the Middle East and Africa to promote peace and mutual understanding.”