Southern Baptist pastors say rumors of Dearborn, Mich., which has a high concentration of Arab Americans, being under the control of Sharia law have hampered evangelistic outreach there. Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly has refuted the claim, helping to remind the public that Dearborn is a democracy governed by a mayor and seven-member city council elected by a vote of the public.
Photo from City of Dearborn official website
Southern Baptist pastor Carlos Liese recalls entering a mosque near Dearborn, Mich., sitting on the floor with Islamists and sharing the Gospel. An elderly Muslim man who said little during the conversation invited Liese to his home.
“And they had just told us we were going to hell, and we had gently told them that they were going to hell too, in a gracious way,” Liese told Baptist Press. “But we stood our ground. We shared the Gospel and it was well received again, even though we ended up not agreeing.”
Such encounters are not uncommon for Liese, who helps lead monthly evangelism efforts in Middle Eastern coffee shops, hookah bars and restaurants in Dearborn, a city where at least a third of the population is Arab-American, according to U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 report, “Arab Population in Selected Places,” and 2009 numbers from the Arab American Institute. Many concede the U.S. Census undercounts Arab-Americans. And to improve its count, the Census Bureau is considering adding a “Middle Eastern/North African” category to its racial and ethnic background question in the 2020 survey, the Arab American Institute reported in November 2014.
Contrary to news reports dating to as early as 2010, Dearborn is not under Sharia law, a strict — and sometimes tortuous — theocratic form of civil and criminal law based on the Quran, Southern Baptist pastors in the Detroit suburb of about 100,000 say.
Liese, who lives in Dearborn Heights and pastored First Spanish Baptist Church in Detroit for 22 years, called such reports “yellow journalism,” aimed at riling people and increasing readers and viewers.
“And making statements like that only frighten people and that doesn’t accomplish anything,” said Liese, who today pastors Good Shepherd Baptist Church in Lansing, 60 miles away.
While Sharia varies in implementation in Islamic countries that impose it, common Sharia punishments, according to the Duhaime.org online law dictionary, include prison or death for criticizing the government, which is considered blasphemy; death by stoning for a woman who has a child out of wedlock, even in cases of rape; and jailing or caning for vagrancy, the crime of being intentionally unemployed and failing to care for one’s family.
Regardless of rumors, 37 percent of Christians fear the establishment of Sharia law in the U.S., according to a September–October, 2014 poll by LifeWay Research, Baptist Press reported Feb. 11.
The rumors are so well established, Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly has refuted the claim in letters to individuals, appearances on international media and in an Oct. 30, 2013 press release stating emphatically, “Dearborn is not under sharia law and has never at any time even considered such an action…. One unique aspect of our community is the strong working relationship that exists among our diverse faith leaders, who foster understanding and tolerance.”
Through an outgrowth of the Greater Detroit Baptist Association, Liese has partnered since 2012 with Dave Ferraro, pastor of discipleship at Merriman Road Baptist Church in Garden City, Mich., to spread the Gospel among Muslims in Dearborn. The two are regularly well received among Muslims, Liese said, and have even sung Christmas carols to the applause of Muslims gathered at Middle Eastern restaurants where the two frequently dine.
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SOURCE: Baptist Press
Diana Chandler
