EUROPE IS EXPERIENCING ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT INFLUXES OF MIGRANTS IN ITS HISTORY AND ONE OF THE WORST HUMANITARIAN CRISIS SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR. 

Pushed by civil war and terror and pulled by the promise of a better life, in 2015 more than one million people crossed into Europe, fleeing from countries like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Pakistan, Iran and other countries, sometimes risking their lives along the way (in 2015 around 4000 were drowned or went missing). The influx of refugees is likely to continue in 2016, with more than 135,000 people arriving in the first two months of 2016.

These men, women, and children, Christians, Muslims, people of other faiths and none flee from war, conflicts, poverty, human rights abuses crossing borders and seas to seek a safe haven in Europe: a better life, freedom, security, hope, and peace. Many of them hope to build a new life somewhere in Europe.

The crisis from which the refugees fled caused a social crisis in Europe. European countries are struggling to deal with the mass movement of people. Some have tightened border controls or build fences, leaving tens of thousands of migrants stranded in Greece and Macedonia or Calais, resulting in humanitarian crises. In September 2015, EU interior ministers approved a controversial plan to relocate 120,000 migrants across the continent over the next two years, with binding quotas. Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary opposed the scheme.

As leaders grasp for a solution, they have made an agreement with Turkey in March 2016, hoping to slow the number of people setting off for European shores. This agreement provides for the return to Turkey of irregular migrants arriving illegally to the Greek islands, including asylum seekers. In return, for every Syrian returned to Turkey, the EU must “resettle” another one within its borders.

While Europe seeks ways to desperately keep refugees out, help is being provided for those that have arrived in cities, town and villages across Europe.

They are given food and shelter while their application for residency is being processed (a process that takes longer than anticipated and promised). In some countries (e.g. Germany, Austria, Switzerland) new integration laws are being developed. Such laws require refugees to integrate in return for being allowed to live and work in the country.

Many NGO’s, secular organisations, local refugee agencies, and also Christian organisations, Churches and individual citizens are reaching out to refugees with food, schooling, clothes, providing day care etc. Meanwhile, while many European citizens are welcoming the strangers and providing them with help in every way possible, others point out that: “the stranger is danger.” A large number of Europeans (including Christians) have trouble coming to grips with the fact that refugees have come in such large numbers in our countries. They are particularly concerned because the vast majority of these refugees are Muslims.

This concern is fueled by:

1. stories of harassment in refugees centers of non-Muslims (i.e. Christian) or those of a different sexual orientation (i.e. homosexual) by Muslim refugees;
2. the story of the attacks on women in Koln on New Year’s Eve 2015;
3. the terrorist attacks, committed by Muslims who have come as refugees.

As a consequence they support the calls of the right-wing political parties to close the border for Muslims, believing that: ‘they are out to islamize Europe’. One such movement is Pegida. ^[1]

On 23 January 2016, representatives of fourteen like-minded allies, including Pegida Austria, Pegida Bulgaria, and Pegida Netherlands, Identity Ireland, Pegida Ireland, Pegida Switzerland, Pegida UK met in the Czech Republic to sign the Prague Declaration, which states their belief that the ‘thousand-year history of Western civilization could soon come to an end through Islam conquering Europe’, thus formalizing their membership in the Fortress Europe coalition against that eventuality.

A large number of Europeans (including many Christians) point out that Europe is not able to cope with the influx of refugees we are receiving. They are afraid that refugees coming from Islamic countries will change our way of life, will change our culture, take our homes, our jobs or our benefits. Isn’t it obvious, they ask, that some refugees are not refugees at all, but economic migrants, or even worse terrorists. They wonder whether religious freedom or our national security is at risk. Here are some typical objections:

• The steady islamisation is a danger….Do you think that when we help refugees that they integrate and respect the laws of the land?? (The implied answer: no)
• Why not go to UAE, Saudi, Oman? Why Europe? Because Muslims are lazy and they just want to sit and collect free money, medical, government support. One day all those European countries will be controlled by Muslims!
• I saw a sign “Europe is cancer, Islam is the answer”. It seems they go to ‘cure’ Europe, in other words wipe you out, cut your throats. History repeats itself. How many Christians are left in the Middle East and Turkey?
• Why are Muslims living in the West? I get that some may live in Europe but not in such massive numbers. The West is incompatible with their values, lifestyle, traditions and morals. There is a reason oceans separate continents or races and religions.
• It is terrible what happens in Lesbos, Greece, but what I find worse is when we don’t discern the spirits. In a program on television about Iran I saw a proto-type of people who adhere to Islam: death to America, death to England, death to Israel etc. When we provide such people asylum unconditionally, we undermine our spiritual and democratic freedom and invite Satan into our house. Ask refugees therefore how they feel about America, England and Israel and how they look towards Christian religion and Christian values. Let them know that we do not provide asylum to people who hate our enemies. But let Christians in, they are our brothers and sisters. Then we can point them to their duty to fight for their freedom in stead of fleeing. Should we be on guard, when and how the antichrist works? Should we give them space? Test the spirits. (In Christian magazine)

Refugee crisis: an opportunity to grow in Grace

I don’t want to belittle the challenges that Europe faces with the arrival of so many (predominantly Muslim) refugees. There are Muslims in Europe already who want to establish Sharia law, and no doubt among refugees there are IS sympathizers, who are eager to create a European version of IS. Of course, they make up only a small minority among the predominantly ‘normal’ Muslims, but it only takes a few to create havoc. We have had terrorist attacks in Europe and I think more will come, despite the great work of our security services. It is very likely that with the growing number of Muslims refugees setting up a new life in Europe, more violent incidents caused by extreme Muslims will take place.

There are challenges to make sure all refugees are provided with food, accommodation, schooling and jobs. And, yes, there are security challenges with Islamic fundamentalists trying to get a foothold in Europe.

Nevertheless, as the Church of Jesus Christ in Europe we should not let these challenges overtake us. They are not bigger than our God. He can handle whatever crisis comes our way.

It is a real possibility that with the arrival of thousands of new Muslims our European (Christian?) values will disappear. Nevertheless, we should not be blind to the fact that such disappearance is not caused by external forces (be it Islam or humanism, secularism, materialism), but by our own sinful hearts.

In fact, its disappearance is seen in the way so many Christian respond to the refugees coming to Europe. It seems they want to defend Christian values with an attitude that goes against such values.

I suggest that the Church in Europe is facing another challenge in light of the influx of refugees, namely the challenge to not be influenced by the graceless society around us and draw our response from the Word of God, instead of from the news bulletins of the world.

The arrival of thousands of refugees in our cities and streets is an opportunity to grow into one of the key characteristics of the Christian faith, namely GRACE. C.S.Lewis said: “Christianity’s unique feature among world religions is grace.” If this is so, and I believe it is, it means that GRACE, not fear, should be the Church’s main response to the present refugee crisis.

What is grace? Grace is the centre of the Gospel, it is the basis of our salvation.  The Greek word for ‘grace’ is charis. Its basic idea is ‘non-meritorious or unearned favor, an unearned gift, a favor or blessings bestowed as a gift, freely and never as merit for work performed.’

Grace is that which God does for mankind through His Son, which mankind cannot earn, does not deserve, and will never merit. Grace is all that God freely and non-meritoriously does for man and is free to do for man on the basis of Christ’s person and work on the cross. Grace, one might say, is the work of God for man and encompasses everything we receive from God.

Some characteristics of grace:

• ‘The grace of God is dangerous. It’s lavish, excessive, outrageous, and scandalous. God’s grace is ridiculously inclusive. Apparently God doesn’t care who He loves. He is not very careful about the people He calls His friends or the people He calls His church.’ Mike Yaconelli, Dangerous Wonder
• Grace is outrageously unfair, ridiculously extravagant, boldly risking, unfair and unjustly given.
• Grace beats judgmentalism and legalism.
• Grace always gives second chances, third chances, and never stops giving chances.
• Grace has Jesus written all over it.
• Grace can be taken advantage of; if grace can’t be abused, it is not real grace. Vertical grace should be expressed in horizontal grace. We can differentiate between vertical grace (God’s grace towards us) and horizontal grace (grace from us to others). It is God’s desire that we be as gracious to others as God is towards us. God’s Word encourages us: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36)

How do this look like in light of the refugee crisis?

I want to suggest five characteristics of a mindset of grace toward Muslims’ refugees coming into Europe. These can be easily remembered through the acronymn of the word ‘Grace’:

1. Growing our awareness of the sovereignty of God

An attitude of fear and prejudice can quench an attitude of grace. Therefore, we need to address this attitude of fear and prejudice in our lives and that of our fellow believers across Europe in order to allow the grace of God flow freely from us to others.

The fear that quenches grace can be a fear of losing something that is valuable to us, such as: freedom, identity, space, security, perhaps ultimately a fear of losing control.

In order to deal with this we have to go back to the real source of our security and identity, namely our Heavenly Father, whose plans are eternal and unchangeable.

He promises us a glorious future, and promises to be with us no matter what. Our Heavenly Father is the Sovereign Creator, the Judge of all the earth, who will bring to nothing those that stand against Him. He is the First and the Last, who is in control of human events and directs them towards His final resolution and fulfillment. He is committed to His people, even if they suffer. This is our sovereign God.

We are secure in Him, whatever happens, and whatever evil intent others may have against us. He promises: “No weapon forged against you will prevail, and will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me, declares the Lord.” (Is. 54: 17)

A growing awareness of the sovereignty of God creates peace, rest, joy, security, fearlessness. Grace is not naïve. Sometimes, such attitude of grace is confused with being naïve.

• ‘From a Christian perspective it is understandable to help our neighbors, but at the same time, this is unbelievably naïve. It is better not to consider Islam as our neighbor whom we should help. Islam takes advantage of Christian compassion in order to infiltrate into the western world. This is our weak point and they know it. It is a satanic religion. Test the spirits.’

-reaction on Christian news website to an article about Christians working together with Muslims in Sweden in helping refugees.

Gracious people are not naïve; they are aware of evil intents of some and they are not blind for the risks involved in welcoming the stranger. Nevertheless, gracious people want to follow in the footsteps of the One, Who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). One who came to His own with love, compassion, a servant attitude. One, who experienced that the grace He offered was sometimes rejected (He came His own, but His own did not receive Him-John 1:10). Worse, his own crucified Him. There is no garantuee that we won’t experience the same response, but we have not alternative. The Gospel of grace demands being delivered with grace.

We need to differentiate between the role of God’s People and the role of Government.

This growing awareness of the sovereignty of God, also has reference to the role of God’s people and the role of the government (authorities). In Romans 12:9-13:10, Paul describes a godly response to evil. He portrays a sharp contrast between how God’s people are to respond to evil versus how the government should respond. Jesus’ followers are called to peacemaking and sacrificial love. Paul begins the section with an appeal to love (Rom 12:9- 10) and closes the section by repeating the call to love our neighbor (13:8-10). He exhorts believers to bless our persecutors, respond nonviolently to evil and seek peace with all.

By contrast, a government is clearly called to bring justice within its borders, using force if necessary. Thus the justice wrought by the state reflects a partial and provisional manifestation of God’s justice on earth against evil.

In our relating to Muslims it is important that we don’t blur the role of the government (authorities) and the role of the Church/Christians.

The Church is called to love, bless, forgive, turn the other cheek etc. The government is responsible to punish evil/evil doers, to withhold/withdraw passports of those who clearly do not want to abide by the laws of the land. The government is to protect the innocent from the criminals, to punish the terrorist, to confiscate possessions and to withdraw licences etc.

With all the struggles in the world and all the turmoil around us, and the rapid changes that take place, we don’t have to doubt who is in control: God. He, the sovereign Lord (history is His Story) fulfills His eternal purposes. He uses world leaders, even corrupt ones, to carry out His eternal plan. We are safe in His eternal, almighty hands. The Church of Europe is safe in His hands. He will continue to build it, with or without persecution. Knowing our Heavenly Father is sovereign, means that we are eternally secure. This provides us with the freedom that might seem naive, to take risks, to love our enemies, open our hearts and doors for those who may take advantage of it.

2. Renewal of God’s grace in our own lives

Besides a renewed and fresh awareness of the sovereignty of God over the affairs of men, of my personal life and the continent of Europe, including the refugee crisis, we need a renewal of our joy over God’s grace in our own life.

We are beneficiaries of God’s amazing grace, without which we would be lost forever. Without His daily sustaining, strengthening grace, we would fall and not recover. It is grace that brought us safe thus and it only grace that will lead us home.

Having received grace from God and continuing to receive it daily in abundance, it is meant to transform our beings and to guide all our actions. Nevertheless, Christians are not always known for their grace.

“The two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are the failure to understand, receive, and live out God’s unconditional grace and forgiveness, and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people…We read, we hear, we believe a good theology of grace. But that’s not the way we live. The good news of the Gospel of grace has not penetrated the level of our emotions.”^[2] The more we learn to rejoice in God’s grace for us, the more we begin to understand that God is also gracious to others around us and the more we will become channels of that grace, also to Muslims around us. We are called to respond to Muslims with grace.

Steve Bell defines a grace-response as follows:

“a willingness to alter the default mechanism in our brains which causes us to fear the unfamiliar in another person; being prepared to give others the benefit of the doubt and make an effort to find out why they behave as they do.”^[3]

And in his book From Exclusion to Embrace, Miroslav Volf writes:

“Although the behavior of a person may be judged as deplorable, even demonic, no one should ever be excluded from the will to embrace, because at the deepest level, the relationship to others does not rest on their moral performance and therefore cannot be undone by the lack of it……At the core of the Christian faith lies the persuasion that the others need not be perceived as innocent in order to be loved, but ought to be embraced even when they are perceived as wrongdoers. The story of the cross is about God who desires to embrace precisely the ‘sons and daughters’ of hell.”

I believe that the Manifesto of the European Evangelical Alliance, Stand up for Refugees is a good example of what it means to respond to the refugee situation with grace^[4]:

1. To open my eyes to reality because I want to be sensitive to the world around me. I am disturbed when I see people running away from violence and people using violence to stop them. Yet I will stand up and help wherever and whenever I see a need that I can handle.
2. To open my heart because I believe that God created all people in His image and in His likeness. Unique beings, each of them with his or her own story, all of them longing for a meaningful and joyful life. Trusting God, I will not be afraid but be available for people in distress, just like Jesus Christ was.
3. To respond calmly and sensibly when people choose strong language, rejection, or even hatred towards refugees.
4. To pray for people who might be full of hatred towards the Western world, Christians, or refugees.
5. To seek not to curse but to bless.
6. To promote justice and to protect the rights of my displaced neighbour.
7. To promote the fair and just treatment of every person in our country.
8. To not believe in survival of the fittest, but to love our neighbour as ourselves and bear one another’s burdens, which is God’s view of justice.
9. To help because every smile and every small gesture can make a difference to a person in distress.
10. To share what I have received with gratitude.
11. To sacrifice part of my wealth when that contributes to the hope of a refugee.
12. To be patient because many refugees bear internal scars from violence, loss and fear. Therefore I will be patient with them when they need more time, rest and space in their efforts to learn our language and culture and to contribute to society.
13. To be faithful in my walk with refugees and encourage them to accept a unique place of their own in our society, because I do believe not in uniformity but in a colourful diversity that reflects God́ s character.
14. To testify and proclaim God’s love because Jesus Christ alone saves and heals people’s hearts and minds.
15. To refrain from Overstatement, exaggeration, stereotyping, words taken out of context

Remember that we are aliens ourselves

It is a great privilege to live in one of the richest continents on earth and in societies where there is social security, freedom, law enforcement, hospitals, schools etc. It is great to be a European. Nevertheless, we need to remember that while Europe might be our earthly home, it is not our eternal destiny. Christians are essentially, sojourners, aliens on earth. We are ultimately citizens of heaven and it is there we need to gather our treasures. As Luther sang: Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever.

Jesus challenged His followers: “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?”…And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?” (Matthew 5:46, 47) We are called to reflect our Father who loved us unconditionally, who died for us, while we were His enemies. The more we are overwhelmed by the unconditional, acceptance and love and grace of God, who knows all about us, the more this love and grace will spill over to others, even to those whom we dislike. The more we realize that God’s compassion has no limits, the more our compassion grows in the same direction.

3. Accept that Islam is what a Muslim says it is

Those who are fearful of the large influx of Muslim refugees regularly point towards the religion of Islam, pointing out that this religion is violent, aggressive, unchangeable, surpressing, anti-democratic, male dominant, anti- Christians etc.

The grace of God enables us to view Muslims not as invaders, enemies, economic migrants, not as representatives of a religious system, but as human beings. It is important to remember that the refugees are not in the first place Muslims; they are human beings, created in God’s image, which we are called to treat with dignity. They have been de-humanized in the places they had to leave. We need to ask our Heavenly Father to see beyond or behind the name Muhammad, a father who is desperate to bring his family into safely; to see behind the veil worn by Fatima, a woman, who has lost her three children in a bomb attack. We might see the teenager Boutrus as a potential terrorist, while God looks upon him as a potential Church planter. (He has done this before in the life of the Jewish Boutrus: Saul).

Also, we need to focus on Muslims instead of an academic study of the religion of Islam. We can grow in grace towards Muslims as people, we don’t need to grow in grace towards Islam as a religion.

The Dutch Missiologist Herman Bavinck (1895-1964) used to say: “I am never in contact with Islam, but with a Muslim and his Mohammedanism…”  Our focus on Muslims means what we are concerned about their beliefs, how they actually live and apply Islam to their daily lives. It is important to understand that Islam is not a monolithic entity. It is impossible to speak of Islam in Europe (singular) as if all Muslims believe the same, behave the same, think the same, interpret the Qur’an the same, pray the same, relate to others the same.

Persons of Muslim origin living in Europe do not all practice their faith with anything like the same level of intensity. Some people of Muslim origin have opted to follow the path of agnosticism or religious indifference. Others continue to be Muslim in a cultural sense, while paying little if any attention to associated religious beliefs. These are considered as a sort of lay Muslim population. There are no studies of any depth on the matter, but on the basis of a partial examination of the subject it appears that approximately twothirds of the Muslim population falls into one of these two categories (nonpracticing or agnostic, etc.) of Muslim self-identification. Only about a third ..has so to speak made their self-reference to the Islamic faith active.^[5]

4. Contact real Muslims

Once one begins to have eyes for Muslims instead of debating about Islam, it is inevitable that one wants to get in touch with real Muslims, as people of flesh and blood. So often, people that have a strong negative sentiment towards Islam and Muslims, have no single contact with a Muslim whatsoever. The arrival of thousands new Muslim immigrants, together with the Muslims that have lived in our countries for several years or even all their lives, gives us ample opportunities to get in touch with them.

It is my desire that every Muslim in Europe will have at least one Christian friend or that all Christians have at least one Muslim as their friend. I’m glad that thousands of Christians across Europe are seeking ways to get in contact with the Muslims, both the arriving refugees, as well as the Muslims that have been here longer.

Examples:

Provide temporary housing, donate clothes, food, offer hospitality; organize events/church services for refugees; organize transportation to have them visit your church/homes, offer yourself as a volunteer in asylum centers; celebrate World Refugee Sunday (June 19 or 26, 2016);

• Recently a Baptist Church in Barcelona region sent four trucks full of clothing, toys and tents to Idomeni and other refugee camps in Greece, after hundreds of citizens joined the project.
• More than 60 churches across the UK offer ‘Welcome boxes’ to refugees. The welcome box is a shoe box filled with toys and educational items for children, toiletries, confectionery, and information about the city. They also provide information about local groups and services, offer language classes, enterprise training and housing.
• Agape created a ‘Love-Europe app’, to help refugees to communicate better and get valuable information to feel welcome in their new surroundings.

For those that are not yet involved, but would like to, there is help and resources available

5. Enter into their lives

Some people might have thought that the E as our fifth and final point, would refer to Evangelize. And of course this is certainly an important aspect of our interactions with people of other faiths. If we are excited about God’s grace for all mankind and if we are exuberant about Jesus, there is no doubt that we will seek opportunities to express this to our friends, including Muslims.

In doing so there are a variety or resources available, such as Bibles, DVD’s in different languages; SD memory cards which contain the Jesus film and Bible in Arabic and other languages.

Although, we might consider this most important, nevertheless, this is not all we do, nor might it be the first thing we do. I draw my inspiration from the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church in Thessalonika:

“Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well.” (1 Thess. 2:8, NIV)

Sharing Lives is more complex than sharing the Gospel. Sharing Lives is holistic, taking the whole person into consideration. The refugee is not in the first place an object for conversion, but someone we are called to love and serve. Sharing Lives is also holistic that it involves our whole being as well.  In his commentary on 1 Thessalonians, Ernest Black writes:

“The true missionary is not someone specialized in the delivery of the message but someone whose whole being, completely committed to a message which demands all, is communicated to his hearers.”^[6]

Entering into the lives of Muslim refugees means, visiting them, listening to their stories, learning of their struggles, nightmares and dreams.

Colin Chapman, who worked in the Middle East for many years, sees in the story of Jesus as a boy in the temple a good model for entering into the lives of our Muslim friends and he points out the following five details^[7]:

“After three days they found Him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions. Everyone who heard Him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.” (Luke 2: 46, 47)

Sit among them. Jesus sat among the teachers. Christians need to sit among Muslims by visiting them in their homes, spending time with them socially, visiting a mosque, an Islamic youth center or student group, etc. Learning about their history and culture.

Listen. Jesus listened to the teachers. Christians can learn to listen to Muslims by having a sincere desire to learn what they think. By giving serious attention to how they themselves express their faith. It means that we learn to stand in their shoes and see the world through their eyes. It means that we learn to listen with our hearts and not just with our ears.

Ask questions. Jesus asked questions. When we have taken the first two steps, we are in a better position to ask good questions without Muslims considering such questions to be a threat. We do not ask questions to embarrass our Muslim friend, but to really enter into a conversation.

Understand. The teachers saw that Jesus understood them. The answers to our questions will lead us to a better understanding of Islam in the life of our Muslim friend. Understanding also enables us to discern the most important issues and not get sidetracked into fruitless discussions.

Answer. Jesus answered the questions posed by the teachers. When Muslims see we really understand them, they might begin asking questions about our faith. Once we reach the stage of being able to offer any answers, we will then be answering genuine questions in the minds of Muslims and not simply the questions that we think they ought to be asking. At this stage we’ve also earned the right to speak.

Conclusion 

The refugee crisis provides the Church in Europe with an opportunity to grow in grace.

We can calm our fears, worries and concerns for our future, safety, society with regard to the refugees, in the sovereign loving presence of our Heavenly Father. We can drink freshly from the unquenchable source of His loving grace and compassion for our well-being. When we do this, the Holy Spirit can fill our hearts with compassion, to not be put off by the colour of someone’s skin, religion, language or culture, but recognize a fellow-human being whom God created and for whom Christ died. God will then give us a desire and with it practical ways to enter into the lives of people that have fled to us.

Responding with grace to the Muslims in Europe (refugees and others) does not mean to compromise our values or traditions. On the contrary, grace is one of our key values and I believe that in the present times of crisis in Europe, provides us with an opportunity to let the world know this.

I believe that the hundreds of thousands of refugees, among whom many Muslims, give the Church of Europe an opportunity to testify that we are followers of the Man of Peace, who when a baby had to flee from violence and together with his parents found refuge in another country. Jesus, Who as an adult had no place to lay down his head and who was willing to give up his privileges in order to reconcile man to God. Jesus came to exemplify grace and it is grace that should determine our response to the refugee crisis in Europe.

When God enables us to live out this attitude and these values then the refugee crisis becomes a refugee opportunity, namely to show our new neighbors that their ultimate security and safety is not in Europe, but in Christ, in Whom all nations will ultimately be blessed.

[1] Pegida (=Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West) started in October 2014 in Dresden, Germany, but spread to other countries. This is an anti-migration, anti-Islamic movement with slogans, such as “”For the preservation of our culture”, “Against religious fanaticism, against any kind of radicalism, together without violence”. They have a facebook page, organise demonstrations in Germany, Paris, Oslo, Copenhagen, Antwerp, Newcastle, London, Madrid, Malmo and other places.

[2] David A. Seamands, Healing for Damaged Emotions, (Scripture Press, Victory Books, USA, 1991), 32.

[3] Steve Bell, Grace for Muslim? The journey from fear to faith, (Milton Keynes: Authentic Media, 2006), page 1.

[4] The Manfesto can be read and downloaded at: http://www.europeanea.org/index.php/ refugees/stand-up-for-refugees/

[5] Dassetto, F, Ferrari, S and Marechal, B (2007), Islam in the European Union: What’s at stake in the future?, Strasbourg: European Parliament, 6.7.

[6] Ernest Best, Black’s New Testament Commentaries, ed., A commentary of the First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1993), 102, 103.

[7] Colin Chapman, Cross and Crescent: responding to the Challenge of Islam (Downers Grove, II., USA: IVP Books, 2007), 24, 25.