"Why I am Not a Muslim" Preached by Iranian Christian Pastor Ignites Media
Controversy
Donald Fareed, an Iranian from a ****ite Muslim background who fled his
homeland, and now Christian pastor and U.S. citizen, recently found
himself
in the middle of an explosive media controversy after being invited to
give a
provocative sermon entitled, ³Why I am Not a Muslim,² despite years of
international efforts to promote peace, understanding and dialog between
Muslims and Christians.
SAN JOSE, CA (PRWEB) December 13, 2004 -- Donald Fareed, an ordained
Christian pastor and former ****ite Muslim, recently delivered a sermon
entitled ³Why I am Not a Muslim,² and the provocative message stirred up a
major controversy in his local San Francisco Bay Area media and in the
Muslim
community. Fareed, Founder & President of the San Jose-based Persian
Ministries International (PMI) (www.PersianMinistries.org), was invited to
deliver the message to the Sunnyvale Nazarene Church in Sunnyvale, CA on
November 28, 2004. Without Fareed¹s knowledge, the little church put the
title of his sermon on the marquee to promote the event, and after an
outcry
from two members of the community‹one Muslim and one not‹the result was
explosive.
* The San Jose Mercury News¹ article headline read, ³Sermon Subject Raise
Hackles.²
* NBC 11 called it, ³The Message that Links the Church to a Global
Debate!²
* NBC 11 Local News called the church¹s sign, ³Sign of the Times²
* CBS 5 Eyewitness News re****ted, ³Not in a Mosque but in a Church! The
Extreme Sign Got Them in the Pews!²
Fareed is an Iranian American from a ****ite Muslim background who fled his
homeland following the Islamic Revolution in Iran in the late-1970s.
Rebelling against the perceived harshness of Islam¹s holy laws as
interpreted
by its leaders, he moved to the United States. After a long spiritual
journey
during which he dabbled in Sufism, New Age religion, and Scientology, he
converted to evangelical Christianity about 14 years ago.
³The goal of the message was not to offend Muslims, but to communicate why
I
changed my religion,² Fareed says. Fareed hosts a weekly television show
in
the San Francisco Bay Area that broadcasts the Christian Gospel globally
via
Muslim satellite television & the Internet to about 30 million people each
week in Farsi, the Persian language. As a result of this effort, he
re****ts
that thousands of Muslims in Iran and around the world have converted from
Islam to Christianity.
Fareed¹s organization, Persian Ministries International (PMI), is also
currently planting home churches inside Iran, where one of the largest
house
church movements in the Islamic world is growing among students, according
to
a December 4 issue of Voice of the Martyrs. ³With the numbers of young
people
we are reaching, and growth of home churches, we are making significant
strides in the Muslim world, and that is a positive sign,² Fareed says.
³These young Muslim converts who are coming to Christ today are the people
who will be leading Iran tomorrow. I believe Iran will someday be a model
of
democracy in the Middle East.²
from http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/12/prweb188360.htm
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