Why This Muslim-Focused Pastor Is Urging a 1 Corinthians 13 Approach to Nice Attacks

On France’s Bastille Day of proclaiming “Freedom! Equality! Brotherhood!” it takes just one Islamic Radical to reveal their hatred of all we stand for.

At least 85 are dead already, 50 more severely injured, including many children. It often takes a moment like Orlando or Nice in France to wake us up to the realities of Radical Islam, but this is a moment to “face the facts, but not fuel the fear.”

There are thousands of Muslims today across France and Europe who are shaken by the senseless murders of Radical Islam. Believe me, most of them are longing for someone to reach out to them and befriend them, rather than alienating them, and seeing them as “the enemy.”

Ali Husnain, was one of those young Muslims, who could well have been radicalized, but at the age of 16, he visited his aunt in Oxford, England, where a simple act of friendship changed his life. There he met some friendly Christians and was invited to a church meeting. He was amazed at the end of the service, when an invitation was given to anyone who would like to have an encounter with Jesus. Why would anyone not want to meet Jesus? He went forward, but found himself all alone at the front of the meeting where he fell under the power of the Holy Spirit, and immediately had an open vision of Jesus!

That experience totally changed Ali’s life. He had been born into a very wealthy family in Pakistan, and was raised as a devout Shia Muslim. He was a direct descendant of Mohammed, and Christianity couldn’t have been further from his mind. Now after this encounter, and a subsequent dream, he had come to faith in Jesus.

Unfortunately, Ali was unaware that he was about to face the evils of Radical Islam. On his return to school in his town in Pakistan, he casually mentioned that he didn’t need any other sacrifice at Eid, as he already had Jesus as his sacrifice.

Word quickly got round about his conversion, and after school he was dragged out and ritually held down while a member of a terrorist group stabbed him through the heart. They left him to die, but they didn’t bargain on Jesus appearing to him, stretching out his hand towards the knife lodged in his chest. He was rushed to hospital, where Jesus again appeared in a vision and totally healed him. He was chased all round Pakistan, and they even killed one of his aunts who sheltered him. Miraculously, we heard about this in Oxford, and a local British doctor was able to rescue him and fly him back to the U.K.

The persecution didn’t stop there. Along with others, I had been discipling him for three years, when one day I was in his house as a phone call came through from the terrorist group in Pakistan. I listened in amazement as they said that they had finally located him in the U.K., and would send someone to kill him the next day if he didn’t recant and come back to Islam.

This was in safe old mother England—not Pakistan! It was a rude wake up call to the realities of international terrorism. We quickly found a secure location for Ali to live for a few months while the storm blew over. He had already been refused asylum twice by the British government, who couldn’t believe that his life was in danger back in Pakistan. So now, armed with a recording of the threat from this terrorist group, we were finally able to persuade the authorities to grant him asylum. Remarkably, Ali is now living and working openly back in Oxford, and a friend has written his story: The Cost: My Life on a Terrorist Hit List.”

What is more amazing however, is that Ali not only refuses to run and hide, but now wishes to travel back to the town where he was stabbed in Pakistan in order to purchase land to build a healthcare facility for those living in poverty, regardless of faith. He wants to show the love of Christ to those who tried to kill him, through starting ” The Gulshan Trust” which will help him raise the funds to build and run this facility.

In 2-3 years time, following this act of love and forgiveness, Ali intends to return to Pakistan, so that he can then slowly breakdown the intense hatred and misunderstanding of the local people towards Christians and the Christian faith. Ali had an open vision that he was preaching on a platform to a huge crowd of people back in his home town, and in that vision, some of the people who stabbed him were there listening intently in the front row. Radical Islam cannot win! We need to learn with Ali, that “love never fails.”