I first met with Jameel in the Middle East in 2003 where he had traveled for 6 hours to tell me of his conversion to Christianity. A month later, he was dead, killed by a bomb placed outside of his apartment. He paid the ultimate price possibly at the hands of his own family.

Jameel told me of his Muslim family, how they were very devout in their faith. His family raised him to be a good Muslim and he embraced their teachings but felt there was something missing. Then one day, he saw “it.” He was walking by a church just as the people were emerging and saw something strange according to his understanding: the people were visiting with one another, they were laughing, and they were showing love one to another. Jameel told me, “They weren’t even of the same family!”

What he saw that day, what he came to understand over the next few months was that these Christians were sharing the love of Jesus with each other. This was very different from Muslim men who emerge from the mosque, put on their shoes, rarely talk with one another, and usually leave without acknowledging others. 

It was observing this display of Christian love that attracted Jameel to Christianity and caused him to seek Christian religious leaders to tell him more about this Jesus. The pastors Jameel contacted turned him away time and time again. They feared he might be trying to entrap them because it is illegal to share Christianity with a Muslim. However Jameel persisted and finally a pastor agreed to disciple him secretly in the basement of the church. After a number of months, Jameel committed his life to Christ. The pastor recommended baptism which Jameel, at first, recoiled from because his Muslim family had taught him at a young age that Christians will “get you,” and, “When they baptize you they put you under the water and won’t let you come up!”  Jameel said his heart turned to ice at the suggestion. However, he trusted the pastor and chose to be baptized (and did come up out of the water!).

When Jameel told his family that he had left Islam, they were enraged. They tried to force him back into Islam, but when that did not work, they disowned him and screamed, “You can run, you can hide, but we will find you and kill you!”

Jameel grew in his faith and began sharing his faith and working with an evangelical organization. He lived his faith and, ultimately, died for his Savior. We will never know if the bomb that killed him was the act of his family or some others.  And, today, we don’t have to pray for Jameel or feel sad for him. He is walking the streets of gold with his Savior.

However, there are many like Jameel who face incredible persecution for leaving Islam for Christianity and we need to be in prayer for them

Please pray for Muslim converts to Christianity as they face crucial obstacles to their faith.

A Ministry to Persecuted Christians