Father Zakaria Botros

Reverend the Hon. Dr GORDON MOYES [5.49 p.m.]: An Egyptian Coptic friend of many years, who attended Wesley Mission when I was preaching there, and a member of the Christian Democratic Party, Gamil Helmy, was telling me about Father Zakaria Botros and his amazingly successful evangelistic ministry among Muslims via television. Now I read that another friend from Washington DC, Chuck Colson, in his 22 April 2008 "Breakthrough" radio broadcast, contributed some more.

Father Zakaria Botros is a conservative television star with a huge audience who is hated by his political enemies. I looked up a number of websites, both in English and Arabic, including http://www.islam-christianity.net/, and I have found that Father Botros has been making substantial waves in the Arabic world. He has courageously begun to fight Islam intellectually and publicly. For the first time a reasoned defence of Christianity is being made available to the general public in Islamic countries. There are plenty of good critiques of Islam written in English and other languages, but very few in Arabic.

Father Zakaria, who is very well read in the Koran and the Hadiths—that is, the oral traditions—regularly appears on public television, where he poses hard questions to the imams who visibly struggle to provide answers. The Arabic newspaper ai-Ins an al-Jadid calls him public enemy number one. I understand that his campaign of simply informing people of the odder and questionable aspects of Islam has led to quite a number of converts to Christianity. On Arabic television channel al-Hayat, or "Life TV", one will see Father Botros, a Coptic priest, discussing theology in a way that embarrasses and enrages Muslim leaders. His television talks are leading not only to mass conversions—some say that more than five million Islamic followers have converted to Christianity—but also to the disempowering of radical intellectual Islam. He is a bearded, bespectacled cleric who sports a large wooden cross, and his specialty is examining little-known, but embarrassing, aspects of Islamic law and tradition.

Because he speaks and reads classical Arabic, Botros can report to the average Muslim on the discrepancies found within Islamic teachings that affront moral commonsense. Satellite television and the Internet mean Botros can question Islam's teachings in Arabic—the language of 200 million Muslims—without fear of reprisal. Botros asks such questions as, "Are women inferior to men in Islam?"; "Did Mohammed say that adulterous female monkeys should be stoned?"; and "Does sharia really teach that women must breastfeed strange men?" Botros cites chapter and verse of Islamic sources, and then politely invites Islamic scholars to respond. The response is deafening silence.

Even worse, religious experts have at times been forced to agree with Botros, which has led to some amusing and embarrassing moments on live Arabic television, according to journalist Raymond Ibrahim, whom I have read and who describes the work of Father Botros. One example the author cites from a television broadcast is a hijab-wearing Muslim television presenter asking an imam why he will not provide a reasonable answer to Botros' question, only to have the imam storm off the set, which indicates that too often the answer to legitimate questions about Islam is bluster and bullying.

Botros' methods are not meant to incite the West against Islam, or to promote Israeli interests, or to demonise Muslims, as most Australian anti-Islamists do; Botros' ultimate goal is "to draw Muslims away from the dead legalism of sharia law to the spirituality of Christianity". He is not only saving souls but is also cutting at the very heart of radical Islam. There is a rumoured $US5 million price on his head—dead or alive.

Ibrahim says that the West will not disempower radical Islam by offering Muslims democracy, capitalism, secularism, materialism, feminism or any other "ism". Instead, we must offer them "something theocentric and spiritually satisfying". Consequently, at the end of each program Botros reads from the Bible and invites his listeners to follow Christ. That he is successful in this endeavour is acknowledged by none other than AI-Jazeera television, which complains of Botros' "unprecedented evangelical raid" on the Muslim world. It reports that five million Muslims have converted as a result of his efforts. Botros offers a great example of why we Christians must learn our own doctrines, along with those of other religions; that is, so that we can lovingly reason with people and, with respect, draw them into the kingdom of God.