Kidnapped by a Terrorist

Willing to die ...

Doyle continues:

Suicide bombers are tough, but as I see it, the hardest Muslims to reach are the imams. An imam is the leader of the local mosque. His job is to keep the Muslim flock in line with the Qur’an. These spiritual leaders are steeped in Islamic teaching and propaganda. As the guardians of Islam, imams live to defend their religion at all costs – usually the cost of the life of anyone who dares to convert to Christianity. So when someone shares Christ with them, imams are usually combative, angry, and arrogant. While a few have a softer demeanor, most retain the jagged personal edge necessary to coerce Muslims into submission on a daily basis.

Willing to die ...

My friend Hassan startled awake to a rough hand clamped firmly over his mouth. Heart racing, he felt the cold muzzle of a gun in his right temple.“Don’t say a word.” A masked voice whispered the command in the dark. “Get up, and come with me.”

For several minutes, Hassan rubbed sleep from his eyes as his kidnapper shoved him through the streets of Cairo’s old city. Hassan had no doubt he had been discovered as one who leads Muslims to faith in Christ. Despite his best efforts to evangelize quietly, one convert at a time, Cairo had found him out. It is one of the riskiest places in the world for Muslim evangelism. Hassan had moved to this section of Old Cairo two years earlier. Gifted at bringing Jesus into conversations with Muslim friends, he had yet to see anyone in this neighborhood become a Christ follower. But he had tried daily.

Willing to die ...

The rough grip on Hassan’s right arm shoved him along quickly, jerking him intermittently for course corrections deemed necessary by his captor. As his death march progressed, Hassan’s thoughts drifted to his rapidly concluding mission in Egypt. He had studied Islam for years – learning the Qur’an, the Hadith (sayings of Muhammad compiled several centuries after his death), and the teachings of most leading Islamic scholars – all for the purpose of knowing the beliefs of Muslims whom he hoped God would transform into brothers and sisters in Christ. The Lord had birthed a passion in Hassan to reach Muslims, but all of his preparation didn’t matter, it seemed, on his way to becoming another Egyptian martyr.

Willing to die ...

“Up the stairs.” The harsh voice interrupted Hassan’s musings.Hassan wondered how his secret had been revealed, and by whom. Blood pounded in his veins from fear and the exertion of a five story climb up the back steps of an aging building with his captor. “We have to jump off this building onto the roof of that one over there. It’s the only way to get in.”

For the first time since leaving his apartment, Hassan looked squarely at his abductor’s face. The man had blackened his face to obscure his features.The man now pointed his gun into the gaping space between the buildings. Hassan stared back at the intense eyes gleaming from the dark visage. “There’s no way I can jump from this building to that one!”Hassan blurted.

“You can, and you will. Get a running start.” His captor pointed the muzzle at Hassan. “You go first.”

Willing to die ...

Whether death would come from a bullet or a fall to the pavement fifty feet below, Hassan didn’t know, but he believed his companion would use his weapon with the slightest provocation. At least the jump – even if it failed – would extend his life a few more seconds. And if he made it across the gap, who knows what might yet save him? Adrenaline – and angels, perhaps – yielded the most magnificent leap of Hassan’s life. He landed with room to spare, and his obviously practiced kidnapper thumped beside him, pistol still in hand, two seconds later.

The assailant seized Hassan’s right arm again and forced him toward a hatchway in the abandoned warehouse. Hassan was sure he would never again see the night sky.

Hassan whispered, “Jesus, into Your hands I commit my spirit.”

Willing to die ...

Once inside the gloomy structure, the plot took a startling twist. He recounts what happened over the next several incredible minutes.

“I stepped into a foreboding room, lit with a single candle, fully expecting my immediate execution. Ten obviously Muslim men stood in a circle and stared at me as I entered. They ordered me to sit down. When I complied, the menacing atmosphere changed instantly. The men of the mysterious group smiled at me.”

The man who had kidnapped Hassan spoke first. “We are imams, and we all studied at Al-Azhar University. During our time there, each of us had a dream about Jesus, and each of us has privately become a follower of Christ. For a time, we didn’t dare tell anyone about this. It would, of course, have been our own death sentences. But finally, we could hide it no longer.”

Willing to die ...

Incredible? Yes, admits Doyle. In his 11 years working in the Middle East of bringing the Gospel to the people of Islam, he has experienced the supernatural in amazing ways. Preaching in Muslim lands is dangerous, he admits in "Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?" – but enormously rewarding.

“Who would you guess is the toughest sort of Muslim to reach?” asks Doyle. “A terrorist, perhaps? Anyone willing to blow himself up to kill ‘infidels’ seems as committed to Islam as they come, right? That would be a reasonable speculation, of course, but I know of former terrorists walking with Jesus now in every Middle Eastern country. We work with many of them to reach other Muslims with the Gospel.