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Despite this voiced fear on You-Tube and in some corners of Christianity in Europe, in the Rhine-Main river area where I live, I have not seen too many visible mosques on the rise.
As a matter of fact, Muslims are often quite careful not to draw attention to where mosques are locating. For example, the mosque in Kostheim is called simply a Cultural Center.
The residents in Kostheim whom I’ve talked to say the structure is clearly a mosque and aplace of prayer—but most neighbors are tolerant and assume correctly that Muslims need a place of worship. If they want to call it a cultural center instead of a mosque, that is fine with them.
This linking of cultural center or social work center is not necessarily a new phenomenon.
I have observed and read about the phenomena in the USA for decades. For example, in both Dearborn, Michigan and in Chicago, Illinois.
http://wikimapia.org/330776/Islamic-Cultural-Center-of-Greater-Chicago
In some ways, this placement of cultural centers and centers of benevolent works in prominent corners is no different than where unobtrusive and well-meaning Christian groups go and evangelize or set up either a community or mission at some corner of their own state—or across the planet in heretofore-unknown regions of the planet, i.e. from Himalayan mountains to South Sea islands to the Amazons.
http://www.nationalministries.org/caring_ministries/nap/nap_centers.cfm
On the other hand, there is a lot of interfaith work going on around the world, too. Here are a few examples in Singapore and Indonesia.
http://www.plowsharesinstitute.org/travelseminars.htm
In the end, both Christians and Muslims need to sit down together and discuss their hermeneutics and their ideas on evangelism. It is clear that most Christians and most Muslims do not hold much from buying a soul or conquering a soul, i.e. by money or threat.
Such conversions give both faiths simply a bad name. They both expect people to be called to the faith—not bullied or tricked through famine nor promises of wealth.
As far as Christians are concerned, they need to know “(1) how Christian scriptures are drawn upon on to accept or reject dialogue, (2) how different denominations address religious pluralism and the role of mission, (3) the specific motivations for dialogue, and finally, (4) the impact of majority-minority status and culture on the imperative to dialogue or not to dialogue.”
http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/7/1/8/2/p71824_index.html
The fact that in some places the majority-minority role is changing in the planet is nothing new. Every century sees such changes and fluxes in overall populations of cultures and religions.
In turn, many Muslims live in lands where the true history of the land and how people were brow-beaten to join one faith, one sect or another is often non-existent. This is why people cannot tell the difference between faith and culture at all in far too many cases.
