International (MNN) — Despite attempts to squelch ISIS, affiliation with the group persists. The New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans marked the 6th ISIS-inspired strike on US soil since 2016, and individual Americans continue to sympathize with the group. Mike with Global Catalytic Ministries says the decentralized nature of ISIS is strategic. Even without geographic or political centralization, people can buy into the message and operate autonomously.
“That’s what spreads it like a virus,” he says.
ISIS sympathizers connect to the core message, not a core entity or structure. In this way, ISIS and similar terror groups are gaining traction in the states.
“They do it in pretty interesting ways,” Mike says. “ISIS uses gaming servers and really goes after youth.”
An example is Alexander Justin White of North Carolina, who used social media and encrypted messaging apps to grow ties with the group.
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“It’s not surprising that we’re seeing ISIS pop up in different areas of the world in Western countries because it’s really just part of their core ideology,” Mike says.
That ideology is Sharia: rule by Islamic law. ISIS, Hamas, and the Taliban all push the global spread of Islam, and their adherents are willing to die toward that end.
“But ISIS takes it to another level. It’s an eschatological, end times motivation because they believe that the black flags of Khurasan will rise up at the end and bring the Mahdi and all these different things. So they’re bringing end times to fruition,” Mike says.
Success in Islam hinges on moral behavior, or the appearance of it.
“If you don’t fit the Quran and Hadith and this moral code that Sharia sets, then they bring aggression and force you into submission,” Mike says.
Despite its strict guidelines, Islam offers no assurance of salvation. The best Muslims can hope for is that their works are enough to earn them a place in heaven.
“Allah never promises certain things,” Mike says.
Global Catalytic Ministries works in the Middle East, including in ISIS camps, to spread the hope of Jesus among Muslims. Mike says making disciples in this context cannot assume a traditional evangelistic approach. Methods like preaching Jesus on the sidewalk, for example, are off the table.
“Because you’ll be dead,” Mike says. “So it’s a very specific approach that we take to really help secure our teams.”
Even with attention to security, Mike’s team knows dangers abound. They see it as part of Christ’s call.
“Jesus is asking us just to be massively uncomfortable and to lay our lives down as sheep among wolves,” he says. “Pick up our cross, drink of the blood: all these things are very sacrificial, very uncomfortable things.”
It’s a stark contrast to our Western comfort. In some ways, Mike points out, the submission of Muslims to their belief system can serve as an example for Christians, who have a call to lay down our lives too. But there’s a key difference: we operate out of love rather than fear.
“It’s a love-based motivation, and we only get that through the Holy Spirit; whereas Islam and a lot of religions are just a structural ideology,” Mike says.
Please pray that Muslims across the globe would awake to the spiritual reality of Islamic darkness. Pray that the light of Christ would dawn in their hearts and that the love of Jesus would drown out fear.
“We want more dreams, more visions, more opportunities, more access, more people willing to lay down their lives,” Mike says. “Not to prove or validate themselves, but because the Lord has moved them so much and they are so transformed that they are willing to rise up and lay their lives down for their brothers.”
Featured photo courtesy of Levi Meir Clancy via Unsplash
