Where Muslims and Christians Drew Lines in the Sand // The Tenth Parallel

Full article here // Excerpt below

By Mark Oppenheimer

Traveling the latitude that describes the borderland of Islam and Christianity in much of Asia and Africa, where warlords, missionaries, aid workers and profiteers battle for oil as well as for souls, Ms. Griswold dodges attack dogs in Nigeria, leaves an office building in Somalia hours before it is hit by a suicide bomber and departs the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, on the island of Java, the morning before an earthquake that killed 5,000 people.

[...]

Everywhere Ms. Griswold travels, Christianity and Islam are debased by their own practitioners. In Khartoum she sees the evangelist Franklin Graham (Billy Graham’s son) visit a 4-month-old girl in the hospital who is dying of a congenital heart defect; he gives her mother a gift box that contains a pamphlet encouraging her to repent and come to Jesus. In Malaysia the government pays isolated villagers who cling to their indigenous beliefs the equivalent of several dollars to convert to Islam.

Keep reading...