Secret Believers excerpt
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It was Sunday morning in the town of Suq al Khamis, and Ahmed was considering the unthinkable. The lanky teenage boy paced around his room, trying to decide whether to take the risk.
He looked up at the poster over his bed, even though he had the words memorised: 'Allah is our objective. The messenger is our leader. The Quran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.'
It was that last statement that made Ahmed shudder. Just last night he'd suffered another nightmare. He'd awoken in a sweat, recognising again the threat of eternal punishment that Allah promised to all who did not faithfully follow the pillars of Islam.
This was the terrifying message of Islam as taught by the faction of Muslim Brotherhood that often met in his home. Yes, Allah was merciful; but he was also a god of horror and fear who took pleasure in torturing infidels.
And according to the teaching, every Christian was kafir, an infidel. His only hope for escaping the horrors of hell was to live an exemplary life of Islam. Or to die in jihad.
Then Zaki went to university and his outrageous questions that challenged the core of their religion. Zaki was Ahmed's lifelong friend. Together the two boys had attended the mosque and listened to the fiery sermons of their imam every Friday.
Together they had also attended the local Christian school – their fathers had agreed that it provided the best education for their sons. Religion had been an important part of their education. Every day students spent time studying their faith – Christians in one room led by Abuna Alexander, a local priest; Muslims in another room, taught by a recent graduate of the major Islamic university in the capital city.
Ahmed had to admit that even though he'd attended a school run by Christians, he really had never talked with them about their beliefs, except in a mocking way when he and Zaki and their mutual friend Hassan tried to convert the Christian students to Islam.
Now his best friend was proposing the unthinkable: maybe there was something to Christianity. Zaki had got hold of an Injil, the Christian Gospel, and was secretly reading about Isa (Jesus)…
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Excerpts from Secret Believers by Brother Andrew and Al Janssen, © 2007 Open Doors International, published by Hodder and Stoughton. Used with permission.