Are the Arabs really Arabs?

Saudi researchers have mapped the first Arab genome in a project to put the Arab world on the global genetic map and improve healthcare. Geneticists from Saudi Biosciences say unlocking the genetic profile of 100 people from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries will help tackle medical problems in Saudi Arabia and encourage sorely-needed scientific research.

“The advantage of the project is that it studies the differences between peoples, and that will explain the spread of specific illnesses such as diabetes, heart diseases, etc.,” said Saeed al-Turki, Arab Human Genome Project Coordinator.“Twenty-five percent of the Saudi population has, or is liable to have diabetes and that will form a big burden on health services,” he said.

Almost one in four Saudis over 30 has diabetes, according to the World Health Organization. The project will help establish if the high incidence is due to a shift to urban living and rich diets among rural and Bedouin populations, as often claimed.

The project, with the backing of Prince Ahmed bin Sultan, a son of the crown prince, could also help establish a clearer picture of the historic migration of the Semitic peoples, who include Arab tribes, ancient Jews and others, from Africa into the Arabian peninsula.

There is likely to be some sensitivity in the historically and culturally diverse Middle East around the mapping, given the importance many people place on being of Arab descent. Some Muslims are keen to claim Arab ancestry because the Prophet Mohammad was an Arab, and Islam and Arabic spread hand-in-hand.

“Tribes of the Arabian peninsula will account for 50 genomes and 50 will be from other Arab nationalities such as Egypt, Syria, Libya, etc.,” said geneticist Ibrahim al-Abdelkarim. “It's a sensitive subject. People who speak Arabic call themselves Arabs but 'the Arabs' involve different groups.”

Tribes of the Arabian peninsula pride themselves on having “pure” Arab origins and there are groups throughout the Arab world that embrace and reject Arab identity.

10 Management Lessons from Muhammad

Yes indeed, our Muslims friends are now following the Western management gurus; we already knew that management by the principles of Jesus leads to success, but I came across the 10 'principles of success' that we can learn from Muhammad who 'has shown us the way of achieving supreme success in this world'. Here you you read it all.

To me it seems that examples like this, signify major shifts in Islamic thinking; 50 years ago, no Muslim would write about the prophet in terms of business success. Is this a westernized version of Islam? Contextualization? Or the 'Christianization of Islam'?

Jordanian campaign against evangelism

On 21 February, Jordanian parliament slammed media reports that the country has increased pressure on expatriate Christians. ‘We categorically condemn and reject the false report which is aimed at damaging Muslim-Christian relations in Jordan’, the 110-member lower house of parliament said.

This statement of parliament came a day after Jordan’s foreign minister explained that he had eight expatriate Christians expelled for proselytizing activities under the cover of humanitarian aid operations. He explained that 'some foreigners arrive in the kingdom under the pretext of charitable activities, but break the law and carry out missionary activities'.

In the previous week, the Council of Churches in Jordan, which represents most Churches in the country, warned of the presence of about '40 sects'. It is likely that the Council of Churches distanced itself publicly from these groups fearing that the present government campaign against Christians may also hurt them. They condemned the actions of these movements, saying that they 'create discord within Christianity itself and with the Muslims'.

For the Council of Churches to distance itself from the actions of other Christians is divisive and unwise; it strengthens the government's campaign against churches and missionaries in Jordan. For independent mission agencies to ignore the views of the major local churches is also divisive and unwise. It obviously puts the local churches in a difficult position in relationship to the authorities.

On 6 February, the Free Evangelical Church in Aqaba was closed by the Jordanian authorities. The same church had had a series of problems at the hands of the authorities during the past year. On 29 April 2007, its Pastor Mazhar Izzat Bishay, an Egyptian national and long-time resident of Aqaba, was deported to Egypt after being questioned. No reason for his deportation was given. A few months earlier, Wajeeh Besharah, Ibrahim Atta, Raja Welson, and Imad Waheeb, four Egyptians living in Aqaba, were also deported, after being questioned about their affiliation with the church.

Mission in the Arab World

This blog will focus on the Church and its mission in the Arab World. The Church comes first, mission second, and Islam last. Many missionaries that I meet have another sequence. They begin with their own mission, and focus on Islam, hoping to maybe create a Church.

My belief, and I think that this is Biblical, is that our missiology can never take precedence over our ecclesiology. Since ancient times, our Lord Jesus had his flock in the Middle East. The Churches of the Arab World are His body, his people. How dare we do mission in the Arab World without being deeply attached to the existent Church, and as if we have the freedom to create new 'methods' apart from the existent Church.

How we suffer from our own Western individualism. How we distort the Gospel of Jesus Christ by making ourselves the center of mission, as if we have the right to ignore the Church of Christ that has been present in Arab lands since the inception of Christian history.