Muslim population growing in India

India (MNN) — While Hinduism is overwhelmingly the dominate religion; Islam is currently the fastest growing minority religion in India. Mission India of Grand Rapids, Michigan says the surge in Islam means ministry must retool some of their outreach techniques.

Mission India’s David DeGroot says the reason this segment of society is growing is because of the high birth rate among Muslim families. DeGroot says, however, that this segment of society is also the most open to the Gospel, especially with women. For women, literacy rates are low and abuse is high. He says they’re secretly attending their literacy programs. “We’ve seen Muslims filtering into our programs in a number of states. This is a tremendous statement of many things, including their acceptance of Christianity and their rejection of the old Islamic values that have kept them down for centuries.”

DeGroot says, “I would call this a new development in the last few years. Reaching Muslims years ago was just an extremely rare thing. And, now in India they’re appearing in our programs all across the board; church planting, Bible content in adult literacy and a large number of Muslim children in CBC’s.” or children’s Bible clubs.

While the number of Christians is growing, it’s not matching pace with the country’s birth rate. “We are praying earnestly for a new large mass movement to Christianity in India. I believe the Lord could easily do this.”

Funding is needed to help with this unique Muslim outreach.