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“Even last week there were hard-line Muslims who were saying, ‘If the court removes Islam as the state religion, there will be violence in the streets. We will provoke a national outcry against this.'”

While this case has upset the followers of radical Islam, some believers are excited about the possibilities it holds.

“If the government decides to remove official support for Islam from the constitution, many Christians may become more willing to share the Gospel with their non-Christian friends and family members,” a Bangladeshi pastor helped by FMI stated recently via e-mail.

“Some Muslims may also be more open to listening to Gospel presentations and learn about Jesus Christ, especially in rural areas.”

Why the state religion change matters

Although Bangladesh’s state religion change is gaining traction among international news outlets, there’s not much word on the street.

(Photo credit: IHH via Flickr)

“Some Muslims said, ‘Yeah, I heard the Court was considering something like that,’ and they actually thought it was a good idea,” Allen says. He adds that most “moderate” Muslims feel a Muslim-dominate population can coexist with secular laws.

“They didn’t see any threat to removing Islam as a Constitutionally-protected state religion.”

As explained here, Islam has been the state religion of Bangladesh since 1988. However, the nation’s ruling document–its Constitution–classifies secularism as a founding principle.

“It’s kind of dicey because the Constitution gets rather vague,” Allen notes. “The Constitution says that [Bangladesh] is a secular state, it is not an Islamic state…but then, there’s another clause that says Islam is the state religion.”

Approximately 90% of Bangladesh’s population follows Islam, making it the world’s third-largest Muslim-majority nation. Though most are what Allen calls “moderate” Muslims, the siren call of ISIS does attract some dedicated followers.

In the past year, the number of attacks perpetrated by Islamic radicals has notably risen. ISIS claimed responsibility for the murder of a Muslim man earlier this week, though local police offer a different story.

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This is one of many instances where Bangladesh’s government downplayed the reality of ISIS activity within their borders. Officials often place the blame for violent attacks on Jama’at ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a terror group active in Bangladesh and India.

At the end of 2015, ISIS said JMB was its affiliate in South Asia.

“[The government is] trying to clamp down [on terrorism]; I think that’s why the Court is willing to hear this case,” says Allen. “For the third-largest Muslim-dominant country in the world to even consider hearing that sort of petition is news.”

Bangladesh would be the second country in South Asia to make such a move if, after reviewing the petition, the High Court decides to alter the Constitution.

In September 2015, India began a months-long blockade against neighboring Nepal, simply because the former Hindu kingdom voted in a secular constitution. Even though the blockade ended earlier this month, it left believers and the economy in serious recovery-mode.

How believers are responding

(Photo courtesy FMI)

As the clock ticks down to the March 27 state religion hearing, pastors supported by FMI are making plans, just in case Muslim radicals carry out their threat to “provoke a national outcry.”

Allen recently urged leaders to “look down the road. Let’s see where your culture’s heading; know what’s going to be happening in your country and your own communities.”

Above all else, leaders will need to “know how to respond effectively so that ministry goes forward, regardless of external circumstances.”

Ask the Lord to embolden believers in Bangladesh, and pray for their protection.

“There are doors open…but there is opposition as well; those two things go hand-in-hand,” Allen notes. “We need to be smart and savvy in how we do ministry in a country that is resistant to Christianity, but also full of hope because the Lord is opening people’s hearts.”

(Photo courtesy FMI)

Through FMI, you can help national pastors stand strong in their faith and make Christ known. Click here to learn more about pastor sponsorship.

“There are five pastors ‘in the pipeline’ who are working, but we’re looking for individuals to commit [to partnering with them].”

“These kinds of changes happening across that region (are) just phenomenal,” says Bruce Johnson with Asian Access, “and again it’s without tremendous civil wars just upheaving those countries, but allowing basically a fairly peaceful turnover into a democratic society.”

Christians are encouraged by greater freedom to share their faith and increasing openness of others to hear the Gospel. “It’s certainly much more open now than it has been. Even this move with an interim government and now moving to a democratic constitutional government, will really give much more openness to Christians in sharing their faith within that country, and so we’re looking forward to more openness.”

Yet, says Johnson, “While there’s openness to the Gospel, it also means there’s just more openness to other influences that aren’t Christlike, and so we’re praying that the Lord would use this time to, again, further strengthen the church and allow these kinds of missionary movements to happen where missionaries are going now from Nepal into other parts of Asia.

That also highlights what God has been doing in that formerly closed country. For decades, the West had sent missionaries into Nepal, but while Nepal was more closed, those missionaries had to leave. Yet the Gospel has gone forward. Johnson says, “The church has expanded and been strengthened. And now, churches in Nepal are actually equipping missionaries and pastors to go from Nepal into other parts of Asia and plant churches and extend the Gospel to Nepalese that have moved to other countries across Asia.”

Johnson says there are hundreds of thousands of Nepalese that are now living and working in Malaysia and other parts of Asia. Johnson says that Asian Access, along with many Christians, have a desire to establish churches in Nepal and amongst the Nepalese people.

Johnson tells the story of a divinely orchestrated connection Asian Access got to be part of. At a gathering of Christian leaders in Asia, the director of Asian Access in Malaysia, also a pastor, expressed his vision and heart to train and send missionaries to see churches planted among the Nepalese people. A businessman who was there spoke up, sharing that had hundreds of Nepalese working for his company. He had been praying that the Lord would send someone to minister among them and hopefully plant a church out of that.

Out of that meeting, the businessman committed to sponsoring a Nepalese pastor to minister amongst the Nepalese, and Johnson says it’s exciting to see God make it possible. “Asian Access, in this case, was really more of a bringing them together. The Lord had planted the vision there; the Lord had equipped them, but Asian Access had the opportunity of at least connecting them.”

To Johnson, seeing that connection happen “reaffirmed that the Lord is doing a special work in Asia and putting on the hearts of the pastors there to have a missionary movement of sending their workers into other countries of Asia.”

As they continue to equip national pastors for ministry, Asian Access needs partners through prayer and finances. Johnson asks prayer that God would continue raising up pastors with the vision to send their people into other parts of Asia. Pray for greater effectiveness in equipping the saints for ministry, to build up disciples who make disciples, and as they plant house churches, which is an effective and widespread method of ministry.

And financially, Johnson says, “It takes dollars to do that kind of training. The Lord is faithful, but we’re looking for continued partners willing to come alongside and see national pastors equipped to extend the Gospel in their countries.”

If you would like to help support national pastors and leaders in Asia, contact Asian Access through their information listed here.