Pray for Nominal/Atheist

When Christians become nominal, secular, or atheist, they usually cease to think of themselves as Christians. This is different for Muslims. Since Islam often functions primarily as a social or group identity, people can belong to Muslim communities while holding widely varying individual opinions about the beliefs and practices associated with Islam. Muslims are typically born and grow up in a Muslim society where it is simply assumed that everyone is Muslim.

So, in numerous Muslim societies, many embrace the ideas and values of modernity while maintaining their social identity as Muslims. This means that a person can be identified as a Muslim simply because they live in a Muslim society. Belief in the creed and practicing the religion need not be important. One can be a nominal Muslim, a secular Muslim, and even an atheist Muslim.

Nominal Muslims have not necessarily stopped believing in Islam. Rather, they have stopped participating in the religious practices that devout Muslims value. Secular Muslims are generally influenced by the values of Western society and do not believe that God has much to do with their daily lives. Atheists cease to believe in Allah altogether. Yet, even atheist Muslims maintain enough Muslim cultural values to set them apart from Western atheists.

Secular and atheist Muslims are often tolerated, so long as they do not publicly denounce Muhamad and the Quran or go against cultural taboos. For example, even atheist Muslims would never dream of eating pork. Religious Muslims hope that their nominal or atheist friends will return to the religion of their youth when they are older, in order to prepare for the Day of Judgement. In many Muslim countries, the majority of people are secular. Yet even secular Muslims will instinctively defend Islam when it is attacked, and they maintain a profound sense of Muslim identity.

In two of the largest Muslim countries in the Middle East it appears that the population is evenly split between those who are devout Muslims and those who are secular and atheistic. In both of these countries, the majority of the members in the convert church have come to Christ out of secular Muslim identities. At the same time, in other countries, most of those coming to Christ had been devout, practicing Muslims.

The path to faith in Christ often progresses from devout belief, to agnosticism, to atheism, and then, after a prolonged period of searching for answers to questions that Islam cannot answer, to faith in Christ. God is drawing many to himself from among the millions of nominal Muslims around the world. In general, though, it would seem that nominal Muslims are no more or less receptive to the call of the Gospel than are devout Muslims.