How can I meet Muslims in the USA?

I think there are a good number of people who would like to form friendships with Muslims but they just are not sure how to get started. So here are a few ideas:

+ Find out the places owned by Muslims and go there: think of places like restaurants, books stores, ethnic grocery stores, cultural centers, Islamic centers, and neighborhoods that are known for having concentrations of Muslims. You can start by just looking through the yellow pages for restaurants that serve Arab or Persian food, for example.

+ Call a few larger evangelical churches and ask if they have any ministries to Muslims going on. Even if your church is not doing anything (it probably isn't) most churches are glad to have others join in their ministry as long as you are a good team worker and will submit to the leadership.

+ Invite Muslim families over for dinner. Make sure to observe the Islamic dietary rules, of course. Muslims generally come from very community-oriented cultures and an invitation for two families to have dinner together is not odd or strange, even if you do not know them very well it is OK. Go out on a limb, it's radical hospitality.

+ Teach English as Second Language (ESL) at a community center in a neighborhood with immigrants. Chances are that a good number of your students will be Muslims. You can also tutor in math.

+ Contact the agency in your city that settles refugees. Ask them how you can help. If you put together a team of three or four families who are used to life in the USA and show that you are reliable, they may eventually ask you to help settle a new family from a country like Iraq, Afghanistan, or Nigeria. They may or may not be Muslim, but it is a good deed and will allow you to help people who are often in great need of help.

Whatever you do, remember that you are called above all to show the love of Christ in what you do. That must be your main aim, and be ready to give an answer for your faith at all times.