John Taimoor is an itinerant preacher and founder of
Crossbearers, a California-based ministry that presents Christianity within an Islamic context. Born and raised a Muslim in an area near Pakistan and southern Afghanistan,
Taimoor seeks to establish new communities of Messianic Muslims throughout the Middle East. A Messianic Muslim is an Islamist who has accepted Jesus but refuses to be referred to as a Christian and chooses to stay within the Arab community. "Ethnically I am a Pushtun or Pathan who never had a church among them, and I was probably the first-known convert to Christ in the last 50 years,"
Taimoor, 46, explained. However, some leaders of Arabic missions organizations question the way Bailey,
Taimoor and Cummings evangelize Muslims, especially when it comes to using the
Quran.
Taimoor admitted that some Christians do not understand
his strategy. "If some do accuse me of compromise or heresy, it is because they do not understand the linguistic and cultural significance, or they expect the gospel to be Westernized before it is preached,"
he said. "Unless we become boldly creative, we will keep doing what others have done before and failed,"
he added.