A $2.4 million gift is on its way to hungry Iraqi families thanks to the generosity of American Baptists. Boxes, all stamped with a Bible verse and filled with rice, flour, beans and other staples, will be in Iraqi hands by August.

But, as Southern Baptists and other Christian aid workers rush to meet the needs of an Iraqi population devastated by war and years of harsh economic sanctions, a debate is brewing over whether Christian relief organisations should be seeking to evangelise there.

Anti-Christian violence has escalated in Iraq over the last few months, with some calling for it to become an Islamic state based on Shari’ah law.

A number of Iraqi Christians fear that tensions may be heightened by the impending arrival of western evangelical (particularly American) aid agencies that intend to engage in missionary as well as humanitarian work.

The Baptist food parcels have already provoked adverse comment because the 80,000 boxes of food aid are all stamped with John 1:17 (‘For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ’) and a greeting from the Southern Baptists in Arabic.

“Moses and Jesus are both prophets for Muslims,” says Jim Brown, director of the Southern Baptist Convention’s World Hunger and Relief Ministries. “I don’t think a Muslim would find that verse offensive.”

But Maura Jane Farrelly from Voice of America says the Southern Baptists and the Christian relief agency Samaritan’s Purse, whose head Franklin Graham referred to Islam as a ‘wicked’ religion, are the “two groups being viewed with the greatest amount of scepticism by American Muslims.”

Bruce Wilkinson from World Vision claims the controversy over evangelising in Muslim countries is felt more acutely in the West than it is in places like Iraq or Afghanistan, where needy citizens are happy to receive aid. “Rarely has aid been rejected because of its origin,” he says.

However, other organisations are more circumspect. “We draw inspiration from the faith, but we stop short of proselytising,” says Kathryn Moynihan, the deputy regional director for Catholic Relief Services in the Middle East and North Africa.

The evangelical relief and development agency TEAR Australia, which recently sent ‘a small amount’ of aid to Iraq, takes a similar position. “Our policy is that we don’t directly fund evangelism or missionary outreach,” says Peter Fitzgerald of TEAR Australia. “The money donated has to be used for relief, health or education projects. We see them as ends in themselves and not tools of evangelism.”