Large Group Denouncing Islam Mobilizes in Detroit

Nov. 11, 2011— -- Lou Engle, leader of a Christian group that denounces Islam, is gathering thousands of people in Detroit tonight to pray for the city that he says has become "a microcosm of our national crisis."

But the gathering has several of the city's imams questioning Engle's intentions, as well as those of his ministry, TheCall, which is hosting the event.

As of Friday afternoon, more than 24,000 people had registered online for the free prayer service hosted by TheCall, which has condemned homosexuality and abortion. The prayer vigil is being held at the 65,000-seat Ford Field stadium, which is located two miles from the Islamic Center of Detroit.

According to the Detroit Free Press, there are an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Muslims in the Detroit area.

Abdullah El-Amin, an imam at the Muslim Center in Detroit, told ABCNews.com he worries about the group's reasons for coming to Michigan.

"It's strange. I don't know what these people are doing," he said. "I know they said they were going to drive stakes in the ground to get rid of the devil on Islamic ground, so that could be the mosque. It could be Muslim homes, it could be anything if someone is that passionate."

Lou Engle's Proclamations

TheCall has been rallying young people to join its cause for more than a decade.

In a video on TheCall.com, Engle says he launched the organization in 1999, when a woman came to him, and said, "the Lord spoke to me because you're going to start something with the youth of America in prayer that's going to change the destiny of the nation." According to Engle, she then gave him $100,000, which "launched a supernatural sequence of events."

Since then, he's preached against Islam on numerous occasions.

In one of his sermons Engle -- who did not respond to interview requests from ABCNews.com -- predicted that by 2050, the United States would be an Islamic nation, and the church "must raise up a house of prayer to contend with Islam."

In another video he proclaimed, "We're going to Detroit. The largest population of Muslims is right next to Detroit," he said in a video of one of his sermons. "We dare to believe millions of Muslims are gonna come to Christ as the church prays and goes with signs and wonders."

When preaching about today's 24-hour event, he told his followers, "You've got to pray all night long, because it's when the Muslims sleep. And all over the world right now Muslims in the night are having dreams of Jesus," adding, "we're gathering together to say, 'God, pour out your grace and a revelation of Jesus all over Dearborn and the Muslim communities of North and South America.' I think it's a crisis moment."

In another sermon he preached, "Muslim proclamations for 1,400 years have been fueling the demonic realm." And in a written statement on TheCall.com, he blamed Detroit's troubles, in part, on "the rising tide of the Islamic movement."

The comments alarmed Dawud Walid, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations' Michigan chapter, who told ABCNews.com, "We don't care if they think that Islam is not 100 percent the truth or that Muslims should become Christians, that's not the issue.

"The issue is that a number of groups of people, including Muslims, are [described as being] possessed, and they purport that the demons should be drawn out of us."

The offending comments have since been removed from TheCall.com, but the videos can still be found on YouTube.

Muslim Groups Respond to TheCall

Imam El-Amin questioned the group's decision to remove that language from its website.