What are your thoughts on conversion?

I'm in a periodic email conversation with a mixed group of Christian Westerners who've spent time in the Middle East and Middle Easterners who, as Muslims, have had some sort of encounter with Jesus.

A question being batted around at the moment is what we think of "conversion"--in this case of Muslims to Christianity, but also in general.  This would seem to tie back to our bounded/centered-set conversation.  So, for those of us who are trying to follow Jesus, should we hope to see a given Muslim "converted" to Christianity or to Jesus or whatever?  If so, that will clearly cause them lots of problems, but should that just be the way the cookie crumbles, as it were?

 

Or--one stream of the conversation proposes--should we regard conversion as an evil?  It's saying that we think some other person should become a different sort of person--one, happily enough, just like us!  Instead should we want everyone to be that awesome person they are.  And, as people trying to follow Jesus, should we hope that Jesus could be a part of everyone being that awesome person they are?

That might sound like semantics, but you wouldn't believe the volumes and volumes of erudite responses that question has elicited from these folks for whom this is such a significant part of their story, from either the Western or the Middle East vantage point.

What do you think?  Are you hoping to help people convert?  Or definitely not!?  Or some other thing that involves Jesus?  What are the stakes to you of this conversation, if any?