NEW YORK -- Evangelical Christian missionaries face increased danger as they spread throughout the Muslim world, angering native Islamic clerics.

The Dec. 30 murder of three American missionaries in Yemen underscores the risks of working at the intersection of religion and politics, according to a report in The New York Times. (See story: Southern Baptist missionaries killed in Yemen)

"With the rise of religious politics, missionaries come into the cross hairs of Muslim and Hindu fundamentalists," said Bernard Haykel, an assistant professor of Middle Eastern studies and history at New York University. "Certainly as the Arab and Muslim world has become more radicalized Islamically, people have become more aware of missionaries and more irritated by them."

Proselytizing sects like the Southern Baptist Convention, which owns the hospital in Jibla, Yemen, where the missionaries were killed, have said they don't actively seek to convert people if prohibited by government authorities.

Jerry Rankin, president of the International Mission Board, which runs the missionary activities of Southern Baptists, said the missionaries in Jibla promoted Christianity by example.

"Our people naturally do respect the religious beliefs of others," Rankin told the Times, "and they try to relate to people in a loving way through friendships and relationships."

The missionaries, including 7,000 college and high school students signing up for short-term overseas missions, will not back away from sharing the Gospel, said Jack Graham, president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"There is a discussion on strategy changes, to become less institutional and to work primarily in church planting and face-to-face evangelism," Graham said. "When you're up close and personal with someone, hopefully they will believe in you."

The Southern Baptists are turning over the hospital in Yemen to a local Muslim group, according to the Times, and will shift resources to mobile clinics that would bring missionaries into contact with more Yemenis.

"This is not a conflict between religions but a conflict between God and Satan, between good and evil," Graham said. "We want to be sensitive to the political climate. We certainly want to work with governments where our missions have been placed, and we don't want to create a political/religious crisis. But as far as the Southern Baptists are concerned, we will continue to express our love for God."