A brief scuffle ensued when some avreichim in Neve Yaakov neighborhood of Jerusalem discovered the identity of a person distributing missionary materials on car windshields across the neighborhood, including in the Haredi section.
When the police arrived to break up the argument and separate them, one of the officers responded to the avreichim by saying that the missionaries are no different than the Haredim who go out looking to be "machzir btshuva" secular people. Obviously the avreichim were very upset and offended by this.
source: Kikar
I have heard this before, and I have no idea how to respond to it. It sounds like it has some truth to it. Even though it is within the same religion while classic missionaries are trying to draw people from other religions to the religion they are representing, from the perspective of someone secular, how is a Chabadnik trying to put tefillin on people or someone at the Kotel snagging people for home cooked Shabbos meals, or baal tshuva yeshiva reps who target them or their kids in an attempt to turn them religious really any different?
I don't have a good handle on how to differentiate between them. And if there is no difference, why is missionizing not ok but having tefillin booths and people handing cds of machzirei btshuva rabbis ok - is it just because Orthodox Judaism is right?
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