London Debate Series: Help Needed!

Friends (i.e. Freeloaders!),

We don't ask for much, and we sure don't get much. But this time we need help. Nabeel and I spent this past weekend at ISNA (the Islamic Society of North America's National Convention), and our funds are all gone. I'm not teaching over the summer because I have too many debates and speaking engagements. Nabeel just finished med school and doesn't start working until the end of this month (and he's decided to go into ministry). We had trouble finding locations for several of our debates in London, so we agreed with our Muslim friends to split the cost of renting venues. Apart from that, a trip to London for twelve days of formal and street debating turns out to be quite expensive. I'm asking everyone who has a steady job and isn't poor to consider contributing to this trip. You can contribute via PayPal here:

(NOTE: If any of our Muslim readers would like to help with their fellow Muslims' expenses, you can contact them here.)

Here's the series so far (not counting Speaker's Corner or radio debates):

Sunday 12th July 2009

6:30pm-9:30pm
"Trading Faiths: Islam and Christianity: Why We Chose to Leave and Believe"
Paul Williams (Muslim ex-Christian) vs. Nabeel Qureshi (Christian ex-qadiayni)
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL (nearest [tube] station: Holborn)

Tuesday 14th July 2009

6:30pm-9:30pm
"Is Islam a Religion of Peace?"
Abdullah al-Andalusi & Yahya Hyder Seymour vs. David Wood & Nabeel Qureshi
Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place, London, (nearest [tube] station: Edgware Road)

Thursday 16th July 2009

6:30pm-9:00pm
"Is Christianity a Religion of Peace?”
David Wood vs. Abdullah al-Andalusi
St Lawrence Church and church centre, London Rd, Morden, SM4 (nearest [tube] station: Morden, [Rail] Modern South)

Friday 17th July 2009

7:30pm-9:30pm
"Was Muhammad a True Prophet?"
Yahya Hayder Seymour vs. David Wood
Hyderi Islamic Centre, 26 Estreham Road, London SW16 5PQ (Nearest station, Streatham Common [Rail])

Saturday 18th July 2009

12:30pm-3:45pm
“Has the Qur’an Been Perfectly Preserved?”
Bassam Zawadi vs. Nabeel Qureshi
Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place, London, (Nearest station: Edgware Road [tube])

5:15pm-8:30pm
The Debate Series Finale: "The Concept of God in Islam and Christianity“
Abdullah al-Andalusi vs. David Wood
Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place, London, (Nearest station: Edgware Road [tube])

We hope to see some of you there!

VideoBlog #7: The "Why Islam?" Booth at ISNA

While we were at ISNA, we found that people were willing to answer questions (quite unlike Dearborn). However, there answers were horribly flawed in content and methodology. Here, David reviews an answer to a tough question, and why the answers fail.

Nabeel Qureshi vs. Osama Abdallah: Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?

Thus saithOsama Abdallah:

David and Nabeel lost badly in their last two debates with me. That is why they're not posting those debates. Plus, they never really won any debate. All of their debates were either a tie or a loss. Both my last debate with both of them were not posted on their site. Nabeel was schooled very bad on the resurrection of Jesus, and David was refuted bad as well.

We'll let you be the judge.

Opening Statements




Rebuttals and Conclusions

Propaganda Parallels: ISNA and Dearborn

Nabeel and I spent this past weekend at the Islamic Society of North America's national convention. We watched many presentations, had a number of conversations, and did plenty of recording. Here's the first video of our ISNA series.

David and Nabeel on "Iron Sharpens Iron" to Discuss Sharia in Dearborn

Friends,

Nabeel, Mary Jo, and I were on Iron Sharpens Iron today discussing the assault and rights violations we endured at the hands of Muslim security guards in Dearborn, Michigan. Click here to listen to the MP3 of the program.

SPECIAL REPORT:Sharia Comes to Dearborn, Michigan

Watch this video!



A Detailed Explanation of the Video
On June 21st, I moderated a peaceful public debate between Mary Jo Sharp and Ehteshaam Gulam. After the debate, Nabeel, Mary Jo, and I went to the Dearborn Arab Festival, which had already become an open celebration of persecution against Christians. The festival organizers had declared that Christians could not distribute materials on the public sidewalks or street, and, when the matter was brought before the courts, the judge agreed that Christians could not freely distribute information during the festival. (Note: This decision has been defended in the media by claiming that the “no-distributing-materials” rule applied to everyone, and therefore wasn’t unfair to Christians. However, anyone who was at the festival knows that this is not true. People were walking up and down the sidewalks distributing pamphlets and brochures, right in front of security. The rule was only enforced against Christians, and therefore only the rights of Christians were violated.)

Muslim security guards (one of whom had “Hezbollah” tattooed down his forearm) took things a step further and wouldn’t even allow Christians to talk about their beliefs openly. Security guards also repeatedly entrapped Christians in an attempt to get us to violate the court order.

This even happened to me, despite the fact that I wasn’t talking to anyone about Christianity or Islam. I had a pamphlet in my front pocket, and one of the Muslim security guards walked up to me and said, “That looks like a really interesting pamphlet. Could I have it?” She even had her walkie-talkie in hand! Fortunately, I had already heard about this woman and other Muslim security guards doing this repeatedly at the festival, so I didn’t fall for it. That’s when Nabeel and Mary Jo entered the tent in an attempt to question a group of Muslims about a horribly inaccurate pamphlet they were distributing. What happened next may be outlined as follows:

• We see a booth that is specifically for answering questions people have about Islam.
  
• Nabeel walks up to the booth and attempts to ask a question.
  
• When the Muslims don’t want to talk on camera, Nabeel begins walking away.
  
• One of the Muslims (a former member of Tupac’s crew!) then invites Nabeel back for a dialogue.
  
• Security grabs our camera and forces MJ to turn it off. Security then breaks up the discussion, despite the fact that the Muslims at the booth agreed that we could record the conversation.
  
• We leave the tent and ask a police officer if we are free to record; he responds that we are in a public area and can record all we want. He also says that it is illegal for anyone to touch our cameras or force us to turn them off.
  
• We walk up to some non-Muslim security guards and ask if we can record a dialogue; they reply in the affirmative.
  
• Nabeel attempts to reestablish the discussion, but this time the Muslims at the booth don’t want to talk on camera.
  
• We leave the booth, and I see the woman who had grabbed the camera and forced MJ to turn it off. I begin recording the woman (in case we need to identify her later), at which point she gets on her walkie-talkie and informs her fellow Muslim security guards that we are harassing her.
  
• Following their pattern of entrapping Christians at the festival, the Muslim security guards convince two teenagers to strike up a conversation with Nabeel and snatch a pamphlet from his hand.
  
• While one of the teens distracts Nabeel with a conversation, the other snatches the pamphlet from Nabeel's hands.
  
• Within seconds we’re surrounded by a mob of Muslim security guards.
  
• The Muslim security force slaps our cameras, threatens us, shouts profanity at us, openly proclaims that our rights as Americans are meaningless, pushes us, kicks and tries to trip Nabeel, and lies to the police.
  
• The head of security then informs the police that we must be removed from the festival.
  

Fortunately, we got most of this on tape! See the video at the top.

Now think about this. We insisted on our Constitutional rights to (i) ask a question at a booth, and (ii) record in a public place. This was enough to get us banned from a public sidewalk in Dearborn, Michigan (the city with the highest percentage of Muslims in the U.S.). By comparison, the Muslim security guards openly harassed, intimidated, bullied, threatened, entrapped, and assaulted Christians; they openly proclaimed that they don’t care about our rights as American citizens; they used profanity as they insulted us; they lied to police. This behavior was perfectly welcome in Dearborn, even at a family festival! (There were other examples of open hatred as well.)

I have contacted the Arab Chamber of Commerce (the organization responsible for planning the festival, selecting the security team, and deciding that Christians are no longer free to distribute information in public places). I have asked for an apology and for their thoughts on how such horrendous treatment of Christians will be avoided in the future. They have not responded.

Going back to the time of Muhammad, whenever the population of Muslims becomes significant, followers of other religions are suppressed, and the proclamation of non-Muslim beliefs is forbidden. This second-class status for non-Muslims is prescribed by Sharia, and the victims are called "dhimmis." Welcome to Sharia in the United States, my friends.

Christian killed for buying tea from an only-muslim tea stall

Believe it or not a Christian was killed in Pakistan for buying tea from a only-muslim tea stall

Talk about persecution and being a second class citizen:

http://www.theasiannews.co.uk/community/heritage/s/1120922_christian_killed_for_drinking_tea_from_muslim_stall_

http://www.worthynews.com/5886-pakistan-christian-killed-for-drinking-tea-from-muslim-cup

Lets continue praying for the Christians in muslim countries and stand up for their rights

Sam Shamoun vs. Farhan Qureshi: "The Trinity in the Old Testament"

VideoBlog #6: Hate Messages in Dearborn

Was the Dearborn Arab Festival a loving, family event? We have already seen that security was rather aggressive, and that civil rights were being curtailed. We will now see, quite apart from any Christian involvement, the atmosphere at the Arab festival was one which entailed hatred.

Mary Jo Sharp vs. Ehteshaam Gulam: "Did Jesus Die on the Cross?"

Yes, we've got a girl debater.

Reminder: James White vs. Shamsi Ali!

This is a reminder for those in the New York area.

DR. JAMES WHITE VS. IMAM SHAMSI ALI
"THE QUR'AN AND THE BIBLE"
JULY 25th, 2009, 7:00 P.M.
UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF RIDGEWOOD
62-54 60th Place (off of Metropolitan Avenue)
Ridgewood, Queens, NY 11385

VideoBlog #5: The Unedited Footage

The full footage of the interview I had with the gentlemen manning the dawah booth in Dearborn, Michigan. There was another encounter, as you'll see in the near future. For now, here's what we've got to share :-)

The FOT Foundation

Hello everyone, it's Nabeel.

I've posted a few things on YouTube now, and I've received pretty regular responses from a gentleman who styles himself "The FOT Foundation". What I like about him is that he is thorough in his responses and tends not to egregiously transgress basic logic. I intend to do a full response to his embryology defense in the near future.

Anyhow, he had posted comments on the most recent YouTube videos which began to upset me. Long story short, he seems to think that asking people to answer questions on camera is hostile. To me, it seems to be a good way to keep people honest. He alleges that Christians would react the same way as the Muslims did, if not worse - if they were to do so, I would be equally suspicious of them.

But I digress. The real reason I'm posting this blog is because I read his blog here. Essentially it's a criticism of our online ministry. When I got to the paraphrase of this weekend's YouTube videos, I could not contain my enthusiasm! This guy is hilarious! He is a master of prose, subtle sarcasm, and persuasion. I haven't enjoyed anyone's writing style nearly as much in many months!

Perhaps I'm finding this hilarious because it's 4:53 AM and the past two days have been the most hectic days of my life (not an exaggeration; more to come in the future.) Regardless, this deserves a referral post. Thanks for that, FOT, it was great. Keep up the good writing. You'll get my response soon.

Everyone, keep your eyes open for the exciting conclusion of the Dearborn series. In Christ,
-Nabeel

VideoBlog #4: Dhimmis in Dearborn

A review of what's happening in Dearborn Michigan, from the perspective of Acts 17 Apologetics.