From Abdul Saleeb <abdul@integrity.org>
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Answering Islam  --  a Muslim response
Date: Sun Sep 15 01:38:31 EDT 1996
Message-Id: <51g4on$c2p@shellx.best.com>


Dear Muslim readers and Mr. McAuliffe,

My name is "Abdul Saleeb" and I am the co-author with Norman Geisler of the
book "Answering Islam."  Mr. McAuliffe, has written some critique of our
book and I have been asked to respond.  First, I apologize for not writing
sooner (I was out of town for some time and then busy like everyone else).
As I mentioned, in a personal note to Mr. McAuliffe, I think neither party
can add to the substance of this debate by being mean- spirited or
sarcastic.  We all have our firm convictions and we are sincere about our
faith, so let us proceed with a spirit of friendship even though we disagree
about many fundamental things pertaining to our religious convictions.  I
already apologize in advance if I unintentionally offend any of the readers
by what I write (and I genuinely hope that this would not be the case for
anyone).  Now on to the topic at hand...(since Mr. McAuliffe's critique has
grown to be quite long, I will interact with only certain important sections
of his response).

Mr. McAuliffe writes:

>Norman Geisler deserves to be
>blasted out of the water (Dean of a theological seminary? HAH!). But
>where to begin? There is an absurdity on almost every one of his
>pages. The Saleeb part on Islam, however, is excellent as an intro to
>Islam, if I recall correctly-- I would even use it if I taught a
>class. So excellent, indeed, I wondered if he is what he claims to be
>and was induced to write for a book described differently than the
>one that was published. There is little connection between the first
>part (Saleeb on Islam) and the second part (Giesler's junk).

I am a convert to Christianity and readers can read my testimony of how 
I came to faith in Jesus Christ from a Muslim background on the web page

  http://www.math.gatech.edu/~jkatz/Islam/Testimonies/abdul.html 

I was a student of Dr. Geisler and this book was a joint venture between 
the two of us.  The purpose of our book was two-fold.  In part 1, we
wanted to educate our readers (mostly Christians) about Islam and in fact
the objectivity of it depends on a great deal with Dr. Geisler's editorial
work (like Jeremiah, I too had to get rid of a lot of the "convert's zeal"
in my writing style). The second part of the book deals with the
foundational issues that separate Islam from Christianity.  Thus the
apparent lack of connection (though not to the extent that Jeremiah thinks)
between the two parts.

>I do not recall ANY invitation to correspond with Saleeb. But please,
>I accept, I accept, I accept! BUT, somehow he is going to have to
>display that he is indeed the person who wrote that-- 

(Please give up the detective Colombo mode Jeremiah.  I am a real person
with a family and you know my e-mail address).

>I have not rejected Christianity, if by Christianity you mean
>following Jesus, and I never have, and God willing, I never will.
>What I HAVE rejected is a lot of the theology of "Christians"--
>especially all the neo-Hellenistic-mystery-religion mumbo-jumbo
>spewing from Paul, and the neo-pagan theological garbage built upon
>Paul over the centuries. But I did that waaaaay before I even ever
>encountered Islam. 

Dear Jeremiah, is this once again the fiery zeal of a convert or a mature
reflection on the Christian faith? For those readers who are not interested
in cliches, and do not dimiss the Christian faith as mumbo-jumbo
neo-pagan theological garbage I highly recommend Ronald Nash's "The Gospel
and the Greeks." (as a side note let me say that I personally know and have
met a few hundred former Muslims who have come to faith in Jesus Christ, and
one of the things I always emphasize is respect for Islam, since there is
also a tendency among those people to completely trash Islam.  Let's make an
effort for mutual respect and understading).

>Allahu Akbar!
>Allahu Akbar!
>Allahu Akbar!

Indeed, indeed!!!

Continue with the first part, Part 1 (1/3), of Abdul's response to Jeremiah's book critique.

Overview on the debate between Jeremiah and Abdul
Answering Islam Home Page