I am truly disgusted. I just got off the phone with Sheikh Awal. Here is the situation: the members of the mosque that is hosting him have demanded that he not debate me tonight. Why? Because David Wood was arrested at the Arabic Festival a few days ago. Miss the connection? So do I, and so does any honest, rational human being. But you see, we are all “the same” to the leaders of that mosque. Me, David Wood, Sam Shamoun—whoever, it doesn’t matter, we are all the same in the eyes of these men. So, if David Wood is arrested (and I guarantee you, not only will that arrest and charge be overturned upon the first examination by any semi-literate, honest judge, but the resulting law-suit will have a 99% chance of success as long as anything even slightly resembling the Constitution still prevails in Michigan), then it is perfectly correct, in the minds of bigoted men, to hold others responsible for their actions. I pointed out to Sheikh Awal that Sheikh Zakir Naik has been banned from the UK for saying that all Muslims need to be terrorists. So, should I hold him accountable for everything Zakir Naik says or does. If not, why not? American Muslims are constantly crying that they are being lumped together with others unfairly. I have tried NOT to do that myself, but what is the response from these Muslims living in America? They do the exact same thing, holding me accountable for what they judge to be the bad actions of someone else, even when I was not present. I wonder why they did not raise this objection before the other debates with Sheikh Awal? If last night’s debate had gone well for the Islamic side, would this objection even be offered? I will let you judge that.
So I am going to head to Romulus tonight and I will give the presentation I was going to give on the deity of Jesus Christ. Then I will play some portions of Sheik Awal’s comments video taped in a debate in 2009 and refute them. Then I will take questions. This is the best we can do, for the Muslim side has utterly capitulated to the pressure of religious bigotry and the forces of irrationality that oppose free speech and open debate. If Sheikh Awal would like to show up, I will still give him the books I was going to give him during the debate! But even more so, I still hope and pray that despite his informing me just now that there will be no debate, that he will realize how wrong this is, and he will convince the men at the mosque who are acting in such a childish and prejudiced way to think with clarity and allow him to give a Muslim response to the Christian claims regarding the deity of Christ.
