First, I know you all have already gotten this book, and I apologize for it taking so long for us to finally start carrying it, but I would recommend to your reading Reinventing Jesus by Komoszewski, Sawyer, and Wallace. You may even disagree with a few perspectives taken in the book, but will benefit greatly nonetheless simply because the authors tackle so many extremely difficult (and common) questions. In other words, they really make you think about things, and that helps when you are attempting to communicate those thoughts to others. We now carry it in our bookstore.
I could not help but notice this paragraph from Jimmy Akin about the Pope praying at the Sultan Ahmed Mosque:
But it wasn’t something that I thought totally out of character for him. He has articulated principles in the past that would allow him to do something like this, and I could see him saying to himself, “Like Jews and Christians, Muslims do worship God, and in view of the grave world crisis we are presently in and my own obligation as the Vicar of Christ not to inflame it, I should go as far as I possibly can to settle the situation down.”
Personally, it is almost painful to watch Roman Catholic apologists struggling with modern Rome, and especially what has come out of Vatican II regarding Islam. But, they are stuck with it, so let the spin continue! Let’s remember, the Allah of Islam is far removed from His creation, could never enter into His creation, and is unitarian in nature. One has to wonder if, on the basis of consistency, we will be told that Jehovah’s Witnesses worship God as well? In any case, we should hardly be surprised at the current Pope’s actions in light of 
this infamous picture of his predecessor. I’ve heard every excuse under the sun for what JPII did here, including the idea he thought it was a Bible. I suppose that’s possible, though, it’s painfully obvious to anyone who knows anything at all about Islam that it is the Qur’an. My Arabic Qur’an has the same embossed symbol, as seen 
here. Let’s remember what this book says:
They surely disbelieve who say : Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary. The Messiah (himself) said : O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Lo! whoso ascribeth partners unto Allah, for him Allah hath forbidden Paradise. His abode is the Fire. For evildoers there will be no helpers. They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the third of three; when there is no God save the One God. If they desist not from so saying a painful doom will fall on those of them who disbelieve. Will they not rather turn unto Allah and seek forgiveness of Him? For Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. The Messiah, son of Mary, was no other than a messenger, messengers (the like of whom) had passed away before him. And his mother was a saintly woman. And they both used to eat (earthly) food. See how we make the revelations clear for them, and see how they are turned away! (Surah 5:72-75).
Kiss a book like that? I’ll let you decide.
Finally, I got a response, sort of, from the fellow who wrote to me about the “professor of a major Catholic university” and how he was tearing my book apart, etc. I am completely lost as to what it means, but here it is:
So scared aren’t you.
You call yourself a Christian? ….. I’m not…. It’s people like you that turn me off from religion in general, especially you superficial Protestants. You failed my test, and sunk to my level… Pathetic.
Finally, a quick reminder to those in the Phoenix area: time is almost here for the apologetics class through GGBTS starting 1/2/07. If you have any interest in participating, you need to get hold of Dottie at the Arizona Regional Campus soon!
