I vaguely remember hearing some of the hoopla surrounding Ergun Caner soon after 9/11. His was the perfect story. He was raised as a radical Muslim in Turkey, later moved to America with a desire to carry out jihadist attacks, was converted to Christianity, and is now a minster of the gospel.
Now his story is coming unravelled.
More below.
Ergun Caner, and his brother Emir, rocketed to fame in the wake of 9/11 with the publication of Unveiling Islam. The cover material for the book includes this:
Islam is often obscured by a veil of unfamiliar beliefs, customs, and practices. We watch intriguing images of Islamic nations on our televisions. We hear words like Muslim and Jihad defined in conflicting terms.
What is Islam, truly, when you peek behind the veil? Who can explain this culture with clarity and precision?
Raised as Sunni Muslims by a leader in the Muslim faith, brothers Ergun and Emir Caner have lived the Muslim life. Now Christians and highly respected theology professors, the Caner brothers are in a unique position to present an unprecedented insider¹s look at Islam.
Unveiling Islam is a sympathetic yet uncompromising presentation of the entire scope of Islam--its practices, ethics, and beliefs, including the primary differences between Christianity and Islam. With a basic knowledge of Islam in place, the authors then present a practical strategy Christians can use to open a productive dialogue with Muslims.
They became hot items on the lecture/preaching circuit of conservative Christian groups and churches. This was just the kind of story that many Christians wanted to hear. It proved that Islamic terrorism could be defeated by the power of the Christian gospel. Since then, the Caner's have publised a steady strem of related books and videos.
In 2005 Ergun Caner became president of Liberty Baptist Seminary (the seminary arm of Jerry Fallwell's Liberty University) and in 2008 Emir Caner became president of Truett-McConnell College, a Baptist college in Georgia that was taken over by a fundamentalist board just a few years earlier. The first decade of the twenty-first century was very good to the Caners. They began the decade having just recently completed doctoral degrees in theology ( I am not knocking doctoral degrees in theology here - I have one myself), and ended it in high-ranking administrative positions in the world of conservative Christian higher education.
They both have their own highly polished websites:
Emir Caner
Ergun Caner (Note that the bio on Ergun Caner's website is currently unavailable)
The crumbling of Ergun Caner's story is spreading fast on the internet Lots of information can be found at:
AlterNet
and
fakeexmuslims.com (gotta love that site name!)
Liberty University is now conducting its own investigation as reported by
The Chronicle of Higher Education
and
The Washington Post.
The irony of the story is observed by Jim Evans on
ethicsdaily.com, the website of the Baptist Center for Ethics.
But why create a myth of a former radical Islamic past? Because in the strange calculus of evangelical logic, if a former devout Muslim becomes an equally devout Christian and a passionate critic of Islam, that proves that Christianity is the superior faith.
But why doesn't it work that way for President Obama? The quick answer is obvious. It works better for the president's political opponents to deny his claims that he is a Christian.
And unfortunately, the evangelical math also works against the president as well. Since he was raised in proximity of Islam, he probably is a Muslim. His willingness to embrace and engage moderate Muslims is proof that his Christianity is deficient and that he is hiding his true religious beliefs for political purposes.
This is going to get much more interesting in the days and weeks to come. Stay tuned...