As one can gather from the title, I have published my first video on Youtube. Yesterday my country turned 151 years old so there was a festival downtown. I found out on Facebook that some Muslims were going to set up a dawah booth. I thought that this was a good opportunity for some debate. I took a little walk downtown and engaged them in debate. How did I do? Well, the viewers can look for themselves and make their conclusions but I want to share how I thought that I did.
I think that it went well. A couple of times, they let me get off track and I’m not happy about that. I think that they were incapable of dealing with Surah 5. I really pressed this point as well. I know the Quran pretty well, but I don’t have as many Hadith references memorized. Perhaps I should have reviewed some of my notes before I went.
Towards the end of the dialogue, my interlocutor was falling back to the thoroughly refuted cliche argument that Constantine killed all of the original Christians, burnt their books and created a new religion based on worship of the Sun and that’s why Christians worship on Sunday. I quoted him Acts, and 1 Corinthians to show him that he was in error. I also referred him to the writings of St. Ignatius of Antioch.
Every time that they made a controversial claim, I wouldn’t let them off the hook. I would simply say: Where? When? Why? How?
The topic of the veneration of saints was interesting. As a Catholic who deals with Evangelicalism I know all of the logical and scriptural arguments behind this. These dawah folk aren’t used to debating Catholics, at least not Catholics who know their faith.
In the conversation the legendary argument of the fig tree came up. I believe that I handled that quite well. However, later on in the conversation, the Muslim kept saying that the Bible has been corrupted. I should have called him out on double standards since he obviously thinks the fig tree episode is genuine.
I want to know what everyone thinks of the dialogue so feel free to share your thoughts below. Feel free to share them in the comments section of the video as well. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for future videos. I don’t have any more videos planned but I want to see how this one turns out before proceeding any further.
Allan,
you certainly have quite a bit of knowledge of scriptures and the Koran in this discussion. Even better is the wisdom in the method of questioning which elicit further discussion and demonstrate the errors in the Koran. The main point of your approach is to show the errors and misrepresentations in the Koran.
For the benefit of the viewers on YouTube, you have to show a picture of the Islamic sources which reveal the errors about Mary in the video. Or even the supposed name of Muhammad in the Song of Songs which is really another word in Hebrew.
Good job in engaging the muslims at the dawah booth
Thanks Bryan,
This is my first attempt at editing a video so I’ll have to do better next time. It’s summer so their are a lot of festivals with dawah booths. I found the event on Facebook at the last minute. Maybe next time if we know more in advance we could go together? They won’t be able to handle two trad Catholics.
God Bless,
Allan
Please keep me posted about any future events. I just started to follow some local facebook groups to get notified about any future dawah booth events.
We will definitely be in touch. In the meantime, I would recommend reading the Quran so you’re familiar with the text. It really helps at these dawah booths. It’s not a long book to read and the Muslims will respect you more if they know that you’ve read their sources as opposed to Western ones on Islam.
God Bless,
Allan
Honestly, I think that when they sidetracked the conversation you just refuted whatever argument they raised handily, and then returned to the primary topic, so it wasn’t bad that they sidetracked you. The only thing I noticed was that both you and the Muslims were talking past each other a few times and misunderstood what the other was saying, but from my own (very limited!) experience in apologetics I know that this is difficult to avoid in the moment when your mind is racing to come up with a response. All in all, I think that you were excellent!
Allan,
I put off listening to this because I saw that it is long, but this morning I had some free time and had a listen. I am very glad that I did, and now I understand why it had to be a long recording. (It didn’t seem long though when I listened to it.)
You were excellent.
You really know you stuff. You didn’t really get distracted, sure they set took you off on diversions, but you stuck to your guns and got back to the issues.
You also played your part in preaching Christianity to them too. Don’t be too hard on yourself for letting him off the hook about the corruption of the Bible – there is only so much that can be done in one session.
What was really good was that even in a stressful situation and when pitted against more than one person you maintained your composure and politeness throughout and managed to ally Reason with Knowledge. (E.g. The fact that you pointed out Jesus didn’t speak Arabic as quoted in the Arabic Koran, thus refuting an early objection to the integrity of the Bible written in Greek.)
They were comfortable when they could make assertions (appeal to authority) but they lacked the ability to reason properly, or at least were unable to do so when held to account by someone like you. They must have been relieved when you left. Hopefully you will have at least given them something that will niggle away at them. Well done, you.
Hi Christopher,
Thanks for the kind words. I was surprised how long I was able to last because I was super thirsty during the whole conversation. I even mentioned it on one occasion in the recording.
I did get the number of the guy that I talked to. We’ve exchanged some text messages. I want to get together with him next week. I actually live close to a very popular mosque in my city, though its small. It’s in a strip mall. We mentioned some of this at the last couple minutes of the discussion. I really want to help this guy out of the darkness he’s in. He hasn’t studied history. He kept saying that the Christian Scriptures and religion were changed by Constantine but couldn’t back any of it up.
I’ll hopefully be posting another video before I go on vacation.
God Bless,
Allan
I recall that one of the Muslims you spoke with said a couple of times that Muslim scholars had not commented on the Trinity being represented as Allah, Jesus and Mary. So I had another look at James White’s “What Every Christian Needs To Know About The Koran”. (I spotted it in the bookshop of Buckfast Abbey after Mass whilst on holiday in Devon – Dr White might appreciate that.) He writes that Ibn Ishaq records that Christians believe the Trinity is “He and Jesus and Mary” as do numerous other sources. This appears on p59 of Dr White’s very scholarly book, which I recommend but it doesn’t go into more detail on these particular sources.
Tough work this religious discussion-thingy. Just finished talking to Jehovah’s witnesses who came to my door. I couldn’t shut the door on them, I feel duty bound to witness to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Catholic faith so to my wife’s puzzlement I had a discussion with them for quite some time. (My cup of tea was cold when I got back to it.) I was terrible. I must make sure that I am better prepared for arguing the case for the Trinity.
I appreciate your efforts at the Dawah booth even more now.
Hi Christopher,
Thank you for sharing this. What I would do is focus on the issue of the Great Apostasy. Latias and I have been discussing this on other posts. Essentially ask them where does one go to Church from the year 100 to 1800. The Catholic Church was always there. What about you guys? Could no one go to a decent church before then? This is their Achilles heel.
I’m thinking of writing an e-book on the Trinity because most Christians find it troublesome to defend while I actually love defending this doctrine. It has so much evidence for it. I would recommend that you get James White’s book on the Trinity. It’s really helpful. I still use the arguments in that book. He starts out his book with the words “I love the Trinity.” Despite our huge differences I can agree with White on this.
Remember to always be respectful. Most Muslims and JWs are good people. They’re victims, not enemies. Good luck on your future debates with JWs, Muslims, and others.
God Bless,
Allan