Back in 2006, Nabeel Qureshi debated Paul Williams in a “converts debate”. Nabeel was the former Muslim and Williams the former Christian. At one point in the debate Williams stated that he was a former Christian apologist. That gave me a good chuckle; talk about a failed apologist. For those who don’t know, Williams is someone who has fallen in love with modern liberal Biblical scholarship.
I think the best part of this debate was when they were doing their back and forth and Nabeel pointed out Williams’ double standards. He said that Williams held Christianity to a high standard and basically applied zero standards to Islam. Paul Williams didn’t really push back on this. He just said that Islam is a simple faith and he found that attractive. Imagine that? It’s simple so I’m buying in wholesale no questions asked and literally no questions asked. Qureshi brought up many Hadiths about lost verses in the Quran and Williams admitted that he hadn’t even looked at that; and to be honest, didn’t seem to care. I guess he just bought into the perfect Quran preservation myth from day one and wouldn’t accept anything else. You need to use kid gloves with the simple faith.
Fast forward 15 years and here we are in 2021. Nabeel Qureshi is dead but Paul Williams is still kicking around. He has his Youtube channel. On this Youtube channel he essentially just shows books, mentions how much of a scholar the author is and takes a quote from them that contradicts traditional Christianity. Basically he hasn’t changed at all in 15 years. He’s bought into all of these liberal “scholars” who make speculations based on a rationalistic worldview and accepts their conclusions without question. Again, literally without question.
Of course when Paul Williams or other Muslims say that they accept the conclusions of liberal “scholars”, it’s just conclusions that they agree with. Whenever these fake scholars say something that disagrees with their 7th century Arabian text the opinions of these “scholars” become less than worthless.
So Williams hasn’t changed much. What about Qureshi? As I mentioned before he’s dead. He was with RZIM(Ravi Zacharias International Ministries) but now that Ravi Zacharias’ name has been discredited it’ll have to fold or change the name. Apologist David Wood mentioned at one point that he thought Ravi was prepping Nabeel to be his successor. In a cruel twist of fate the demonic Ravi outlived the young and vibrant Nabeel.
My proposition is that they rename RZIM to NQIM. Nabeel Qureshi International Ministries. It’ll give the organization a credible label. I really wish Qureshi were still around. A young talented man like that should have lived longer, though I guess none of us deserve tomorrow.
Where will Paul Williams be in 15 years? If I had to guess he’ll be doing the same thing. Reading books by fake scholars, accepting the conclusions that he wants without asking any questions, and applying zero standards to his own faith. After all, it’s a simple faith, right? We don’t want to be mean to the poor little simple faith, do we?
Good points.
Williams is doing the same thing, using liberal scholars to bring doubt and question biblical faith.
But he also said that he is no longer a Muslim although he still defends Islam.
he wants to have his cake and eat it .
he just doesn’t like the way that most Muslims behave that he has met and he has even admitted that they get some of that behavior from some of the texts of Hadith and the Quran
Have you been watching his recent Youtube videos? He sounds pretty Muslim.
Also, what do you think of my naming proposition?
Yes, until Feb. 12 – until this one and participated, but after a while; I realize it is a waste of time compared to all the work and responsibilities I have.
https://bloggingtheology.com/2021/02/01/top-5-worst-verses-in-the-quran-2/
and no. Since Feb. 12, I have avoided going there, because it just gets my blood pressure up and I waste time repeating the same truths over and over and they don’t seem to listen.
I was going to watch and comment on the Feb. 22 on Isaiah 53, but decided not to because of time.
Yes, he sounds Muslim and so, it seems to me that he struggles with, as he said “most” of the Muslims he has met in England – their willingness to stay silent about terrorism and bad Muslims, and their “tribal” mentality. (don’t criticize even the evil terrorist Muslims” attitude.)
But after he went off on them for a while in 2020 and before Feb. ( ?), he is back defending Islam, it seems.
He was going off on them in August and September of 2020 especially.
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the renaming proposition:
Good idea; but the whole thing is too corrupted to salvage it – IMO.
especially since some of the current leaders were defending RZ when some others (like Ruth Mulhotra – God bless her) were asking questions.
They would have to clean house and get rid of a lot of the current leadership, IMO.
I am sure many of the regular apologists are good and great people.
But his overall pattern over the last 15 years is up and down.
He has left Islam and come back 3-4 times.
He has shut down his blog or web-site 3-4 times.
One time Ijaz Ahmad tricked him and took it from him.
Tbh I don’t think Williams is interested in truth. He just likes his “simple faith” and has bought wholesale into Western liberal scholarship. Of course when they say something that contradicts Islam(which they often do) he just ignores it.
But honestly, so many apologists are the same way. I’ve never seen any Muslims even try to be consistent.
I’m aware of his apostasy, blog changing and Ijaz stealing his blog. I think that Williams is a very troubled person. He’s made up his mind and doesn’t care about the facts.
You made good observations. Honestly, I wonder how Muslims who know their religion can uphold their beliefs knowing most of it, like the Quran’s perfect preservation, are just lies. Must be tough having to wake up every day knowing very well that the lies you tell are the only thing keeping people in your religion. They deserve our prayers, as they are in great need of humility.
“In a cruel twist of fate the demonic Ravi outlived the young and vibrant Nabeel.”
That was extremely well said, you have quite a poetic way of phrasing things, which really adds character to your articles.
God bless you!
Nabeel’s death was really sad and I always appreciated him and his demeanor was always gracious, even when Muslims were attacking him. His video series as he was dying was really amazing and gracious to the end. What a testimony!!
He handled a lot of young Muslims well when they were cursing (really bad – F. word and all) at him at the Arab Fest in Dearborn, MI, the event that got him and David Wood arrested.
He should have been more careful about distinguishing between Sunni Islam and the Ahmadiye sect, which he grew up in – he should have been more clear on that.
But his book, “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus” is really good.
I thought he did a great job on the Trinity against Shabir Ally.
This one took a very serious and dangerous idea of some Muslims (wishing for the death penalty vs. apostates) and made it into a kind of “Monty Python” type humor thing with clay mation stop action rats!
I wondered if the rats inside the Qur’an, eating, is a symbol of the corruption of the Qur’an.
see my comments back and forth in the comment box.
https://bloggingtheology.com/2020/08/18/ali-dawah-death-wish-to-the-apostate-prophet-and-kill-all-apostates/