john esposito

Professor John Esposito challenged once again

Dear Ali Sina

Since I've discovered your website I can hardly stop reading it! I salute your courage and integrity. Far from being a hate mongering anti-Islamic site, you have excercised great restraint, patience, and civility. I especially enjoyed reading your debates with various challengers including the Ayatullah Montazeri. I was disappointed to see that Dr. Esposito never responded and so I decided to send him an email inviting him to reconsider. I've included the text of that email:

Sat, 11 Sep 2004

Dear Dr. Esposito,

As one formerly enchanted with Islam, especially the mystical stream of Sufism, I decided to delve deeper into the origins and essence of Islam, namely the Quran, Hadith and biographies of the prophet Muhammad. Thinking I would find a spiritual fountain, the source of guidance, I was instead shocked at the dry, empty and brutish worldliness of this so called religion. I came to a realization that Islam is nothing more than an ideology of suppression, terror, and backwardness. Islam is essentially a political movement similar to communism.

I respect your scholarship and commitment to a working dialogue between Islam and the West but surely you must see that this ideology is possibly the biggest danger facing western civilization today. Is there any value in pretending that a moderate form of this "religion" is acceptable? Is there such a thing as a moderate version of Bolshevism or Nazism? Should we really promote this ideology in any form in our country?

I hope you don't think I'm just another mindless American Islamphobe who is bashing Islam post 9/11. I graduated with a degree in Near Eastern languages and have had an intense interest in Near Eastern History. For years I lived in denial of the reality of Islam but eventually one can no longer defend the actions of Muslims. I realize now that the perpetrators of these horrible, daily atrocities are not deviating from the “True faith” but are actually, faithfully executing it’s commandments, as instructed by the Quran and Hadith.

Two years ago you were sent an invitation to debate the reality of Islam with Ali Sina of Faith Freedom International. Since I never saw a response I assume you decided not to accept. I’m sure I speak for many who would look forward to a stimulating intellectual exchange of ideas and hope that you would reconsider this offer. If you need the web link I’ve provided it here:

http://www.faithfreedom.org/debates.htm

I look forward to a worthwhile debate.

Respectfully,

G. Grey

Dr. John Esposito

The following invitation was sent to Prof. John Esposito He is the chief editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World and The Oxford History of Islam.

Please accept our warm greetings. I am writing this on behalf of a few hundred friends mostly ex-Muslims and dissidents of Islam. Many of us are familiar with your writings. We understand that you advocate a peaceful Islam. We are pleased and commend you for that. However you claim that Islam's growth has been also a peaceful one. On this point we beg to disagree. We believe there is plenty of historic evidence that prove the contrary. As far as we understand and based on our knowledge of the Quran, the Hadith and the history of Islam, Islam's growth has been marred by violence since the early days of Muhammad's emigration to Medina. You have maintained that Islam mostly grew through spontaneous conversion and logical convincing. In our view this claim is revisionism, with no historic backing and can easily be debunked. We can prove that the holocaust caused by Islam was the most horrendous catastrophe ever happening in this planet, unmatched by any holocaust in the annals of history.

We would like to invite you Sir, to start a dialogue with us. We will try to disprove your claims that Islam is a peaceful religion and we ask you to show us that we are wrong. Both of us will refrain from giving personal opinions and we shall base our claims on facts. This debate can take place in our open forum and will be also sent o several online magazines for publication.

We understand that you are a busy person. However this scholastic dialogue is important especially for Muslims who have been looking desperately for someone of your caliber to dispute our claims and put us, and our pesky website out of circulation. Since we contend that Islam is not a peaceful religion but a violent one, a danger to the world peace and to human civilization we are campaigning against it. As our site is gaining more popularity, and influencing the public opinion, of both Muslims and non-Muslims, we have become an eyesore to many Islamists who really would like to see us go. Hereby we promise, that should you prove us wrong we will remove our site for good.