Dear Sir, 

Firstly, I know you mentioned that you’re only accepting emails for articles to be published only, however, I was hoping you would consider this time to be an exception. 

I’ve read parts of your website faithfreedom.org with interest as it contradicts much of what I have believed in all my life. However, being born and raised in the UK , I consider myself very open-minded and I believe that discussion is the way forward to solving any problems or conflict. Due to that we’d like to invite you or any of your colleagues to a debate in which we’re wondering whether you or any of your colleagues would be brave enough to debate against the Islamic Society at Sheffield Hallam University on the topic of “Does Islam Cause Terrorism?”  

We’re hoping either you or any of your brave colleagues could extract as many verses of the Quran and Hadith and further examples from reality and history so that either you or your colleagues can ‘prove’ that Islam is a terrorist and oppressive religion as detailed so intricately in your website articles. On the other hand, the Islamic Society would illustrate ALL the Islamic systems as the best systems for mankind (whether Muslim or not) and that Shari’ah should be implemented to make the world a far better place. 

Just to give you an understanding of how many people we expect to attend, we have just had a huge debate with over 500 people attending (topic: Does God Exist?) so that would be the probable turn out on this event. SHU Islamic Society is renown to be a platform for intellectual discussion and debate for the Muslims of Sheffield. We always get attendees from SHU, University of Sheffield , the Muslim community in Sheffield, the colleges around Sheffield, the mosques of Sheffield, and we even get attendees from out of Sheffield . Furthermore, we always advertise and provide feedback of our events on BBC Radio Sheffield and several other media to ensure maximum publicity. We’re hoping that these facts are enough to encourage you to speak. 

However it should be noted that if you do accept the challenge, then we would really appreciate you putting forward a back-up speaker so that 500 people will not be disappointed on the day! We plan to schedule this event around the week commencing 18^th April, the best day would probably be Wednesday 20^th April 05 in the evening @ 6:30pm (this would allow about 1hr 50min of debate before the sunset prayer falls).  

The format of the event would be along the lines of:

Yourself: Political Islam Causes Terrorism (15-20mins)

Islamic Society: Political Islam Liberates the People (15-20mins)

Yourself: Refutation (5mins)

Islamic Society: Refutation (5mins)

Q&A (45 minutes)

Islamic Society Closing Statement (5mins)

Your Closing Statement (5mins) 

Please note that it will be a civilised and intellectual debate. 

However this is all initial planning as I have to discuss with the other committee members as well before anything is confirmed. 

Please do respond to this email, so even if you reject the challenge, at least then we know you have received the email and if you do reject this invite, please can you forward this email to anyone who may be interested in taking up the challenge. 

Kind Regards, 

Suhaib Shafi’i – 07812 481542

Event Co-ordinator for SHU Islamic Society    

Dear Suhaib Shafi’i  

Event Co-ordinator for SHU Islamic Society  

Thank you for the invitation. Who said I am brave? Theo Van Gogh was brave.  

This is not a contest of bravery. This is the contest between truth and falsehood. How can you discover the truth in 15 to 20 minutes of live debate? Those kinds of live debates you are inviting me to, are good for political candidates who want to impress their audience with their oratory skills, a few claptrap phrases and some reassurances that they will do miracles for them. This is hardly a setting for a serious and in depth religious discussion. These kinds of talks can take tens, if not hundreds of pages of written debate and certainly they can’t be decided in just one hour or two.  

Moreover, my site receives 7,000 visitors on average every day from across the world.  Why would I care about 500 people when I can reach millions in just a year?  

You want me to prove from Quran and Hadith and further examples from reality and history that Islam is a terrorist and oppressive religion. I can easily do that. All I have to do is to quote a few verses from the Quran. Take a look at these verses: 

You can also read my previous debates with other Muslims. If you disagree you are most welcome to disprove me.  Whatever we can say orally, we can write. In a written debate we can say much more because we are not restricted by time. We can also take questions from the readers.