A couple of weeks ago we did a post on the story of James, the half brother of Jesus. We discussed James' remarkable change of heart. When Jesus began His ministry, James thought his brother was delusional. Yet, James became the leader of the church at Jerusalem and was martyred in the service of his Brother. What changed his mind was most likely the appearance of Jesus specifically to him after His Resurrection. Please read the full story here.

http://thewartburgwatch.com/2010/04/02/compelling-evidence-for-the-resurrrection/

As I wrote about Ergun Caner on Monday, I wondered about his brother who is the President of Truett McConnell College in Georgia. Surely Emir would have become concerned about some of his brother’s claims, wouldn’t he? Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case.

It appears that Emir goes along with his brother’s deception, delusions, or misspeak. Darned if I know what the politically correct term is. Doug Pittman alerted me to problems with Emir Caner when we met in Georgia; however, I had not investigated his claims until the recent brouhaha over his brother, Ergun.

The following is a list of difficulties in his testimony. There is a most illuminating video posted on You Tube. Here's the link so you can do your own investigation.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xaeyqq_ergun-and-emir-caner-the-fake-ex-mu_people

I found the video and the evidence it presents most troubling. It appears a good part of the video was recorded during an episode of the John Ankerberg Show during which Ankerberg does a live interview with both of the brothers, Emir and Ergun, who are present on the set. The video also compares statements made in other venues.

1. Both brothers assert that they converted to Christianity in 1982. Later, they state that Emir converted a year after Ergun. These statements have since been removed from their websites when the dates were called into question.

2. They also say that they had considered carefully the claims of Christ for several years before making their decision. This seems a bit odd since Ergun would have been NINE YEARS OLD while he was seriously considering the claims. He would have been twelve at the time of his conversion.

3. Emir makes a statement that both of them didn’t become Christians until they were almost in college.

4. They claim their father disowned them at the same time. Then they claim their father disowned them separately.

5. Both Ergun and Emir say they told their father that “Esa bin Allah”, which they aver means “Jesus is God”. Apparently, it doesn’t. They are also speaking Arabic, which is not the same as Turkish — their father’s native language.

6. In this same interview, Ergun, with his brother present, claims that Nookha means Noah. Nuhk mean Noah. Ergun claims that Baruch is a prophet. There apparently is no prophet named Baruch. Both of these comments are edited out on the Ankerberg site. Also, Ergun claims the Ramadan fast is 40 days. Ramadan is not 40 days.

We now refer you to Wade Burleson’s blog, Grace and Truth to You at the following link.

http://kerussocharis.blogspot.com/2010/04/experts-in-islam-is-emir-caner_26.html

Burleson has some fascinating information to add.

"There were times, though, when Emir ventured into the waters of overt deception himself.  Consider Emir's testimony as provided on his own website: http://www.blogger.com/www.emircaner.com

Imagine being raised with a father who was a muazzin (sic), one who went to the minaret and did the call to prayer. He is the one who melodiously called out 'Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, God is great! God is great! Come to prayer, come to prayer.' So, we would go to our mosque and would be taught from the Qur'an. We would have our sort of a madras (sic), our Islamic school in which we would have our teachers who would teach us the verses of the Qur'an, the surahs  .And our father was not merely a leader within the mosque. He was one of the prominent leaders within the mosque. He was an architect of the mosque. In fact, there he built a mosque as being an engineer himself and an architect. This was the family where we were raised. (Source: Online. Available from Internet, www.EmirCaner.com, "Recent Videos: Dr. Caner's Journey, Part 1," accessed 23 February 2010”) 

1. Emir did not live with his father. His Swedish, non-Islamic mother divorced his father when Emir was around six years old. His father promptly remarried and was raising a second family. The boys did visit him, but he was not the custodial parent. There was much turmoil as the mother sought to protect the boys from Islam, although there is evidence they did attend the Islamic Center with their father during their scheduled visits.

2. Emir asserts that his father was the “muezzin” (the one who calls the faithful to prayer) at his mosque. The leader of that Islamic Center has denied this claim, saying that they never had a muezzin.

3. Emir alleges that his father would go to the “minaret” to make the call to prayer. His Islamic Center did not have one because the city of Columbus, Ohio would not allow one to be built.

4. Emir says that he attended a “madrasa” or Islamic school. However, no such school existed at the Islamic Center that he attended. There was a Sunday school type of class but nothing like a madrasa.

5. Emir maintains that he talks regularly to Muslims about the faith. When asked about converts, he has been evasive, claiming that he is not an evangelist. However, there is one report on Burleson’s blog in which a pastor claims that he knows two Muslim women who were converted directly by the testimony of the Caners.

6. Emir has been silent when Ergun claims that the both of them have debated lots of Muslims along with folks of other persuasions. Yet there are no recorded actual debates. Ergun now claims that the debates are informal.

7. Emir claims to boldly enter mosques and state that he is an infidel. However, this is questionable. On Burleson’s blog, students, who studied with Emir and went with him to mosques, found he did not use this approach. Although he has condemned contextualization, a technique that uses the Quran to show links to Christianity, he does exactly that according to the students who were with him.

8. Strangely enough, both Caners have reportedly accused Dr. Jerry Rankin, head of the SBC International Mission Board, of being both a heretic and a liar. Huh?

TWW believes that the Caners have deliberately misled Christians into thinking that they were real, honest to gosh, converted jihadists. Sadly, we Christians accept such claims without question even though Scripture advises us to be as “wise as serpents”.  We are often amazed by how many Christians forward stupid emails filled with urban myths without verifying whether the claims are in fact true. You know, Obama is not an American citizen. Proctor and Gamble execs worship Satan (instead of the almighty dollar).

The Caners have serious issues that must be dealt with. We believe that neither has any business being the head of any Christian college or seminary. They need to confess and repent. Christians are pretty good at the forgiveness thing. If that is not in their cards, then perhaps Emir could get water-boarded to show that he is as cool as his oft tased brother. Maybe that would deflect the attention away from determining the truth.