On March 11, 2012, Muslim Apologist Nadir Ahmed debated me on the subject of violence in the name of Islam. The debate took place on my KCBQ radio show without commercial interruptions and was timed by a moderator, co-host Mike Fredenburg. In addition to the listeners who witnessed this event live on the air, close to 2000 have downloaded this program so far off of my website. It is linked below for the interest of any Rostrafarian
My position was that although there are many peaceful Muslims in the world, and that we must evaluate each and every Muslim on a personal basis, the Koran itself and the example of Mohammad really does command Jihad.
Nadir insists that such Jihad commands are in the Koran only for defensive and protective purposes.
After opening statements and rebuttals, I inserted a discussion of Israel and the Palestinians during our Q and A. Some might think this was a tangent. Indeed, I have not seen it come up often when Muslims and Christians debate. I brought up Israel for two reasons:
1) Nadir stated at the beginning of the program that early Muslim battles were waged for the purpose of protecting Jews from Christian genocides. Therefore, I wanted to see how Nadir felt about the fact that many Muslims today do not recognize Israel’s right to even exist.
2) Frequently, when Muslim spokespeople are asked to renounce terrorism, the violence is obligatorily criticized, but then, almost in the same breath, we hear something about Israel being “just as much of a terror threat.” For this reason, it seemed proper to correct some of the historical revision about the Middle East. All too often, Israel’s “occupation” or America’s oil interests are given as reasons for uprisings, when truthfully, a lot of Muslims are committing violence because of Jihad commands in the Koran.
Several times during the debate, Nadir said I sounded hostile or angry. I did speak quite passionately while listing some of today’s Muslim atrocities, and next time I am given such a chance, I promise to speak every bit as passionately. But I was feeling no anger toward Nadir, neither did I say anything disparaging to him personally. He was treated with respect and his discussion of my alleged anger seemed like a distracting Ad Hominem. Still, since he raised the issue of hostility, I invite the audience to listen carefully to Nadir dubbing me a terrorist “worse than Osama Bin Laden” for using Bible prophecy to justify Israel “stealing Arab land.” He said it with a gentle, friendly voice but his actual words should be noted. In fact, no mention was made of Bible prophecy. (Not that doing so would be a demonstration of terrorism anyway.) Instead, I spoke about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict purely from a human rights perspective with undisputed historical fact.
Despite the intense subject matter, I enjoy these debates. Nadir has agreed to come on my show again.
Here is the link: Nadir Ahmed, Muslim Apologist, Debates Bob On Subject of Muslim Violence
Bob Siegel is a weekend radio talk show host on KCBQ and columnist. Details of his show can be found at www.bobsiegel.net
Many comments to posts are discussed by Bob over the air where anyone is free to call in and respond/debate. Call in toll free number: 1-888-344-1170.