Ergun Caner's Lies Catch Up To Him, Part 2

AKA Ergun Can't Claim His Th.D is A Ph.D AND Ergun Can't Hide From His D.Min By Saying It's "Honorary"

Section 1: Ph.D, Th.D? Is there any difference?

Returning to Ergun's July 2009 Q&A:

QUESTION: WHAT DEGREES DO YOU HAVE, AND FROM WHERE?

ANSWER:

Another favorite question! Since my life is education, I love getting these, especially from young people who are wondering whether they should continue on in their education. PLEASE DO! I went to college basically out of curiosity. Since I was not raised in church, I wanted to study the Bible. So, I went to a college to do so. Every degree I have gotten since, I earned out of sheer curiosity. Do it. You will never regret it. So, here you go- the long form:

Here I've cut out four degrees (one BA and three Master's degrees), because they're not relevant to our discussion.

DOCTOR OF THEOLOGY
From: University of South Africa
Location: Pretoria, South Africa
Year: 2001
Thesis: Bellum Justum vs. Bellum Sacrum. I examined the apolgetics of the “Holy War” and “Just War positions in Church History, and the ethical considerations.
NOTES: I get asked often about UNISA (the abbreviation for University of South Africa), because it is a British-system University. The Th.D. at UNISA is the equivalent to the Ph.D., according to the World Education Service (WES). The requirements are the same. Many people attend this school by distance, but I chose to travel there for a series of intensives. Frankly, I loved my experience at UNISA. It was inexpensive, and my promoter (like a mentor) was a great man. I lived in a region called Brooklyn, and truly loved their culture. The university is massive, and the library is amazing. The Pauw Building houses all the Theology faculty, for both the Ph.D. and the Th.D. programs. The British system of post-graduate work is focused on the dissertation, and is called a “thesis.” Quite a few professors in the United States have been graduated from UNISA, and around the world.

Folks, this just makes me livid to read. Not because the Th.D isn't a serious degree (it is) and not because the University of South Africa isn't a serious university (it is, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu are both graduates) but because of this red herring:

The Th.D. at UNISA is the equivalent to the Ph.D., according to the World Education Service (WES). The requirements are the same.

What Ergun doesn't tell you is that World Education Service is "a not-for-profit organization specializing in foreign credential evaluation." This is done for the benefit of American universities and employers who want to know what if a degree from UNISA is of the same equivalency as one from, say, the University of Texas at Arlington. It DOES NOT mean that you can swap your Th.D credential from UNISA into an American Ph.D credential. That's not what it's supposed to be used for, but Ergun doesn't tell you that.

Additionally, this line of discussion is totally bogus because UNISA also grants the Ph.D. If Ergun had wanted a Ph.D from UNISA, he could have gotten one in the appropriate department. Then he could have WES evaluate it to get its equivalency to an American Ph.D. But, again, he can't swap out his UNISA Th.D for an American Ph.D based on the WES evaluation. In fact, if you look at the portions of university catalogues that list faculty and their credentials, you'll see all sorts of different degrees from universities all over the place, such as in this graduate school catalogue from University of Texas at Arlington. (I'm picking on UTA because Emir Caner got his Ph.D from there.)

In addition, none of this excuses the fact that up until the issue of his degrees was brought to his attention last month, Ergun spread around that he had a Ph.D, not a Th.D. You can still see traces of it on the Internet, even if not on his website. If Ergun was so incredibly sure that he could swap out his Unisa Th.D for an American Ph.D (keeping in mind that Unisa also awards the Ph.D), he would have stuck to it. But instead he changed his website (as noted here).

Ergun is exhibiting a palpable lack of honesty here.

I find all this rather mindboggling, considering that Ergun is supposed to be the head of a graduate school and theological seminary. How is he supposed to evaluate the degrees of applicants if he can't even be honest about the degrees he has? Maybe that's why he got caught up on the periphery of the Steven Flockhart scandal back in 2006.

Section 2: Is It Butter or Parkay? (Ergun's Allegedly Honorary Degree)

HONORARY DEGREES

In the world of evangelical ministry, honorary degrees abound. The founder of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell, received a number of them. In fact most public speakers get them. I have two- a Doctor of Ministry from one school, and a Doctor of Sacred Theology I received last year.

This is yet another example of what is turning into a whole net of Ergun's red herrings. Here Ergun would have you to believe that the D.Min that I've talked about previously is an honorary degree.

He would be lying about that, folks.

First of all, let us note this tidbit in an article from Baptist Press when Ergun moved from Criswell College in Dallas over to Liberty University:

After receiving a B.A. from Cumberland College, Caner received the M.A. from The Criswell College, M.Div. and Th.M. from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and completed a D.Min. at Emmanuel Baptist University and a D. Theol. at the University of South Africa.

Here's the pertinent page from the Baptist Press website.


News reports usually don't mention honorary degrees. Especially combined with the word "completed." Usually what you see is something like, "President Obama was not awarded an honorary doctoral degree from Arizona State University because the university believed he had not done enough to earn it." (I can pick on ASU, as I live on the same street as them and I pay taxes that fund ASU.) If Ergun's D.Min from Emmanuel Baptist University had been an honorary degree, it either would not have been mentioned (more likely), or mentioned as an honorary degree. It would not have been mentioned as "completed a D.Min at Emmanuel Baptist University."

Plus, if you simply go to the Emmanuel Baptist University's website, you come away with the distinct impression that this is not a place that hands out honorary degrees. They'll give you a degree, all right, but it will be in exchange for cold, hard ca$h. I don't know why one might come away with that idea, but I suppose this popup might actually explain it:

Right. These guys are going to hand out a honorary degree.

Ergun goes on to say:

In the evangelical academic world, you will have to ask yourself two questions, as it pertains to teaching and preaching:

1. What do I want to do? and


2. In what field?

The DOCTOR OF MINISTRY (DMIN) is usually a 30-36 hour degree, with a project that you must present and defend. This project is usually very practical in nature, and is designed to offer solutions in ministry to a specific need or question.

This is rather odd. He first says that his D.Min is honorary, and then he puts this up. So which is it, Ergun?

The DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY OR THEOLOGY (PHD or THD) is a two-three year program, or more, with a dissertation that must be written, approved and defended. This is a research driven degree.

If you get the DMIN degree, and you want to teach in a college, university or seminary, you can only teach in the PASTORAL field, because it is the terminal degree in that area.

If you get the PHD or THD, you can teach in the area of your major field. Since my area was Historical Theology and Apologetics, that is my field. I never wanted to teach in the “Pastoral” field, so my DMIN degrees do not count academically. They DO matter, however, to the schools that offer them, and to their alumni and friends! Sometimes when someone introduces me before I speak at a church, they mention them, and other times they do not. I am not embarrassed by them, in fact I consider it an honor that I received them!

Of course you'd consider it an honor. You considered it such an honor that you listed it among your ACADEMIC degrees in the 2008-2009 Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and Graduate School catalogue on page 116.

Come on, Ergun, the jig is up, guy.

Section 3: Let's Try Some More Sleight of Hand and Red Herrings!

ONE FINAL NOTE: Regardless of your field of study, or what you eventually want to do, remember that if you want to teach anywhere, the institution from which you graduated must be accredited. Accreditation is a controversial subject, because there are many agencies, but not all are academically recognized. All of the institutions I attended were accredited, and UNISA is internationally recognized, much like the Free University of Amsterdam, University of South Wales, etc. LIBERTY UNIVERSITY is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). There are regional equivalents in the US. Another accrediting agency is called TRACS.

He's absolutely correct on this, but again, he's got his red herrings out and he's frantically throwing them around to distract his readers. The only reason he's mentioning this is because of that pesky D.Min degree from Emmanuel Baptist University. Ergun's trying desperately to distance himself from this degree, saying it's "honorary," but as I've shown, he has had no problem claiming it as an earned degree in the not-too-distant past. It wasn't until Emmanuel Baptist University was shown to be, uh, less than accredited that he started saying the D.Min was honorary.

Let's remind everyone of the accreditations that Emanuel claims:

And the comment from Steve Levicoff, who wrote a book about Christian degree-granting outfits called Name It and Frame It:

"Claiming recognition by the American Accrediting Association of Theological Institutions and the American Accrediting Educational Association of Christian Schools, neither of which are legitimate agencies, the University of Biblical Studies (UBS) was originally founded in 1955 as "Modular Education." Their 22-page catalog states, "Participating colleges award Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctor of Ministry Degrees," but they do not name the participating colleges."

As I noted previously, the third accrediting group, Southern Association of Christian Schools, doesn't seem to exist outside of the schools that name it as a credential.

Section 4: Conclusion

People are probably wondering why I have gone to so much trouble to document Ergun Caner's academic credentials, as well as point out in passing that the things he says about his "Islamic youth" have holes so big you could drive a Mack truck through them. This is why:

Ergun has presented himself as an expert on Islam, based on his childhood experiences. He is called upon by certain segments of the news media as an expert on Islam. However, Ergun's shown himself to be less than truthful when it comes to his academic credentials. Additionally, he claims his father built the Islamic Center in Columbus, Ohio, which is simply not true (the building was constructed in 1903). He doesn't know the difference between surah Al-Fatihah and the Shahada, which is pretty fundamental in Islam.

If Ergun can't be honest about his degrees and what his father did and did not do, and doesn't know the difference between Al-Fatihah and the Shahada, should we trust the other things he's saying about Islam?

No. We should not. And he shouldn't be a press resource either or put himself out within his Christian world as some sort of expert. He's shown himself to be untruthful. He's shown that when pressed, he'll erase things from his Facebook, his YouTube and his own personal web site, in an attempt to cover his tracks.

However, his faithful followers (and he's got thousands) will most likely ignore what is written here. After all, Ergun's doing "God's work" by "exposing the evils of Islam." His syncophantic acolytes on Facebook prove that every single day. They'll take Ergun over the truth any day of the week (but especially on Sundays).

But suppose Ergun is just wrong about Islam?

An Open Letter to Ergun Caner

by Mohammed Khan

mmmirele note: Mohammed Khan is the creator of several videos that call into question the depth of Ergun Caner's Islamic commitment prior to Ergun's conversion to Christianity at 16. Ergun continues to dodge questions from Mohammed as well as others who have posted on Ergun's YouTube and Facebook pages. Instead, he puts out Q&As that are either untrue or so misconstrue the issues (see yesterday's post) that they qualify as deceptive (post coming later today). Or he simply deletes the questions and comments and pretends they don't exist. Mohammed has sent the following letter to Ergun and I'm reproducing it here.

The following message has been sent to Ergun:

I am the maker of the videos which exposed you as a fake.

We have asked you on several occasions to respond to the 40+ points I have raised in my videos, which without doubt, prove you to be a fraud and a deceitful man. You always boast about doing debates, but when the chance of speaking to us occurs, you do not reply and remove the comments from YouTube and from your Facebook account, what are you afraid of? If you have debated such high calibre speakers, then why you are afraid of minors like us?

Your only response (if I can call it that) that you have given recently is on your personal website which hardly anybody goes to, apart from your fans is merely a closed statement and a reiteration of what you have already mentioned on several occasions in your testimonies and interviews. Yes, we know you claim to be an ex devout Sunni Muslim, but by telling us the exact same thing again on your website is nothing but a repetition of everything you have already said.

Instead of a closed “response” on your website which ignored each and every point I raised, why were you unable to engage in an open discussion via your Facebook or YouTube account? You obviously have the time to delete each individual comment and to block each user that questioned your authenticity, and yet you claim to be genuine, so what is with all the avoidance? You allow comments on your Facebook which mocks Islam such as “what is this? SHOOT THE INFIDEL?” You allow these comments but you delete the honest questions.

You were even unable to answer simple questions like “who is Bahruch?” Why did you remove even these THREE WORD SHORT questions? These users were not attacking you; they were asking you honest questions. If there is a Prophet that we Muslims who follow the Sunnah (i.e. “Sunni’s”) do not know about, we would like to hear about it....

One of the first things you said in your response was “With a name like mine, you would think someone would recognize I am Turkish!” Need I remind you that this is not a matter of whether you were Turkish; this is a matter of you lying about being a Muslim. Your father most probably was Turkish, but that does not mean you were a devout Muslim as you claim to be.

Regarding your discussion section where you tried to justify your celebration of Ramadan being 40 days, a user posted you a response on the discussion board where discussions are supposed to take place, but you, in less than 5 minutes of the response being posted, deleted it without hesitation. I suspect that your discussion board is strictly only for Christians that agree with you and want to make fun of Islam, what kind of discussion board does not allow for a discussion to take place? For your information, Ramadan is an Islamic calendar month which has up to 31 days and for you to say you were a Sunni Muslim and you fasted during Ramadan for 40 days is laughable, and this in itself is proof that you know nothing about Ramadan or fasting.

One thing that caught my eye is that you have spoken about your pronunciation of words. You have taken advantage of the naivety of your fans and told them that we disagree with you because of your pronunciation of words, need I remind you that this has NOTHING to do with pronunciation. You are literally saying the wrong words and giving the incorrect definition. An example which you have ignored is that the FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT pillar of Islam which every Muslim knows, even children, is the Shahada (the declaration of faith).

The Shahada is:

laa ilāha illa Allāh, Muḥammad ur-rasūl Allāh

“There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah" (Shahada)

But you said (and failed miserably):

Bismi Allahi alrrahmani alrraheemi Alhamdu lillahi rabbi alAAalameena

“In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds” (Surah Al Fatihah)

Al Fatihah IS NOT THE SHAHADA, it is completely different

As you can see, your attempt is nowhere near the actual thing which you should have said. How could you as an “ex devout Muslim up until the age of 18” not know the Shahada? This in itself is full proof that you are a fraud.

Did you know that devout Muslims recite Al Fatihah MINIMUM 17 TIMES A DAY and you could not distinguish it from the SHAHADA which EVERY MUSLIM ON EARTH KNOWS. What would you think of a Muslim who says he is an ex devout Christian but he mistakes Jesus Christ (pbuh) with Paul of the Bible? Would you think he is being truthful? Your error is not even a single per cent compared to this.

I, as a Muslim brought up in the West, still remember the Christian songs that we sang ONCE A WEEK for a few years of my life when I was barely 4 years old, I am 22 now. And you come along not knowing these basic things which you say you practiced devoutly until the age of the 18? This has nothing to do with pronunciation! Please explain.

Another issue raised in your response which amuses me, is the fact that you have fooled your audience into thinking that the reason I accuse you of being a FAKE EX MUSLIM (which of course you are) is because we do not follow the same traditions as you.

You said –

“There are many Islamic sects, who practice differently from one another. For example, the Shiite Muslims have celebrations that the Sunni do not. There are many different forms of Islam, many using different calendars, leaders, etc. For example: Sunni, Shia, Alawite, Druze, Wahabi, Sufi, Nation of Islam, and countless others. We treat them all equally– their claims and their movements.

Thus, they get upset when we speak of a tradition that they personally do not follow. I guess their first response is to say that we were never Muslims.”

You may think you are clever by using this technique on your gullible Christian fans, but we Muslims find this humorous. Firstly because you said you were a Sunni Muslim – which basically means that you adhered to any of the four school of thought (Hanafi, Shaafi, Maliki or Hanbali), or all four. Amongst these 4 schools of thought there is a consensus with regards to the Aqidah of a Muslim. Aqidah meaning - the matters which are known from the Qur’an and sound Hadiths, which the Muslim must believe in his heart, in acknowledgement of the truth of Allah and His Messenger. May I remind you that we are also “Sunni” Muslims! There is 0% probability that you celebrated, followed, recited or practiced something that we cannot relate to.

So for you to trick your fans into thinking we cannot relate to what you say because we “personally do not follow” that particular thing, is absolutely ludicrous. In addition to this, you know too well that that is not the case, and you are taking advantage of your fans due to their lack of Islamic knowledge.

You have lied your way to such a high position that even when your brother told the world that Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Abd’ul Wahhaab was a Prophet, that they believed you both. Not even I as a person who respects this Sheikh highly, believes he was a Prophet, so why are you lying?

On several occasions rather than the word “Jummah”, you said “Joo-mee-aah”. You said you grew up speaking Turkish, and the word “Jummah” in Arabic is the same in Turkish just spelt with a “C” (but still pronounced with a “J”). So why would you as a person who “grew up speaking Turkish”, try so hard to say it with a fake Arab accent when the word in your supposed native tongue is the same as the Arabic?

I can assure you now that ALL of us who have acknowledged you as a fraud have never fasted in Ramadan for 40 days, because Ramadan is never 40 days, particularly for us followers of the Sunnah (i.e. “Sunni” Muslims).

I can assure you that our declaration of faith is exactly same as any other Muslim on earth,

I can assure you that not a Muslim on earth refers to their 5 daily prayers as their “Rakahs”, rather we call it “Salah”,

I can assure you we do not pray by reciting Surah Al Fatihah over and over again (if you were devout until the age of 18, why do you not know how to pray?),

I can assure you that every Muslim on earth calls Sharia law as SHARIA, not SHEERA,

I can assure that it is not written in any Hadith that the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) foamed at the mouth or roared like a “lion” or a “camel”, why did you make this up? Surely you as a Christian are not allowed to lie and make things up?

I can assure you that the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was not the same day as he got the first revelation from Allah, you are lying again and making things up,

I can assure you that no Muslim on earth calls a single verse of the Qur’an a “surah”, rather we call a verse an “ayah”,

I can assure you that NO MUSLIM ON EARTH thinks that Injeel (Gospel) means Angel,

Why do you call the pillar of fasting as “SWAN”? This is not a difference of pronunciation, you are literally saying the word wrong.

Why does your body language in all of your interviews suggest that you are lying?

I can assure you that EACH AND EVERY ERROR you have made is not due to “not following that particular tradition”, rather it is due to the fact that you were never a Muslim and do not know a single iota about Islam.

You always say that Islam is not monolithic, meaning that there is not one single person that can speak for all of Islam, then please explain why you quote that deviant fatwa of a deviant sect that tells people to kill innocent non-Muslims? If, as you say, Islam is not monolithic then why do you always tell your gullible that this is what Muslims “should” believe?

Furthermore, you called your father “Abi” which in Turkish refers to your older brother! Why would you as a person who’s English is your third language (according to your FAQ which you have now removed), and you “grew up speaking Turkish” and yet you called your father “Abi” which means older brother, please explain yourself regarding this matter?

You mentioned in one clip that you believed in a Prophet called Baruch. There is no Prophet mentioned in the Qur’an or Hadith called Bahruch. Why did you make this up? And you avoided answering such questions in your Facebook and YouTube and brushed your clear errors aside by telling your gullible fans that these errors are due to being of different traditions, which is of course total rubbish and you know it.

Furthermore, how do you explain the discrepancy of your conversion in 1982? Why did you remove this information from your biography if you are not lying? You were 16 in 1982, not 18.

Why does the Church that you say “doesn’t even exist anymore”, still exist?

Why does the picture of you in the so called Madrassa, have a girl standing next to you?

Why is there a girl praying in the same line as you “in the mosque”? This does not happen anywhere.

You said “Emir and I often laugh about these attacks”. Yeah right, you are probably thinking “oh no, we have been busted, all we can do now is stick to what he previously said”.

You said “only 20% of the Muslim world speaks Arabic. The largest Muslim populace is from Indonesia, also not Arabic. Also interesting is the issue that pronunciation is an issue at all, given how they pronounce English! No other religion in the world makes such a specious argument except Muslims. To demean its own followers as “fake” merely for speaking the language of their holy book with a different pronunciation is reckless.”

My response to the quote above is that you are pulling the wool over the eyes of your fans. You said YOU WERE DEVOUT and you cannot say anything correctly. When it comes to Islamic terms, particularly amongst those who are devout, there is no difference of pronunciation, because Arabic is a universal language of the Qur’an for all Muslims across the globe. This has nothing to do with where you come from, Islamic terms REMAIN THE SAME. The call to prayer across the world is the same as it is here in England, so why are you lying to your fans? You are indeed a fool.

I could go on with a list of your errors and holes in your story. This message is a chance for you to properly respond and clear your name.

Surely if you are truthful, you would be able to answer each and every point I have raised, there is no hiding for one who speaks truth right?

I would greatly appreciate if you reply to the points raised and not merely post a lame response which basically reminds your easy to fleece fans that you stick to your bogus story even though it makes no sense at all.

Please go through my videos, you have until Sunday 9th August 2009 to post a response and reply to each point, failure to do so will confirm you as a fraud.

A reply failing to answer each point will also be counted as failing to respond.

The best thing you can do right now is to come and out and admit you lied, you will gain so much respect from everyone for being truthful.

This message has been sent to a large number of people, so we will all be awaiting your response.

I would like to thank you for your time, but I won’t, simply because you make an outright mockery of what I believe in by the means of lying.

We look forward to your reply.

"I'm a public figure and this man is videotaping me without my permission" FAIL

Whatever you think about this petition drive, that's really not so important.

What is important is the self-importance of this guy, Greg McPherson, starting about 2:20:

It starts out mildly with Greg limping up the steps and saying:

"So, what's your name? You, what's your name?"

The video guy says, "Who are you?"

Greg: "What's your name, you're harassing me. You're videotaping me without my permission. I'm a public figure. You're taking my image without my permission. I want your name so I can sue you. What's your name?"

Not even a request to turn off the camera...just "I want your name so I can sue you."

The video guy points out that he's turning in petitions at the state capitol in Olympia for a state referendum, but Greg continues to get huffy (at about 2:52):

"I want the police! Hello! Police! Can I get some police here?"

Someone off camera says, "They're in the secretary of state's office."

Greg McPherson, in a tone of total petulance: "That's nice. I need them here. "

He keeps going on and babbling about "police, police" for a couple of minutes until a couple of state troopers arrive.It goes downhill from there for Mr. McPherson, who is schooled by the nice officers about public spaces and so on and so forth.

Greg McPherson may think he owns his image and likeness, but he also put himself in a public space, at the time petitions for a referendum were being turned in, which is news in Washington state. He basically forced himself into the public sphere and then had the temerity to whine about someone videotaping him.

He really needs to get over himself. FAIL.

Ergun Caner's Lies Catch Up To Him, Part 1

AKA His Father Did Not Build The Islamic Center In Columbus, Ohio.

It was pointed out to me that Ergun has updated his Q & A Sessions for July, 2009. Here is the first question:

QUESTION: WERE YOU REALLY A MUSLIM? I SAW SOME GUY ON YOUTUBE WHO SWEARS YOU WERE NEVER ONE.

ANSWER:

Ah yes, one of my “fans.” We do have a number of them. I have heard about some of them, and usually I laugh these things off. With a name like mine, you would think someone would recognize I am Turkish! And, since Emir and I write under our real names (emircaner.com), we have had every possible malicious attack thrown at us. So, this is no bother. Plus, we have addressed this in virtually every book we have written. Enjoy!

1. My name is Ergun Caner. I was born and raised a Sunni Muslim.
2. Our father, Acar Mehmet Caner had three sons: Ergun (me), Erdem, and Emir.
3. We were raised Muslim. We were trained Muslim. Our father was very devout, and when we moved to America, our father helped BUILD the Mosque in Columbus, Ohio. We were there from day one, when the Islamic Foundation was meeting on the campus of Ohio State University, to the building of the Islamic Foundation on Broad Street.
4. I doubt if there was anyone who served in more capacities, or more faithfully, than our father. He did the call to prayer, he taught classes, he did everything.
5. Until our conversions, all three boys were devout and faithful Muslims. We read our Qur’an, we fasted during Ramadan, we ate by halal, we prayed five times a day, etc.

I'm excerpting the entire first half of the question (the second half is a net full of red herring that doesn't deserve comment) because I want everyone to see that I am NOT taking anything out of context.

In fact, here's a picture of the question and the response as of today, Aug. 1, 2009. I'm doing this because Ergun has a really bad habit of changing what he said after his errors have been exposed.

(Click to make larger.)

For the purposes of this dissection, one paragraph is absolutely critical, and it is, on the basis of the evidence, flat-out false. That paragraph is:

We were raised Muslim. We were trained Muslim. Our father was very devout, and when we moved to America, our father helped BUILD the Mosque in Columbus, Ohio. We were there from day one, when the Islamic Foundation was meeting on the campus of Ohio State University, to the building of the Islamic Foundation on Broad Street.

And yes, apparently Acar Caner was there from the beginning. Here's a picture that used to be on Ergun's Facebook, but has since been removed:

The caption reads: "My father built the Islamic Center on Broad Street in Columbus, Ohio" and came from the album "Back in the Day (From Muslim to Christian Minister" by Ergun Mehmet Caner. (Thanks to the person who provided this to me.)

Here's another copy of the same picture, without the caption:

However, even if we didn't have this picture and its rather damning caption, we do have Ergun's own words: our father helped BUILD the Mosque in Columbus, Ohio.

Let me proceed to very simply demolish that notion right here and now.

There is still an Islamic Center located at 1428 E Broad St Columbus, OH 43205. It's a mile or two southeast of the campus of Ohio State University. Here's a Google Street View of the location today:


It's Street View, so it's kind of crummy, but you can tell that it's the same building.

Now, let's find out more about the building. For that, we'll first go to the Franklin County Treasurer's web site. I've already done this and found out that the parcel number is 010-055927-00. Here's the record from the County Treasurer. You can see that the property is owned by the North American Islamic Trust, Inc., and, as is customary here in the United States, it is tax exempt as a place of worship.

(Click to make larger)

Armed with the all-important parcel number, I can now go off to the Franklin County Auditor, which is the government agency that assesses how much a property is worth. These sites can also provide information about how big the piece of property is, the square footage of any buildings, how many rooms are in the building and, most important for our purposes here, when the building was built.

Here's the record for 1428 E. Broad St., Columbus, OH, the building that Ergun Mehmet Caner says his father built:

(Please, click on this one!)

Under "Building Data" in the middle of the far-right column, we find this information:

Year Built	1903	Total Sq Footage	4,608
Total Rooms	20	Bedrooms	0
Full Baths	1	Half Baths	5

The most important piece of information for what we're doing here is the first one:

Year Built: 1903

Unless Ergun's father was born about 1875 or thereabouts, he didn't build this mosque. Rather, this masjid (which is the transliterated Arabic for "mosque") was a repurposed old mansion. It's possible that maybe Ergun's father might have been involved in renovating the building for use as a masjid, but I can state the following confidently:

Acar Caner did not build the mosque [masjid] located on Broad St. in Columbus.

I'd also like to suggest that Ergun's misleading his mainly Christian readership by saying his father did the call to prayer. They might think that he was the Imam or person who led congregational prayer. The call to prayer (which is important in Islam) is given before congregational prayer and it's to assemble people together for that prayer. But Ergun isn't clear on that at all and given how his readers already have warped ideas of Islam, Muslims, etc., I can't help but believe there was some deliberation about this.

However, I KNOW there was some deliberate strewing of red herrings regarding his academic degrees. I will address those tomorrow.

Arabic english indonesia Greeting

Arabic English Indonesia
TAHIYYAT GREETING UCAPAN SELAMAT
Ahlan wa sahlan = Welcome = Selamat Datang
Ahlan bikum = Welcome = Selamat Datang Juga
Soobahal Khoir = Good Morning = Selamat Pagi
Sobahan Nuur = Good Morning = Selamat Pagi Juga
Masa al Khoir = Good Afternoon = Selamat Sore
Masa An Nuur = Good Afternoon = Selamat Sore Juga
Kaif Halik = How are you? = Apa Kabar?
Alhamdulillah ana toyyibah = Alhamdulillah Fine = Alhamdulillah saya baik
Isy Ismik = What is your name? = Siapa namamu?
Isy Fatimah = My name is Fatimah = Nama saya Fatimah
Min Fen Inti = Where are come from? = Dari mana kamu?
Ana min Indonesia = I Am from Indonesia = Saya dari indonesia

http://arabic-course-online.blogspot.com
http://www.cdtutorial-multimedia.com

Arabic english indonesia Greeting

Arabic English Indonesia
TAHIYYAT GREETING UCAPAN SELAMAT
Ahlan wa sahlan = Welcome = Selamat Datang
Ahlan bikum = Welcome = Selamat Datang Juga
Soobahal Khoir = Good Morning = Selamat Pagi
Sobahan Nuur = Good Morning = Selamat Pagi Juga
Masa al Khoir = Good Afternoon = Selamat Sore
Masa An Nuur = Good Afternoon = Selamat Sore Juga
Kaif Halik = How are you? = Apa Kabar?
Alhamdulillah ana toyyibah = Alhamdulillah Fine = Alhamdulillah saya baik
Isy Ismik = What is your name? = Siapa namamu?
Isy Fatimah = My name is Fatimah = Nama saya Fatimah
Min Fen Inti = Where are come from? = Dari mana kamu?
Ana min Indonesia = I Am from Indonesia = Saya dari indonesia

http://arabic-course-online.blogspot.com
http://www.cdtutorial-multimedia.com

Coming this weekend, part deux

Ergun Caner's answered a batch of questions related to his (former) practice of Islam as well as about his degrees. Unfortunately, his answers are almost all craptacular lies, half-truths and red herrings. I'll be going through this document and exposing it this weekend as I have time.

Stay tuned....