Three Questions for Dr. Norman Geisler

The Purpose of the Video and the Plan to Address the Written Article

I'm recording this video to go along with the posting of an article on the website, and so I'm going to be staying as close as I can to the written portion, though I'll make some extemporaneous comments along the way, shall we say.

I would like to invite Dr. Norman Geisler to join with me in ending the controversy regarding Ergon Kanner. I believe that Dr. Geisler's participation in this controversy, which I have styled as a cover-up, has muddied the issues.

It has not clarified the issues, though for those who actually know the documentation, who have listened to the sermons and watched the videos, I think there has been a clarification. It has only made it that much clearer that there has been a consistent pattern of myth-making, embellishment, and simple lying on the part of Ergon Kanner since at least 2001 in regards to his background, in regards to his having been born in Turkey, raised in Turkey, coming from Turkey to the United States in the late 1970s, and all the related persona that has been developed by Ergon Kanner in relationship to these issues.

Now, I know that Dr. Kanner is scheduled to speak at two upcoming conferences sponsored by Veritas Evangelical Seminary, of which Norman Geisler is provost. The first is July 24th, 2010 in Littleton, Colorado.

The second is July 31st in Downey, California at a Calvary Chapel in that location. And I find it interesting that Dr. Norman Geisler is likewise scheduled to speak at both of those same events along with Ergon Kanner.

Now I would like to ask Dr. Geisler to provide full, documented, logical responses to the following three major questions that I am going to put into this video and put into the documentation that I provide with it as well.

I would suggest that if no meaningful, full, defensible answers, not one sentence excuses, without citations, without documentation, but if no meaningful, full, defensible answers are forthcoming, then the leadership of Veritas Evangelical Seminary and the speakers at the conferences, and surely if that doesn't take place, then those considering attending should contact Veritas and explain that until answers are forthcoming, until real answers are forthcoming and provided, and in this case, confession and repentance takes place, that they will not be attending conferences featuring Ergon Kanner as speaking as an expert on the topic of Islam or really any other apologetic subject either.

The First Question: Ergon Kanner's Claims About Turkey and His Childhood

So three questions, directly for you Dr. Geisler. Here's the questions, question number one, Dr. Ergon Kanner has claimed, not once, not twice, but literally dozens of times over a period of approximately, since 2001, nine years, to have grown up in Turkey, speaking the native language spoken in Turkey, unless he was speaking Swedish on the border of Iraq and Turkey, living in particular places in Turkey, specifically Ankara, the border of Turkey and Iraq, living in a majority Muslim country and coming to the United States in 1979 as a teenager.

These were not misstatements unless you believe that a man can misstate the same thing in dozens of different contexts in the exact same way over nine years. At which point it would be very clear that Dr. Kanner has some kind of neurological problem to where he can't tell the truth about these subjects, which doesn't make any sense obviously.

We have video where again he claims to have come to the United States not as an infant of two or three years of age, but as a teenager. Listen to just the first portion of this video and you will see that this is not a misstatement.

This is a part of the persona that Dr. Kanner has developed over the years.

When I first came to America, I went to see a movie, I was a teenage boy, and I went to see a movie that had Living Dead as its theme.

Now, Dr. Geisler, you have said that Dr. Kanner was raised in Sweden, yet Dr. Kanner claims to have been raised until a teenager in Turkey. Can you please tell us if it is a lie or a mere misstatement that Erdogan Kanner lived in Turkey until 1979?

How can someone make a misstatement consistently over the course of nine years in not just a few, but dozens of different contexts, all within the same context of this persona that he has presented? Is it not clear and compelling evidence of a purposeful effort on Erdogan Kanner's part to create this Islamic persona that he then has used as the basis of obtaining the positions that he has taken?

The Question to Dr. Emir Kanner About Turkey and the Court Documents

Along with this question is related inquiry directed to Dr. Emir Kanner, and I would like to address Dr. Emir Kanner now, who seems to be assisting in the defense of his brother, and given that his own position is directly related to Erdogan's claims, we can surely understand why that is.

Is this picture, which I am now placing on the screen, and will again include in the documentation, is this picture of Erdogan Kanner's 10th birthday? And was it taken, as Erdogan claims on his Facebook page, in Turkey itself?

Since Emir Kanner is in the picture, does this tell us that both Erdogan and Emir Kanner traveled to Turkey in 1976? Is this the forced removal to Turkey that Monica Kanner speaks of in the court documents?

A court order was entered on August 22, 1975, stating that the children were not to be removed from Franklin County. This order was suspended pending further hearings on February 4, 1976. On March 11, 1976, custody was granted to Monica Kanner, which would require any trips Turkey to be of, at best, brief, in light of Akar Kanner now being the non-custodial parent.

There does not seem to be any travel restriction placed upon the boys from February 4, 1976 until April 14, 1978. Dr. Geisser now claims that Erdogan Kanner visited Turkey with his father several times.

How many times? How often could young children travel from Ohio to Turkey and back again? Now Dr. Emir Kanner could end all of this speculation right here if he would but openly answer these questions.

Dr. Emir Kanner, have you ever been to Turkey as a young person prior to the age of 18? Did you ever live there? If you did, when did you live there? Where did you live? Was Erdogan with you at that time?

These are not difficult questions and I believe a lack of an open, honest, and forthright answer will be a rather clear answer in and of itself. Finally in defense of the simple meaning of language itself, can Dr. Geisser explain how even making visits to Turkey, as he now is claiming took place, is relevant to Dr. Erdogan Kanner's statement that he had lived in majority Muslim countries and hence was unfamiliar with Christians and what they believed.

Dr. Kanner did not make this claim one time, he made it many times. On January 12, 2005 he said, quote, I always lived in majority Muslim countries and then I came to America. This claim is repeated multiple places and I will provide multiple citations in the documentation that will go along with this video.

How can I always lived in majority Muslim countries be reinterpreted as, um, I visited Turkey a few times? Especially within the context of the claim being that he was unfamiliar with Christians, he didn't know what Christians believed, he thought they would hate him.

If he grew up in Ohio in the 1970s, um, wouldn't the majority of his classmates in elementary school, junior high school, and high school have been at least nominally Christian? I mean, even today the atheist population is fairly small, relatively speaking, the Muslim population is very small.

Back in the 1970s in Ohio, he didn't know anything about Christians? There were no Christians nearby? Does it not take an amazing amount of gullibility to accept this kind of argumentation? I submit to you that it does.

The Second Question: The Claimed Debate in Lincoln, Nebraska

Now the second question that I would like Dr. Geisler to answer for us, um, flows from his posting of new information relating to Eric Cantor's false claims made multiple times to have debated one of the leading Islamic apologists today, Shabbir Ali.

Now Dr. Geisler tells us that evidently Dr. Cantor has a serious problem in misstating things so that he makes the same mistakes over and over again. In this case, Dr. Geisler claims that this took place, this debate took place in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Now my question is simple, Dr. Geisler, who exactly did Eric Cantor debate in Lincoln, Nebraska? It's a fairly straightforward question, I would think. When did it take place? Where in Lincoln, Nebraska did it take place?

Was it recorded? And if it wasn't recorded, why wasn't it recorded? Who sponsored it? Was there an Islamic group involved, a Christian group involved? That's normally how it works in arranging debates, Dr. Geisler knows this just as I know this.

And so, tell us about this debate, who is it with, we'd like to contact this individual. Now you see, you might say, well it was just so long ago, actually, um, I debated Jerry Matitix in Omaha, Nebraska in 1992.

We still have the recordings of that debate, you can verify this with Jerry Matitix himself, he'll remember that. Actually, I took Greg Bonson's spot in that debate. He contacted me, asked me if I could take that debate on short notice so that he could debate two homosexuals in California.

I even remember what I wore on one of the nights, because it was unusual for me, it was so cold, I wore a sweater, which I normally don't wear in debates, I remember it was very cold. Now if I can remember these things, and I am older than Ergenkanner, and my debates began long before Ergenkanner would have been debating, why can't Ergenkanner provide this kind of very simple information, this very kind of simple documentation?

Dr. Geisler needs to provide us with this information since he has now repeated the claim, but without providing any evidence and any documentation at all. So who was it, Dr. Geisler, who did he debate, in what context, when, and we'd like to be able to contact this individual to verify this.

Real simple, that's the second question. The final question comes from Dr. Geisler's attempted defense of the errors of Ergen and Ergenkanner in their published writings and in their published talks, relating to the Hadith literature of the Islamic religion.

The Third Question: Citation Standards for the Hadith Literature

I would like to ask Dr. Geisler to answer the following question openly, honestly, and fully. Let's say a student at Veritas Seminary, where you are provost, and where I believe you teach, turns in a paper in an apologetics class that is filled with references such as Bible 135, Bible 452, Scripture 993, and New Testament 267.

What would you do with such a paper? And what if, upon challenging the student about such citations, you were informed that there is no one standardized way of citing the Bible, and that the Bible is often cited without reference to a specific book?

How would you respond to this? Would you accept this kind of argumentation? Would you find it, that type of argumentation, so compelling that you would then recommend that the student speak at conferences on the topic of his paper?

Now this is, of course, a direct parallel to Dr. Geisler's attempted response to the miscitation of the Hadith literature, the Hadith collections and the writings and talks of Ergin and Emir Kanner. Dr. Geisler's claims that Muslim scholars admit there is no official way of citing the Hadith literature, just simply not true.

Please name the Muslim scholars who cite the Hadith literature without reference to the collection in the way the Kanners do. I'd like to know who does this with regularity. You say it is often cited without reference to the collection.

In the majority of references in the book Unveiling Islam, and I will provide this citation, it's already on Turret and Fan's blog, but I'll repeat the information. The majority of references in Unveiling Islam, the Kanners do not provide any reference to the collection.

Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Muslim, Jami 'at al-Tirmidhi, etc. I'll provide that list so you can see that it's a rather long list. So, here's my question Dr. Geisler. This should be an easy one if your defense is true.

Please quote for us Hadith 2425 and explain its relevance to the Quran. You've written, co-authored an entire book on Islam, so this should be easy. Quote for us Hadith 2425 and explain its relevance to the Quran.

Now, I have a specific Hadith reference in mind, and it's actually very relevant to an extremely important issue in the Quran. So, quote 2425 for us and tell us how it's relevant to the Quran. If you cannot do so, then please explain your defense of Ergun and Emir Kanner's use of a citation system that cannot lead one to the proper citation.

Instead, you simply have to guess. I mean, there's a limited number of Hadith collections, so you could guess and have about 15 chance of getting it right, maybe, maybe a little better than that. But please, please do this for us.

The Closing Appeal for Answers and the Charge of Political Motivation

Now, if you cannot provide, Dr. Geisler, full scholarly documented responses to these questions, I submit that it follows that your defense of Ergun Kanner is not motivated by the facts of the matter.

It's motivated by your relationship with him, the fact that he teaches for your seminary, that you two are connected with one another, and therefore, it has political overtones rather than overtones of truth.

And so there are the three questions that I am asking Dr. Norman Geisler to respond. I know, Dr. Geisler, that you will see this. Clearly, you or those working with you monitor what we are saying and monitor this blog.

And so, Dr. Geisler and Dr. Kanner, Emir Kanner as well, Ergun Kanner, Emir Kanner, Dr. Geisler, you're all in a position to end this controversy right now. But giving excuses rather than answers is not going to end this controversy.

The people of God are catching on to what's going on here. And the more people look at the documentation, the more they are going to see that the answers provided by Dr. Geisler are empty, shallow excuses.

They want to know why. So instead of 22 questions, we'd still like to hear the answers to those, but instead of 22 questions, here's three. Three questions. I'll provide the documentation on the website as well.

I look forward to your full answers, Dr. Geisler, to these questions. Thank you very much.