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The Choice? An Exposition of a Muslim Apologist
by John Wong of CLARINET
Note from the author: This is the first of a series of response to Ahmed Deedat's work in his book titled "The Choice". The next response from the author will be updated in CLARINET.
Foreword
Ahmed Deedat is regarded by most Muslims as the greatest Muslim apologists and critic of the Christian faith (see forward in "The Choice"). This is evident for even today after almost 20 years since
Deedat's last "great" work the Muslims continue to cite Deedat's writings and propagate his debate "victories" over notable Christians (especially Deedat vs Swaggert) whenever they confront the Christians.
Deedat's strength was that "…he had a way with words" according to Josh McDowell after his debate with Deedat. He had the gift of the gab but even so the same cannot be said of his scholastic efforts for when one examines
thoroughly Deedat's criticism of the Christian faith it is obvious that Deedat made many errors whenever he quotes Christian or non-Christian materials to support his views. Often times Deedat deceptively misrepresents certain
doctrinal teachings and quotes the Bible Scriptures selectively. In short Deedat presents deceptively to support his blasphemy. What is also obvious is that Deedat's negative (and often ridiculous) approach to the Bible is not only
an insult to the Christians but also to the Muslims as well. For I doubt any noble Muslim who believes in truthfulness and sincerity would ever endorse the work of someone who uses deception, lies and hatred to present his views.
Therefore to justify what I've said above let us examine the compilation of Deedat's work in the book titled "The Choice". For my Muslim friends this is not an attack on your faith in Allah but rather to show you
the truth about the Christian faith, which Deedat had deceptively prevented you from seeing. And for my fellow Christians may this be an eye opener for you that we should not insinuate anyone whose faith is different from ours for
arrogance will not draw them closer to Christ but instead they will spite you and your belief. Both Muslims and Christians value truthfulness so let our eagerness to uphold the truth erase the misconceptions we have of each
others faith.
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The Choice: A Compilation of Deedat's Work
by Ahmed Deedat
Note from the author: The words in italics are from Deedat's book "The Choice" and my response are without italics and in black. Verses from the Quran
are from Pickthall's version.
FOREWORD by Mohamed Jaffar, Student of Advanced Studies, Islamics.
It is indeed an honour and privilege to be invited to write a foreword to THE
CHOICE the compiled volume of Mr Ahmed Deedat's books. The present edition is an improved reprint of our earlier work under the same title which was also our first publication. The demand for our publication which soon exhausted
our stock copies prompted us to embark on a reprint with some fresh ideas.
It is particularly true that this book "The Choice" has been widely circulated among English speaking Muslims in Africa, Asia,
Europe and America. In fact Mr. Jaffar himself wrote this foreword in the UK thus showing how widely available this book is in the UK among Muslims. In fact, Muslim students who study in the UK (or any other Western country) are
often given this book to help them respond to any Christian who might evangelise to them. It is also a book they use to daa'wah (or evangelise) the Christians and shake their faith. Unfortunately this has created an unhealthy
attitude among the Muslims. Instead of having a friendly and open dialogue with the Christians they respond by having a distorted view that Christianity is evil and bad all thanks to Deedat. Some of the violence that you see
exerted by some Muslims on the Christians today are similar to Deedat's attitude of intolerance of the Christian faith which he manifest in his writings and debates. Though there are some good Muslims who do not resort to such
unIslamic attitudes, unfortunately this approach is getting unpopular (Surah II:190: "Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not
hostilities. Lo! Allah loveth not aggresors.").
The aim of our organization is to make accessible to the thinking public vital information and reading materials relating to Islam and the
world's major faiths to help educate them on the causes of misconceived doctrines of the world's religions. It is our conviction that the tools we have selected and method adopted to transmit all vital information to the reading
public is one of the most positive means of achieving our aim.
There was once an incident where Muslim students showed a video of Deedat's "victorious" debate against Swaggert to the non-Muslims and some
Christians. But when the Christian students approached the Muslims and requested them to show the video of Deedat's embarrassing debate against Josh McDowell they refused to show. Why? Because Deedat's deceptions and lies were
exposed by McDowell. Therefore what kind of conviction is Jaffar saying here? To make a stand on truthfulness or continue to support his fellow Muslim's lies? That's THE CHOICE!
The services
rendered by Ahmed Deedat in discovering the deep rooted misconceptions, particularly in Christianity with regard to Jesus Christ (Peace be upon him!) are unparalled. His profound interest in world religions and the depth of his
research into the Bible and related sources over the past forty years have converted him into a knowledgeable, serious-minded and sincere scholar in search of a commonsense answer from both the Christian and Islamic sources to the
confused and complicated theories about Jesus Christ (Peace be upon him!) A man gifted with tremendous power to express the truth for truth's sake without any fear of being censured by anyone. Deedat is admittedly, the one and only
man to have challenged the world that misrepresents Jesus Christ to bring forth a clear-cut evidence from its own Scripture in support of its claims. The challenge has not been answered.
I had initially intended
to only answer Deedat's erroneous and ridiculous theories but looking at Jaffar's foreword I believe he is equally as insincere as Deedat. It is obvious that no notable noble Muslim scholar would ever endorse Deedat's shoddy work
therefore only a Student of Advanced Islamic Studies with very little knowledge of what he's saying would allow himself to be easily deceived and commits to tarnish his integrity by writing a foreword to Deedat's book. Let us
examine Jaffar's statements one by one:
"The services rendered by Ahmed Deedat in discovering the deep rooted misconceptions, particularly in Christianity with regard to Jesus Christ (Peace be
upon him!) are unparalled."
Did Ahmed Deedat discover those "deep rooted misconceptions"? Certainly not! He cites them mostly from the works of Jehovah's Witnesses which the Jehovah Witnesses themselves
deceptively and misrepresentively cited them from the work of Christians (Jehovah's Witness is a cult). So imagine the compounded amount of misrepresentation here? It's no wonder Deedat's deceptions are unparalled, he compounds
them.
"His profound interest in world religions and the depth of his research into the Bible and related sources over the past forty years have converted him into a knowledgeable, serious-minded
and sincere scholar in search of a commonsense answer from both the Christian and Islamic sources to the confused and complicated theories about Jesus Christ (Peace be upon him!)"
Deedat boasted to Josh McDowell
that he will take 2 minutes to disprove the crucifixion of Christ in their debate. It took Josh less than 30 seconds to disprove Deedat's claims and prove to the audience that Deedat's claims lacks commonsense. Deedat's confused
and complicated theories about Jesus Christ are derived from not reading the next few verses that would have destroyed his ridiculous theories. This is what you get from formulating theories based on selective verses of the Bible.
You can do that with the Quran but you certainly can't do that with the Bible.
"A man gifted with tremendous power to express the truth for truth's sake without any fear of being censured by
anyone."
Deedat's greatest fear is when people who know their Bible expose the lies he writes in his books. Quoting Bible verses selectively to justify one's theories is unIslamic. Does not the Quran teach one to
FULLY explain Scripture? Surah VI:115: "Shall I seek other than Allah for judge, when He it is who hath revealed unto you (this) Scripture, fully explained? Those
unto whom We gave the Scripture (aforetime) know that it is revealed from they Lord in truth. So be not thou (O Muhammad) of the waverers.". . Perhaps Deedat should heed Josh's advice "Mr. Deedat you need to first study
our Scriptures".
"Deedat is admittedly, the one and only man to have challenged the world that misrepresents Jesus Christ to bring forth a clear-cut evidence from its own Scripture in
support of its claims. The challenge has not been answered."
It is evident that Jaafar lacks knowledge of Church history. There were other people prior to Deedat that challenged the divinity of Jesus Christ for
example Arius. And there are other more deserving Muslim scholars who have produced much more sincere work in refuting the Godship of Jesus (which most of the verses and arguments they use are similar to what Arianism used and had
already been refuted by the Church). Therefore the challenge had long been answered by the Christians way way back before Islam came to being.
Conclusion to Foreword:
I pity Jaffar, he views Deedat's work as the
best remedy that Muslims have in enlightening the Christians. Unfortunately Jaffar is not aware or perhaps refuse to be aware that Deedat's work is laden with errors, deceptions and ridiculous assumptions which serves as evidence
of Muslim dishonesty in dealing with the Christian faith. However dishonest Muslim apologists like Deedat aren't the only ones who survives on deception, the same can be said of the cults like Jehovah's Witness, Mormons, etc.
Therefore my sincere advice to my Muslim friends is please verify what your Muslim apologists are saying based on actual facts as what you would like the Christians to do the same with regard to the Quran. Otherwise you'd be
equally as dishonest as Deedat.
2 Timothy 4:3
"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit
their own likings,"
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CONTENTS
BOOK 1 - IS THE BIBLE GOD'S WORD?
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