Preliminary Remarks
I had a posting here which some of you read. It had an email from myself to Kregel. Someone from Kregel took the courtesy of responding to my email. Unfortunately I took their email without requesting their permission to post it. I got an email saying that it would have been nice to have obtained permission first. I wrote a response in email apologising and raising one or two other issues. I then went away for the weekend to another country where I do not have internet access. When I was away I got a request to take down my posting of the email and I was promised another response that would be bloggable. NOTE it is now available.
I apologise to the individual at Kregel for not removing his email earlier. I have left other portions of the blog posting intact. The first comment below is by someone who read the original blog. I await the next response from Kregel with interest and hope to blog it.
Introduction
On 27 July an email was sent to Kregel concerning discrepancies between Unveiling Islam and other accounts of the testimonies of Ergun and Emir Caner. This email was in light of a press release which said:
"Kregel Publications has found no credible evidence that contradicts the biography as presented in Dr. Caner’s books."
and
"Kregel Publications has concluded that the Kregel titles by Dr. Caner are trustworthy, factually accurate, and helpful to both Christians and seekers wanting to know more about Islamic beliefs and how those beliefs compare and contrast with biblical Christianity."
[Discussion citing portions of Email Removed at Kregel's Request]
Turretinfan's blog also pointed out other shortcomings with the book. Repentance of sin is even more important than fixing books. May all of us love God more than we love sin.
Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
The correspondence and press release is below:
Email to Kregel June 27, 2010
"In a recent statement you mentioned that Kregel had reviewed the Caner's books and they were deemed correct. I have amassed 7 other sources with quotations that appears to contradict the testimonies contained within Unveiling Islam and I don't even mean dates.
I hope you will review the evidence in http://majestatic.blogspot.com/2010/07/truthfulness-in-testimonies.html I hope book sales are not more important than the truth. I believe anyone who is absolutely honest will see discrepancies.
A Response from Kregel
[Email Removed as per Kregel Request]
Kregel Press Release
Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI
July 6, 2010
For Immediate Release
On June 25th Liberty University released a statement regarding its investigation of statements by Dr. Ergun Caner. Part of the Liberty report concluded:
“However, the committee found no evidence to suggest that Dr. Caner was not a Muslim who converted to Christianity as a teenager. . . .”
While Liberty University’s investigation did conclude that Dr. Caner made “factual statements that are self-contradictory” in sermons and speeches, Dr. Caner’s story, as presented in his 2002 national bestseller Unveiling Islam (co-authored with his brother Emir), has been verified by numerous persons who knew the Caner brothers as teens and throughout their adult lives. Kregel Publications has found no credible evidence that contradicts the biography as presented in Dr. Caner’s books.
Moreover, court documents related to his parents’ divorce, posted on pro-Islamic, anti-Caner Web sites, confirm beyond dispute that his father was a devout Muslim who did his utmost to insure his sons’ training in the Muslim faith. As Dr. Caner states in the introduction to More Than a Prophet (Kregel, 2003), “We were both [Ergun and Emir] raised to be faithful Muslims within Turkish culture, yet our religious upbringing and understandings were those of devout Sunni Muslims everywhere. . . . Whatever deficiencies we may have had in our understanding have been compensated by over twenty years of study in Islam as we have tried to understand the Muslim mind” (pp. 19–20)
Liberty University’s report concluded that in Dr. Caner’s sermons and speeches, they “found discrepancies related to matters such as dates, names and places of residence.” However, Norman L. Geisler, distinguished professor of apologetics at Veritas Evangelical Seminary in Murrieta, California, says the investigation's outcome vindicates Caner. “They exonerated him on everything except some misstatements on nothing that was crucial. . . . No moral or doctrinal charges were established; no culpability was proven.” (www.christianitytoday.com, John W. Kennedy, posted 7/02/2010 10:41AM)
Kregel Publications has concluded that the Kregel titles by Dr. Caner are trustworthy, factually accurate, and helpful to both Christians and seekers wanting to know more about Islamic beliefs and how those beliefs compare and contrast with biblical Christianity. We accept as sincere Dr. Caner’s statement, posted on his Web site in February, that said he “never intentionally misled anyone. . . . For those times where I misspoke, said it wrong, scrambled words, or was just outright confusing, I apologize and will strive to do better.”
I would expect that the request for clarification was made quite some time ago. Possibly a month ago since their press release is dated July 6. Of course, if the request for clarification was made by that time, their press release is a lie--so it must have been made later. Do you think that the clarifications will be made public?
ReplyDeleteWhat it amounts to is that Kregel did not check the documentation of EC's statements that was available--or if they did, they ignored it.
When you read the e-mail and the press release at the same time and then think of all the information about EC's lives that is available, this becomes simply one more footnote in the disgusting story. One more "person" (the publishing company management) who decided to believe what people say rather than checking the documentation.
Bennett in Kregel's defense the book was probably written circa 2001 when a lot of the contradictions were not yet widely made. In fact I don't know of anything pre-2001 that contradicts the book.
ReplyDeleteI am of the opinion that the press release may have caused a few people like myself to come out and highlight inconsistencies. Kregel have promised me a new statement and I'll not pre-empt it. Hopefully it will contain some clarification.