Tuesday 27 April 2010

Sam Shamoun Asked to Stand Down: An Open Letter to AnsweringIslam by Yahya Snow

Recently, one of my colleagues alerted me to some harrassment and insults he had received at the hands of Sam Shamoun.

Sadly, this is not an isolated case; I have personally been the subject of Sam Shamoun's harrasment and hounding (as well as other colleagues of mine). This is far from the behaviour of a gentleman. My colleagues and I, do not warrant such abuse.

We appreciate Sam Shamoun has a history of misdemeanours and has left a trail of insults, hatred and name-calling directed at Muslims and their faith but one would have thought Shamoun would have matured with age (the man is around the age of forty now); given his recent repertoire of abuse this clearly is not the case.

Recently I rebuked Sam Shamoun's colleague (David Wood) due to his "obnoxious" behaviour; this rebuke only came about due to the unwilling nature of those (Christians) around Mr Wood despite my prompting that they need to rebuke him as his behaviour was clearly out of control (dare I say...unChristian). This rebukes seems tohave had apositive effect on some ofthe Christians in his circle.

Shamoun's situation carries parrallels, though Shamoun's case is much more severe due to the prolonged nature of his venom...I ask the Answering Islam team to rebuke Sam Shamoun, better still in my view there is no place for somebody of Shamoun's disposition in the field of apologetics; perhaps now is the time for Samuel Green or a senior colleague to say "thanks Sam but no thanks" and part company.

Surely now is an opportune time to dispense with the services of Sam Shamoun, there are a number of young Christian apologists who could fill the void quite easily without clogging it with the abysmal hate Sam Shamoun engenders.

Perhaps more worrying to those who hold the Bbile in high esteem, Shamoun seems to be interpolating his own wording into the Bible; he is editing the Bible in order to support his arguments. This is not on!

The choice is certainly down to Mr Green and his colleagues but the view from the trenches is that of Shamoun portraying Christianity and Christian values in a poor light. To be frank, Christians and non-Christinas are being repelled by his behaviour and these calls of a rebuke are certainly in merit of swift and decisive action.

The Nadir Ahmed-Sam Shamoun days are well and truly over...if only others can realise this reality and aid us in elevating the discourse to a higher (and more noble) ground.

Dare we imagine Sam Shamoun realising the awkward position he puts his colleagues and his fellow Christians and falling on his sword and leaving the scene in an upright manner.

By Yahya Snow

9 comments:

WomanForTruth101 said...

I wouldn't ask him to stand down. The more hatred, insults and slander Christians give makes it more easier and fun to expose them.

Anthony Rogers said...

Yahya, care to enlighten me on where Sam "interpolated" anything into the Bible? Please don't say he misquoted the Bible on the issue of the Angel of the Lord, which I have already corrected you on (and will have even more to say about in the future).

Anthony Rogers said...

Brother Sam asked me to post the following message for him:

Hahahaha! Is this all you can do? Try to get Christians to turn against me instead of facing me in a debate so I can expose you before the world of Christian-Muslim apologetics much like Anthony Rogers has been doing? Man, I knew that you were a charlatan masquerading as an intellectual but this desperate attempt of silencing me takes the cake. You are worse than Nadir and Osama Abdallah combined. Thanks for proving to the world that you are afraid to face people like Anthony Rogers and myself after the shalacking that Anthony gave you for producing such subpar materials.

minoria said...

Hello Woman for Truth:
I can only state from my research.In the case of DEEDAT and SHABIR ALLY to say that they are not scholars is correct.
Anybody can make a technical mistake,I have many times.But Deedat and Shabir Ally's arguments are intellectually flawed and they knew it 100%.They intentionally misrepresented things about NT scholarship that no ATHEIST would do(with the exceptin of DAN BARKER).

WHY?
Because they are NOT HOLY MEN.They are charlatans.It is the same for ZAKIR NAIK.When I say it I am not "insulting,slandering"them.It is based on fact,I have seen how they act in a dishonest way intellectualy.EVEN IF I were a non-Christian like a few years ago I woudld still come to the same conclusion.

WomanForTruth101 said...

Hi Minoria,

I don't know what Deedat or Ally have to do with this, but both present good material. There may be errors but that also goes for Christians who challenge Islam.
I don't agree with everything an Islamic apologetic says, and I'm sure the same goes for you.

What I meant by the slandering and insulting was the haters on Jihadwatch; including all of it's affiliates, Atlas shrugs, and even on Answering Muslims. I mean the cursing and deliberate misinformation? Is that really needed?

You can notice on several evangelical sites, they always have sections on Islam, quite often the well refuted over-used claims. Can you call these people charlatans?

I've seen some of Sam Shamoun's work. Not very impressive. Look at his quote from Anthony. Should we label him a charlatan?
Apologetics is about finding common ground, enlightening others and viewing different perspectives. Unfortunately people go to far

Anthony Rogers said...

Woman,

What do you mean by "Look at his quote from Anthony"? Where does Sam quote me and what is it about my quote that justifies calling him (or me) a charlatan? Or are you referring to the message I left here for Sam? If so, how does that demonstrate what you are saying. If you cannot demonstrate that what you are saying is true, then your words amount to slander. Hopefully you can clear this up for me.

minoria said...

Hello Woman of Truth:
I have read quite a bit of Sam Shamoun's work.I think you condemn that he calls certain Muslim writers (Osama Abdullah,Sami Zaatari,etc)names like deceitful,pathetic,etc.
The reason is because according to his experience with them they have been given good answers to some of their objections yet refuse to recognize it.So when you see that happening over the years by the same person,you lose some esteem of the man.

EXAMPLE
Jesus cursed a FIG tree because he was hungry,found NOTHING there,BUT it was NOT the time for FIGS(that was,I think 4-5 weeks later).

SHABIR ALLY often says "it shows Jesus did not know everything".He was told by Shamoun in a debate(and it is true)that in PALESTINE several weeks BEFORE the figs come out there are EDIBLE knobs given called TAQSH.If no TAQSH appear it means there will be NO figs that year,a barren tree.So Jesus knew that there should have been things to eat.

If year after year after year Shabir would continue to use that argument in boks and debates against Jesus,then,yes,I would say I can say he is not interested in real information,real learning,even HIDING info from his audience for not very noble reasons.

Sepher Shalom said...

"Recently, one of my colleagues alerted me to some harrassment and insults he had received at the hands of Sam Shamoun."

Can you be more specific and provide evidence for your claim?

Without specific evidence and proof all you have is hearsay and accusation. Writing an "open letter" and asking someone to retire from apologetics based on hearsay and accusation should in no way be taken seriously by anyone.

pamuk7 said...

I know an easy way to get Shamoun off Answering-Islam. Quote this verse:

Luke 6:30:
"Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back."

Then, ask Shamoun to give you his answeringislam domains and expect him not to demand it back. Then, we shall see whether Sam Shamoun has the courage to follow his own so called God.