Mark 4:22 For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.
I have been following the controversy around Egun Caner’s false testimony for a couple months now. There have been hundreds of pages of evidence posted all over the internet. Here is a brief intro from Wade Burleson’s blog called Grace and Truth to You:
Dr. Ergun Mehmet Caner, President of Liberty Seminary in Lynchburgh, Virginia has been caught in a web of deception of his own making. Dr. Caner has publicly stated that he came to the United States at age fifteen having been trained to be a jihadist. In reality, Caner came to Ohio at age four and lived a comfortable, American life. Dr. Caner has also publicly stated that his first language was Arabic and he was trained in a madrassa in Turkey. Several International Mission Board missionaries who speak fluent Arabic have emailed me, horrified at what they have heard Dr. Caner try to pass off as his native Arabic during his audio and video sermons at SBC churches. They confirm what others have been saying–he is speaking complete gibberish. The myth Dr. Caner has created about himself seems now to be unraveling. He never came to America “via Beirut and Cairo.” He has never been trained as a fundamentalist Muslim. He has never had been a jihadist. He has never debated top Muslim scholars, in Nebraska or anywhere else. It is impossible for any of us to understand why someone would fabricate or embellish his past, but there’s a great deal of money to be made selling books and DVD’s about Islam in post 9/11. Whose a better expert on the subject than a radical jihadist who has converted to faith in Jesus Christ, right?
Caner fabricated his history as a member of the “Islamic Youth Jihad” immediately after the events of 9/11. A good review of this evidence is found on the FBC Jax Watchdog blog which has an audio recording of Caner’s presentation to the FBC Jax on Nov 20, 2001 in which Caner claimed to have come to America when he was 15 years old, “trained to do that which was done on September 11.” Listening to his lies is truly revolting. He even tried to put on a fake Middle-Eastern accent at first, but it quickly faded as he fell back into the cadence of his typical Midwestern accent.
I have confirmed the statements by Wade Burlseon and many others by examining the evidence found in Caner’s many video and audio recordings still available on the net. I have been saving them to my computer because there is a concerted effort by many “Christians” to cover up the scandal by deleting the evidence. When Caner was first confronted by the evidence, he removed his bio from his website for over a month, and then put up a bio that omits any details that have been exposed as false. What PRESIDENT of a THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY deletes his own bio? I can not think of a more direct admission of guilt. But it get’s worse! Liberty University is in collusion with Caner and they also deleted his bio from their site for a while, and now have replaced it with the false statements conveniently removed as if they were never there. This means that Liberty University has full knowledge of Caner’s lies, and have chosen to deceive everyone! Furthermore, John Ankerberg, who was instrumental in propagating Caner’s lies, has edited at least one video file to hide evidence, and also demanded that the excerpts of those videos that critics posted on YouTube under the “fair use” clause be removed for “copyright violation.” Thus we see how a “little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Major Christian leaders have chosen to actively deceive their audience to protect themselves from the revelation of truth.
But there is much more to this story. Caner shot to national fame with the post-9/11 opportunistic book “Unveiling Islam: An Insiders Look of Muslim Life and Belief” coauthored with is brother Emir, who also is complicit in the deceptions (at least passively since he has not corrected his brothers many lies). I have only just begun to read this book, but if my initial impression is correct, the subtitle should have read “An Outsider’s Caricature of Islam based on Ignorant Stereotypes.”
It is for these reasons, and many more, that Ergun Caner is now seen by some as The Mike Warnke of this Generation.
I attended Liberty University in 1996-1997. I’m not surprised by this circumstance in regards to Dr Ergun M. Caner in the least.
Dr Ergun Mehmet Caner needs to make a full public repentance. And add to it full disclosure. Liberty University needs to pride itself in Christ, His Truth!- not in too hot the handle celebrity Professors. Celebrity convert or not – both Dr Caner and Liberty U must come forward with their dishonesty. Dr Townes should be ashamed of himself. His quotes in the Christianity Today spin-article clearly betray his lack of knowledge concerning this issue-or God forbid, deception.
Liberty’s spin control of blaming this on vengeful bloggers and removing Dr Caner’s video’s documenting fabrications and lies from Mr. Khan’s website is distasteful!
We do not burn books as Christians! Truely shameful.
I am ashamed of Liberty University and Dr Ergun Caner. Although I myself need God’s grace everyday – and thank God for it!-Dr Caner is a public persona – he must come foreward and set this entire thing to rights. I pray for God’s spirit on Dr Caner.
Truth matters. And words mean something.
If he is lying let God deal with him. Who’s to say you’re not just blowing hot air.
It ain’t about me.
The facts speak for themselves.
And if you want God to take care this, why are you commenting?
I find it interesting the similarity between the name Caner & the word canard (a fabricated report, hoax). One should expect that the God that created humor has the most marvelous sense of humor.
Perhaps Caner’s name is a reflection of one who cons, i.e. a “conner” aka a con artist, and the progeny of Cain.
Yeah – I’m prone to word plays myself which is why I wrote a post called The Ergun Cancer has Metastasized.
The Caner/Conner connection has been made by many. They are calling his “testimony” the Ergun Caner Con. Has a pretty good ring to it.
The Hebrew root of the name “Cain” means “to acquire” or “possess” and that is the essence of the con man – he lies to acquire fame and fortune.
I am truly disappointed in Dr. Caner and LU’s initial response. Elmer Towns is an embarrassment to the university for stating that Dr. Caner did not do anything immoral or unethical.
Dr. Caner did apologize on the internet, but then nullified it by saying he never intentionally misled anyone.
But the evidence from his own mouth says differently. Watching him speak from the videos on the internet proves that he said the following:
I was born in Istanbul, Turkey. He was not.
I was raised near the Turkey/Iran border. He was not.
I came to America in 1978. He did not.
I came to America through Brooklyn at age 13. He did not.
I learned English by watching the Dukes of Hazard. He did not.
I spoke broken English. He did not.
I debated a specific Muslim in Nebraska. He did not.
I have debated Muslim leaders. He has not.
I have debated religious leaders of other religions. He has not.
His falsehoods revolve around three areas: when he came to America, where he was raised, and who he debated. This is not complicated. He has intentionally misled others in these three areas. The true facts are as follows:
He was born in Sweden in 1966.
He came to America before 1970.
He was raised in Columbus, Ohio.
He was educated in America.
He spoke fluent English.
His mother was Lutheran.
His father was Muslim.
His parents divorced when he was nine.
He was raised Muslim.
His father was active in a mosque.
He came to Christ around age 15.
His father disowned him.
He attended evangelical colleges and seminaries.
He had evangelistic encounters with people from other religions.
LU has taken action. They have corrected Ergun Caner’s bio. They have removed the inaccuracies. They removed when he came to America, mention of Turkey, and mention of his numerous debates in 40 states and 13 countries. They are investigating his background. But their previous statement by Towns is more embarrassing then Caner’s falsehoods.
Dr. Caner at the very least needs to apologize. He needs to state clearly and unequivocally that he misrepresented his background. We may assume that he did so to capitalize on his Muslim background in the wake of 9/11. The evidence is that E. Michael Caner became Ergun Mehmet Caner after 9/11.
The sad truth is that his actual testimony was sufficient enough. He could have said that being raised by a devout Sunni Muslim father gave him a unique perspective on the mind of the Muslim terrorists and indoctrination. He didn’t have to lie. That is what is so sad.
Actually, one can call into question Caner’s insight into the mind of the terrorists based on his complete ignorance of basic Muslim beliefs.
It would be like a Christian telling you to look up Bible 3:15, or quoting the Lord’s prayer as “The Lord is my shepherd.”
His gibberish is embarrassing, his lack of understanding apparent, and his qualifications as an expert lacking in credibility.
The more you read and see, the more LU better ask this fraud to resign.
I read with interest the welcome comments of the honorable people above delineating the truth about this con artist Caner whose pursuit of fame and profiteering comes first at the expense of integrity and honesty. For every ‘ Caner ” one sees or hears about in the U.S there are hundreds incubated by the Jewish Zionist and evangelical Christians whose sole aim is to discredit Islam. They all eventually fail as this “Cancer” did. How about anatomizing all those who appear on TV with a claim that they have the secret behind Islamic terrorism. The public has the right to know the secret agendas of those Caneroids, if a coin is permitted. I am inviting all good, honest Christians and Jews to look at Islam objectively and detachedly. Hot heads in evangelical Christianity proved to be nothing but a disgrace on Jesus.
I think we should feel sorry for him, he was cuckolded by his wife.