c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The Rev. Jerry Falwell’s new seminary dean is a scholar who has advanced the controversial claim that the prophet Muhammad was a pedophile who had at one time been possessed by demons.

The Feb. 4 appointment of Ergun Caner as dean of Falwell’s Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary is garnering concern from at least two Muslim leaders and an evangelical scholar because it could increase tensions between the two groups.

Falwell, in announcing his appointment, called Caner, 38, “a very popular professor” who “has become known for his humorous and pointed preaching and his national profile.”

Caner, a Turkish-born Muslim who converted to Christianity in 1982 together with his brother Emir, published a book in March 2002 called “Unveiling Islam: An Insider’s Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs.” In the book, the brothers wrote about the Muslim prophet Muhammad’s third wife, Aisha, who the Caners said was 9 years old when the couple had sex.

Citing a hadith, or writing of the prophet, that says that Aisha was of that young age when they married, and also that Muhammad felt he had been possessed by a demon, Ergun Caner told Baptist Press at the time, “The comments in question cannot be considered bigotry when they come from Islamic writings.”

The Rev. Jerry Vines, a Southern Baptist minister from Jacksonville, Fla., sparked a national controversy in July 2002 when he referred to Muhammad as a “demon-possessed pedophile” while speaking to the Southern Baptist Convention. The Caners later said that he was referring to their work, and that Vines’ comments gave their analysis validity.

In an interview, Caner supported the idea of a relationship between Muslims and Christians in theory, but took a dim view of dialogue that brushes over differences among faiths.

“I don’t think Muslims or evangelicals are going to sacrifice truth on any kind of altar of dialogue,” he said, “Stating your opinion is more important than hiding it under the cloak of `Can’t we just get along?”’

“We believe that Muslims need to be saved, just as Muslims believe we need to be reverted,” he added, saying that when he converted to Christianity, he “didn’t switch religions, I got saved.”

Muslim leaders responded to Caner’s promotion from professor of religion to seminary dean by expressing concern that the appointment may aggravate already-fragile relations between evangelical Christians and American Muslims.

“If this appointment is just a ploy to exacerbate tensions and continue the mud-slinging, I don’t think it serves Christianity, Islam or America,” said Salam al-Marayati, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council.

Al-Marayati also called the allegations about the young age of Aisha at the time of her marriage to Muhammad “unfounded.” Muslim scholars have debated this issue, with some concluding that references to the marriage taking place 10 years after Muhammad’s divine “calling” would have made Aisha 14 or 15 years old at the time of the marriage, an acceptable age to wed in those days. Others have determined that she may have been even older.

Regardless of Caner’s status as a former Muslim, al-Marayati said, he should leave debates about the history and theology of Islam to Muslims themselves, just as Muslims should leave analysis of Christianity to Christians. “We shouldn’t be so busy trying to define each other’s religions,” he said.

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said that he has experienced a reticence from the evangelical community to engage in genuine dialogue.

“Muslims are always open to dialogue,” Hooper said, “but I sense no desire for dialogue among certain segments of the evangelical community. Specifically, Hooper referenced a Christian radio station in Tampa, Fla., that canceled an advertising contract with CAIR for a 30-second ad promoting a Muslim-Christian dialogue session. According to The Tampa Tribune, the station, WTBN, said that it canceled the ad because its content “did not serve our Christian constituency.”

At least one evangelical who has been working toward establishing good relations with Muslims also expressed concern that the appointment might damage evangelical efforts to make connections with Muslims even as they disagree with them theologically.

“Insulting Muslims, insulting anyone, is not a very good strategy for developing relations with them,” said Paul Marshall, a senior fellow at Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom in Washington.

Marshall, who participated in a 2003 meeting on evangelical-Muslim relations hosted by the National Association of Evangelicals, added, “One of the things that evangelicals do need is to develop relations and contacts and dialogue with Muslims.”

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