A letter to David Wood and Nabeel Qureshi

 This is in response to

"Silly Comment of the Week (By 1MoreMuslim)" on AnsweringMuslims.com

I've been following Answering Muslims for awhile and only recently decided to participate. I do have to say that I feel that I have learned a great deal about Islam from this blog, and from reading authors like Ayan Hirsi Ali and Robert Spencer. After watching David and Nabeel's video debates I have nothing but respect for their knowledge and insights and how they conduct themselves in the debates.  I only wish some of our country's leaders would conduct themselves in a similar manner in some of their political discourse... but anyway.

As someone who considers myself a "secular left leaning moderate" (If there is such a thing), I'm a little taken aback by some of the the "secular" and "liberal" generalizations I find occasionally peppered in some of the comments on their blog.

It irritates me that in my own debate experiences many of my "Christian Conservative Republican" friends (see what I just did there?) have been 1.) quick to make broad sweeping generalizations about liberals and  2.) label me as "liberal". If and when I dare to disagree with them on anything like Obama, the environment, the economy, health care, etc... I usually get told to, "go back to my hippie drum circle and sing kumbya" (yes, I've actually been told this by people I've tried to debate). I find this to be a petty non-response (I believe this is called an "Ad Homonym" attack.  But enough about politics. Sticks and stones. If nothing else I learned all about "Ad Homonym" and "Non Sequitors" and how to combat those shady "debate" tactics from David and Nabeel's many video debates.

I would like to point out that not every liberal (or secular person or moderate) is a "Dirty Hippie" or a Muslim apologist who jumps to the defense of Islam without actually reading the Koran... just like not every Muslim is a terrorist... and occasionally I DO meet a "Conservative Christian Republican" (there, I did it again. See?) that I respect and can actually bear to talk to. Occasionally.

I think David Wood and Nabeel Qureshi have been pretty successful at keeping themselves above such petty labeling, though some who post to their blog have not.

Well, I have finally found an issue to agree with many of my conservative friends on...

I find that I respect David Wood a great deal for his admission of coming from Atheism to Christianity. And Nabeel Qureshi for his conversion from Islam to Christianity. I suppose I would categorize myself as going from Christianity to Agnosticism (sort of the other direction I guess. I'm not a full on Atheist yet... All Hail the Flying Spaghetti Monster). Still I cannot imagine the stress and pressures one goes through when one changes their beliefs in such a profound way. That takes a lot of strength of character.

My one criticism of David Wood (to get back to the topic of the particular thread in question) is just the fact that he continues to engage the likes of frequent commenters like 1MoreMuslim and GreekAsianPanda and their ilk at all at this point. I usually enjoy spirited debate in the blogs, but those two commentators just seem like they're trolling David anymore, silly comments or not.  That's just me. David. Quit feeding the trolls buddy. Other than that, while I might not agree with all of your politics or the politics of some of those others who post to your blog, I enjoy reading your blog, I feel like I am learning a lot and I will continue watching your video debates and will continue to be one of your followers.