College That Employs Fake "Ex-Muslim" Stripped of Its Accreditation

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges revoked the membership of Brewton-Parker College. Officials at the Georgia Baptist Convention-affiliated school announced plans to appeal the decision. SACS placed Brewton-Parker on probation in 2012 after finding deficiencies in the number and qualifications of faculty, financial stability and oversight of business functions including compliance with rules for federal student aid. Ergun Caner’s selection as the school’s president sparked additional controversy because of questions that have dogged him in recent years about the veracity of details claimed in a dramatic “ex-Muslim” testimony that made him a hit on the Southern Baptist preaching circuit following the 9/11 terror attacks.

... lately, both Muslims and Reform-minded Southern Baptists are questioning biographical details provided by the 43-year-old Ergun. The blogosphere has been abuzz with critiques of statements Caner has made about himself in speeches, sermons, and online videos.

Foes want Caner to admit to what they label as exaggerations and lies, including claims such as:

Growing up in Turkey, when he actually grew up in Ohio.
Being raised in a devout Muslim home, rather than a nominal one.
Having been involved in Islamic jihad.
Having debated dozens of Muslims about the Islamic faith, although there is no video or audio evidence.
Behind the squabble is Mohammad Khan, a 22-year-old London-based computing student who has posted 17 talks by Caner on YouTube. The videos contain slow-motion segments superimposed with Khan's comments. Khan, a Muslim, says among the many troubling aspects of Caner's video presentations are several examples when Caner claims to be reciting the Shehada, part of the Islamic creed, when in actuality he is quoting an important prayer from the Qur'an. The two are very different.

"Christians are under the impression that he is some sort of Islamic expert," Khan told CT. "He isn't."

Both Khan and James R. White, director of the Phoenix-based Alpha & Omega Ministries, a Christian apologetics ministry, say there is no record of Caner's claims that he twice debated Muslim apologist Shabir Ally.

"The president of a large theological seminary has created a myth concerning his background that is incredibly self-contradictory," said White, who teaches on Islam at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.

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Joy Division wrote:They are really good!   

As Michigan state legislators considered a plan to curb illegal immigration last fall, they heard dramatic testimony from a man named Kamal Saleem. He warned the lawmakers that Islamic extremists were sneaking into the country with nefarious plans. "If we don't pass this bill," the fiftysomething Lebanese American told them, "we will be legalizing terrorism to be part of our culture."

Saleem's testimony was rooted in an extraordinary backstory: He purports to have spent half a decade recruiting Islamists in America—before finding Christ and laying down arms. "I came to the United States of America not to love you all," he declared at a rally on the Capitol steps after the hearing. "I came to…destroy this country as a terrorist."

Over the last five years, Saleem's tale of terror and redemption has made him a minor celebrity among Christian conservatives. Part national-security wonk, part evangelist, he is one of a handful of self-described "ex-terrorists" who have emerged in the post-9/11 era to share their experiences. He has spoken in state capitols, at the Air Force Academy, and at colleges and churches around the country. He has been a guest on Pat Robertson's 700 Club and started his own nonprofit, Koome Ministries, of which he was the only full-time employee in 2009. Tax records show Saleem earned $48,000 from the ministry that year—and had a $39,000 expense account—while Koome took in nearly $100,000 in donations and grants.

According to his memoir, The Blood of Lambs, Saleem, who grew up in Lebanon, broke into the terror biz at the age of seven by running weapons—strapped onto sheep—for Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat (who kissed his forehead at a public ceremony, "his breath bearing tales of garlic and onion"). As a teenager, he helped run a terrorist camp in the Libyan desert at the behest of Moammar Qaddafi. He visited Iraq, where he rubbed shoulders with Saddam Hussein. In the late 1970s, he traveled to Afghanistan, working alongside the mujahideen and CIA spooks to beat back the Soviets. A Kansas City Star columnist skeptically dubbed him the "Forrest Gump of the Middle East."

"I came to…destroy this country as a terrorist." —Kamal Saleem kamalsaleem.com

Saleem claims that the Muslim Brotherhood has put a $25 million bounty on his head, and that there have been attempts to earn it: After a 2007 event in Chino Hills, California, he writes in his book, he returned to his Holiday Inn to find his room ransacked and a band of dangerous Middle Easterners on his trail. Saleem describes calling the police to alert them to an assassination attempt. Local law enforcement, however, has no record of any such incident.

That's just one of many of Saleem's tales that don't stand up to scrutiny. (Through a spokeswoman, Saleem refused to comment for this story.) Doug Howard, a professor of Middle Eastern history at Michigan's Calvin College, first encountered Saleem in 2007, when he was invited to speak at the school. Howard quickly became suspicious: For starters, Saleem claimed to be a descendant of the "Grand Wazir of Islam," a position that doesn't exist. Howard dug deeper and discovered that Saleem's original name was Khodor Shami—and that for more than a decade before outing himself as a former terrorist he had worked for Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network and James Dobson's Focus on the Family.