08AR13-26

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Apologia Report 13:26

July 8, 2008

Subject: Al Qaeda's struggle for Muslim authority

In this issue:

APOLOGETICS - interest growing in America and the UK

ISLAM - the theological war between a former Al Qaeda core member and its current chief lieutenant

OCCULTISM - business is good for psychic Laura Day

PHILOSOPHY - William Lane Craig on Christian philosophy's growing influence

TOLLE, ECKHART - first book-length Christian response to New Earth

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APOLOGETICS

"A New Day for Apologetics" by Troy Anderson -- general field observations from popular Christian apolojedi. Anderson reports that the West is experiencing "the best of times for Christian apologists [and] an unexpected surge of interest in apologetics among youth."

William Lane Craig notes that "Everywhere we go the reaction has been that people want to hear both sides presented. And when [they are], they will come out in droves to hear a discussion of the existence of God or the evidence for Christianity." Brief. Christianity Today, Jul '08, pp28-29. <http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/july/14.29.html>

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ISLAM

"The Rebellion Within" by Lawrence Wright -- more on recent public rejections of Islamist teachings by former leaders. Wright profiles Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, "known to those in the underground mainly as Dr. Fadl," the former leader of the Egyptian terrorist group Al Jihad, who became part of the original core of Al Qaeda. "Fadl was one of the first members of Al Qaeda's top council [and] laid the intellectual foundation for Al Qaeda's murderous acts."

In May 2007 Fadl announced a new book, "rejecting Al Qaeda's violence. 'We are prohibited from committing aggression, even if the enemies of Islam do that,' Fadl wrote in his fax, which was sent from Tora Prison, in Egypt.

"Fadl's fax confirmed rumors that imprisoned leaders of Al Jihad were part of a trend in which former terrorists renounced violence. His defection posed a terrible threat to the radical Islamists, because he directly challenged their authority." The book, Rationalizing Jihad in Egypt and the World, has just finished being "published serially, in newspapers in Egypt and Kuwait." No English translation appears to be available yet.

"The circumstances of the publication added to the general suspicion that the government had supervised the revisions, if not actually written them. Perhaps to counter that impression, Muhammad Salah, the Cairo bureau chief of Al Hayat, was allowed into Tora Prison to interview Fadl. In the resulting six-part series, Fadl defended the work as his own and left no doubt of his personal grudge against [Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenant]. Whatever the motivations behind the writing of the book, its publication amounted to a major assault on radical Islamist theology, from the man who had originally formulated much of that thinking." Wright discusses the book's content and illustrates how Fadl contradicts Islamist teachings.

"The most original argument in the book and the interview is Fadl's assertion that the hijackers of 9/11 'betrayed the enemy,' [thus incurring the wrath of Allah] because they had been given U.S. visas, which are a contract of protection. ...

"[T]he fact that Al Qaeda followers and sympathizers were paying so much attention to Fadl's manuscript made it imperative that Zawahiri offer a definitive refutation. ...

"In February of this year, Zawahiri announced in a video that he had finished a 'letter' responding to Fadl's book. 'The Islam presented by that document is the one that America and the West wants and is pleased with: an Islam without jihad,' Zawahiri said. ...

"The 'letter,' which finally appeared on the Internet in March, was nearly two hundred pages long. 'This message I present to the reader today is among the most difficult I have ever written in my life,' Zawahiri admits in his introduction. ... Whereas Fadl's book is a trenchant attack on the immoral roots of Al Qaeda's theology, Zawahiri navigates his argument toward the familiar shores of the 'Zionist-Crusader' conspiracy. ...

"In presenting Al Qaeda's defense, Zawahiri clearly displays the moral relativism that has taken over the organization. ...

"Zawahiri clumsily dodges many of the most penetrating of Fadl's arguments. ...

"In December, in order to stanch the flow of criticism, Zawahiri boldly initiated a virtual town-hall meeting, soliciting questions in an online forum. This spring, he released two lengthy audio responses to nearly a hundred of the nine hundred often testy queries that were posed. ... Zawahiri protested that Al Qaeda had not killed innocents. ...

"The murder of innocents emerged as the most prominent issue in the exchanges." Lengthy. New Yorker, Jun 2 '08, n.p. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/02/080602fa_fact_wright>

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OCCULTISM

"$10,000-a-Month Psychic" by Tony Dokoupil -- profiles Laura Day, who is becoming "a hot commodity among certain high-profile business people, bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for the 49-year-old mother in the process. ...

"Day is one of a small but expanding cadre of corporate psychic consultants - the professionalized face of an occupation better known for hokey headscarves and crystal balls. Rebranded as 'intuitionists' or 'mentalists' - terms more palatable to mainstream America - psychic advisers in recent years have been crossing over into the world of legitimate business, where they are used by decision makers in law, finance and entertainment looking for an edge in a down economy. ...

"For a flat rate of $10,000 a month, Day's insight is available for rent. She has about five monthly clients at a time, offering them unlimited 24-hour access. ...

"Day's career as a professional psychic began in the early 1990s. Her marriage had ended, leaving her strapped for cash until she asked a hedge-fund friend if he'd mind paying her for the stock tips she occasionally gave him. He was happy to. Later she spun her abilities into a book [one of many now], Practical Intuition [1], which became a New York Times best seller and formed the basis of Day's thriving seminar business. Today she trains members of the Harvard Business School Network of Women Alumnae to use their sixth sense. ... Working entirely by referral, Day says she has earned more than $10 million in the past 15 years....

"The scale of Day's success would have been hard to imagine in the 1990s, when the Psychic Friends Network and a campy Jamaican psychic called Miss Cleo clotted the airwaves with low-rent infomercials, giving the P word a bad public image. Some stigma still remains. ...

"But just as there are no atheists in foxholes, a bleak business climate can make believers out of anyone. Carla Baron, the psychic star of Court TV's 'Haunting Evidence' - a documentary about her work helping police investigators crack cold cases - says that roughly half the 20 to 30 readings she gives each week are now business-related. Mentalist Jon Stetson says that after years of performing on cruise ships and in the 'saddest' comedy clubs, he now has a Rolodex of businesses, including Fortune 500 companies, that call him for Intuition Workshops - which differ only in name, he says, from psychic workshops. ...

"Surveys show that two out of three Americans believe in the value of psychic insight, according to Michael Shermer, author of Why People Believe Weird Things [2]. Newsweek, Jun 21 '08, n.p. <http://www.newsweek.com/id/142632>

Also see <http://www.getreligion.org/?p=3669&print=1>.

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PHILOSOPHY

"God Is Not Dead Yet" by William Lane Craig -- uses the backdrop of "the New Atheism" to describe how growing interest in natural theology has led to "a renaissance of Christian philosophy" within the contemporary intellectual scene.

"Atheism, though perhaps still the dominant viewpoint at the American university, is a philosophy in retreat.

"In a recent article, University of Western Michigan philosopher Quentin Smith laments what he calls 'the desecularization of academia that evolved in philosophy departments since the late 1960s.' He complains about naturalists' passivity in the face of the wave of 'intelligent and talented theists entering academia today.' Smith concludes, 'God is not "dead" in academia; he returned to life in the late 1960s and is now alive and well in his last academic stronghold, philosophy departments.'"

Craig describes natural theology as "that branch of theology that seeks to prove God's existence apart from divine revelation. The goal of natural theology is to justify a broadly theistic worldview...." This is followed by a brief review of the different arguments used (cosmological, kalam, teleological, moral, and ontological) as well as identifying their champions. Brief bibliography included. Christianity Today, Jul '08, pp22-27. <http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/july/13.22.html>

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TOLLE, ECKHART

"Christian response to 'A New Earth' hits" (no byline) -- "Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group, is releasing this month a response to Eckhart Tolle's best-selling A New Earth [3], which was catapulted to new heights and into the homes of millions of Americans after being featured by Oprah Winfrey on her television show.

"The book has caused alarm in Christian circles for mixing aspects of Christianity with New Age beliefs - prompting [Richard] Abanes' A New Earth, An Old Deception [4]. The author of The Truth Behind The Da Vinci Code [5], Abanes said a major concern was the number of Christians buying into the concepts of the Tolle book.

"'A lot of them are accepting what [Tolle] is saying, not understanding where there are problems,' he said. 'The answers people are getting from Tolle and Oprah are false. I felt like something needed to get put out there right away to combat that.'

"Tolle, a popular author in the New Age movement, teaches pantheism - everyone is one in essence, including God, Abanes said. From that, there's no absolute evil or right or wrong. Most troubling, Abanes said, is Tolle's penchant for quoting the Bible.

"'He often quotes Scripture to support his teachings, but he interprets and makes the Bible say what he wants it to say,' he said." Christian Etailing, Jun 23 '08, n.p.

<http://www.christianretailing.com/a.php?ArticleID=17401>

Also see World magazine's related interview with Abanes (Jun 28 '08 issue) <http://www.worldmag.com/articles/14140>.

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Sources, Monographs:

1 - Practical Intuition, by Laura Day (Broadway, 1997, paperback, 208 pages) <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0767900340/apologiareport>

2 - Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time, by Michael Shermer (Holt, 2002, paperback, 384 pages) <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805070893/apologiareport>

3 - A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, by Eckhart Tolle (Penguin, 2008, paperback, 336 pages) <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0452289963/apologiareport>

4 - A New Earth, An Old Deception: Awakening to the Dangers of Eckhart Tolle's #1 Bestseller, by Richard Abanes (Bethany, 2008, paperback, 190 pages) <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764206648/apologiareport>

5 - The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code: A Challenging Response to the Bestselling Novel, by Richard Abanes (Harvest House, 2004, paperback, 96 pages) <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0736914390/apologiareport>

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