"Islamic Information" began as an attractive site with a relatively moderate tone. The part mainly of interest to us is Shabir Ally's section "Comparative Religions" that is composed of articles which criticize some beliefs and practices of Christianity. It is also interesting that he has several sections which criticize the beliefs of Jehovahs Witnesses - using Christian teachings to refute their beliefs! As this site grows we will make regular updates to respond to new articles. In February 2000, Shabir Ally added "Islam Answers Back" which is an open invitation to respond to his articles there as well. In addition, "Answering for Islam" presents audio files of Shabir Ally's debates, and some of his claims at those events need and will receive responses as well.

We also discovered this Muslim comment on Shabir Ally's Islamic Knowledge and Standing in the Muslim Community.

Shabir Ally is Dr. Badawi's primary disciple, the founder of the Islamic Da'wah Centre, Toronto, Canada, and a relatively prominent speaker and debator. Some more background information might be helpful to those who are called to engage him in public debate.

Not all of his material that is available on the internet is included in his own site, but other individuals' or organizations' web pages also carry parts of Shabir Ally's material ([Aa, Ab, B]).

Update [July 15, 1999]: We had previously observed that Shabir Ally's site had discontinued the display of his "101 Clear Contradictions in the Bible" for several months. However, they have added it back to their material in the last few days. Therefore, I have sent today another request for a link to the response.

Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 15:19:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jochen Katz <jkatz@math.gatech.edu>

To: comments@islaminfo.com
Subject: Request for a link


Dear Mr. Shabir Ally,

I know you continue to invite many Christians to open and
fair exchange in live dialogues and debates in regard to 
many issues concerning Christianity and Islam.  It is my 
sincere hope that you will exhibit the same characteristics 
of openness and fairness also on your own website so that 
both sides can voice their views and be heard.

In particular, since your article of "101 Bible Contradictions"
has now been added to your site at 

    http://www.islaminfo.com/comp101.htm

I respectfully request that you give on that page a link to 
the Christian answer to your presentation, located at 

    http://debate.org.uk/topics/apolog/contrads.htm

If you want to go further in your desire to open dialogue,
I would be thrilled to see you place a link from your 
various articles in the section "Comparative Religions"
to our responses that can be found at 

   http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Shabir-Ally/

May such an open exchange of our respective convictions 
help many readers to come to an informed evaluation on 
the basis of knowing both sides of all the issues.


Sincerely,

Jochen Katz

The resulting meagre email correspondence with Shabir Ally was interesting. He continues to ignore the request for linking from the "101 Bible Contradictions" article to the Christian response but instead asked for a public debate with me. Why does he not find it in his interest to enter into a direct exchange of arguments online? Does he need to have an emotionally charged atmosphere of a public debate to make his arguments look good? Is a calm and rational comparison of the evidence and its conclusions by the reader on his computer screen not to his liking?

Note (Feb. 23, 2000): The "101 Bible Contradictions" page has now moved to a different location on Ally's site: http://www.islaminfo.com/comparative/101-contradications-part-1-24.htm but the request remains the same.

Shabir Ally has started another site (then abandoned and subsequently resurrected in a different design at this place) where he responds specifically to our Qur'an Contradictions. As you will notice, we gladly link to him on this page even though he never asked or informed us about his page. It is interesting though, that he claims none of our contradictions are valid, even though he has only attempted a response to one of them. (See also these notes on Shabir Ally's constantly shifting links.)

Note (March 7, 2003): Shabir Ally continues to move around his Bible Contradictions page, it is now at the address: http://www.islaminfo.com/articleview.asp?level=6&catID=1, but everything else is as before.

Regarding Shabir's 101 Clear Contradictions in the Bible, available at least on these Muslim sites ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5]): All of these Muslim pages that display Shabir Ally's "101 Bible contradictions" have been asked if they would be willing to link to the response as well. [1] - [3] have not responded at all. [4] has refused to link even though he starts with the invitation "... come let us reason together." [5], who has copied down [4], has never answered to any linking requests either.

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