Apparently one of the easy roads to recognition among
paranoid, fundamentalist wingnuts is being an “ex-terrorist”, and there is a number
of converts from Islam to Christianity on the far right (after all, the
distance between the religious right and Taliban-style Muslim fundamentalism is
often short) who claim to be former terrorists but have seen the errors of
their ways, and who are currently busy confirming wingnut misperceptions of
Islam as well as vigorously fighting against religious freedom, secularism, gay
rights and the science of evolution and climate change – just for good measure.
Their “ex-terrorist” status never stand up to scrutiny, but dishonesty is only
a sin if you are not doing the work of Jesus.
Ergun Michael Caner is a fine example. A Swedish-American
Baptist minister, Caner rose to fame (and wealth) with his 2002 book Unveiling Islam, quickly co-authored
with his brother Emir in the wake of 9/11, about Islam and his claims that he
was a devout Muslim trained as a terrorist. He is currently the President of
Brewton-Parker College in Mt. Vernon, GA – not a place you should take
seriously as an educational institution – and has previously served as the
Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Arlington Baptist College as
well as (and most famously) dean of the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary
and Graduate School of Liberty University (the perhaps most influential fake university in the US, if you were unaware) –
he was invited by Jerry Falwell himself, apparently a fan of his book. He lost this position after, as
Wikipedia laconically puts it, “it became clear to Liberty University faculty
and the Liberty University Board that he contradicted himself while making factual statements.”
The background for his fall from grace were pretty well
corroborated accusations, in the beginning by bloggers, that Caner had made up much of his life story,
for instance his claims to have grown up in Turkey when he actually grew up in
Ohio; being raised in a devout Muslim home, rather than a nominal one, having
been trained as an Islamic jihadist, and having debated dozens of Muslims –
sort of the whole story that initially made him famous post 9/11. Caner was
quick to play the persecution card,
lamenting that “I never thought I would see the day when alleged ‘Christians’
join with Muslims to attack converts,” whereas his fans were quick to call
employers and associates of his critics to put pressure on them to take down
their critical posts. Liberty University’s Elmer Towns, dean of the school of
religion, initially responded that the university’s board was satisfied that
Caner has done nothing “theologically inappropriate. It’s not an ethical issue,
it’s not a moral issue,” i.e. they refused to address the charges. By May 10, 2010, however, heat was
sufficiently turned up for Liberty University to announce a formal inquiry into allegations of discrepancies in his background stroy. Caner claimed to be “thrilled that Liberty University
is forming this committee, and I look forward to this entire process coming to
a close,” and was promptly removed from his position as Dean of the seminary in
June after the committee found “discrepancies related to the matters such as dates, names and places of
residence.” He kept his job as a full-time faculty member of the seminary for
the 2010–2011 school year, though.
His fans
didn’t seem to care all that much, and Caner remains a popular speaker among
wingnut groups who are “aware
of the controversy” but nevertheless appear to take his claims at face value (case in point: the Twin City’s 12th Annual Community Prayer Breakfast in
Bristol, Virginia, where organizer Sid Oakley more or less dismissed the
charges as irrelevant). Caner himself claims that his critics are simply “frustrated people in their
basements,” which is not really addressing the charges.
In 2011
Caner left Liberty to become Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs for
the Arlington Baptist College,
best known for the anti-evolution crusades of its founder J. Frank Norris (whom
Caner describes as “one of Christianity’s most courageous voices”) – the
President, Dan Moody, stated that Caner’s controversy was in the past and the
new Vice President had his full confidence. Caner is currently the
President of Brewton-Parker College in Mt. Vernon. That “college” stated that they needed “a
warrior”, and that Caner “endured relentless and pagan attacks like a warrior” (i.e. because he lied about his background and
was caught). Real universities, meanwhile, tend to at least pretend to care for
truth, evidence, wisdom and moral integrity. Most of Caner’s critics, by the way,
were evangelical Christians.
In 2013
Caner filed a lawsuit in the U.S. district court in North Texas claiming
copyright infringement for reproducing, uploading and maintaining his videos without permission on
youtube in order to silence (and punish)
his critics.
The lawsuits were ruled to be frivolous,
partially because Caner never had the copyrights to the videos in question and
partially because fair use is a sort of important legal concept (also here),
but Caner’s behavior seems to have exhibited precisely the kind of “character” that Brewton-Parker
Colleges was looking for.
Diagnosis:
Perhaps more of a spineless opportunist than a loon, one wonders whether anyone
– including Caner – would be able to live his life without at least believing
that his actions are somehow justified by some higher goal. So, he’s probably a
loon as well.
Note that
we won’t give a separate entry to celebrity-of-questionable-character Jose
Canseco for this,
regardless of its weapons-grade lunacy.
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