Dr. Ergun Caner, the disgraced former Dean of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary (affiliated with Liberty University, founded by Jerry Falwell), has sicked his lawyer on a blogger in an effort to hide a truth that has already been revealed.
Investigative blogger Jason Smathers originally got the goods and broke the story of how Caner was a prominent member of the fake ex-Muslim terrorist industry which has so infected our public life. (Other notable fake ex-Muslim terrorists, who have been promoted by the Christian Right and who have been presented as authentic experts before military and law enforcement audiences, include Walid Shoebat and Kamal Saleem.)
Caner's lawyer is now trying to get You Tube to scrub videos Smathers obtained from the U.S. Marines. Smathers points out that Caner has no legitimate claim of ownership of material in a video produced by the federal government.
(Caner's lawyer, David C. Gibbs III, is best known for his role in the Terri Schiavo case.)
Bob Allen of Associated Baptist Press writes:
A Christian blogger has reportedly filed an ethics complaint against a lawyer for claiming ownership of online video he says was obtained legally from the federal government.
Jason Smathers, who began the Witnesses Unto Me blog in the Spring of 2009, posted a series of blogs in 2010 questioning claims by popular evangelical speaker Ergun Caner that he grew up overseas and was trained to be an Islamic terrorist before accepting Christ at age 18.
Smathers tracked down legal documents showing that Caner, author of books including Unveiling Islam who told the conversion story in numerous venues including the Southern Baptist Convention, emigrated to the United States with his family at age 2 and grew up in Ohio in custody of his Lutheran mother after his parents’ divorce.
One blog included video of Caner conducting two training sessions on cultural issues for United States Marines in New River, N.C., before they were deployed in 2005. The commanding officer introduced Caner as being born in Istanbul, Turkey.
Allen reports, among other things, that Caner tells the about-to-be-deployed Marines in 2005:
“We are taught from birth, you are the infidel. You are sons of Satan.” “My madrassa (Muslim school) in Istanbul, Turkey; my madrassa in Cairo, Egypt, there’s no question of what the doctrine of jihad was,” he continued. “It is only when we come to America and hear westernized Islam we hear that ‘Oh, Islam means peace.’”
“I was sworn to jihad,” Caner told the Marines. “At the age of 9 until I was 18 years old and I became a believer in Jesus Christ, I was sworn to jihad. I followed the protocols. I knew the three waves. I understood what you do before you take the death plunge, as we call it. I understand why the guys were in the bars with the hookers the night before the bombing of 9/11, because, ‘Eat drink and be merry; tomorrow we are forgiven.’”
As of this writing, you can still see the videos
here.
Crossposted from Talk to Action
2:25 PM PT: Well that was fast. If you click on the link now, it appears that You Tube has taken the videos down due to Caner's copyright claim.
Thu Jun 20, 2013 at 6:07 PM PT: Bob Allen at Associated Baptist Press further reports that Caner has now filed a federal lawsuit against two bloggers who posted the videos. http://www.abpnews.com/...