Reason for abandoning debate with Ali Sina

Question:
I have been following your debate with Mr. Ali Sina on website www.faithfreedom.org. Finally you had given up and got a excuse to leave that debate. My qustion is if you are so truthful to your opinion then why don't you publish it on your website as well so ohters also get opportunity to get benefit of knowing Islam?

Response:
The Qur’an tells me to talk to others about religion so long as I believe that talking to them would benefit. I applied the same rule regarding Mr Ali Sina. My conclusion could be wrong, but I had to decide on my own judgment call. I hope you would admit that I did go a long way in responding to his messages. However, one has to prioritize one’s activities. As soon as I realized that I had better things to do with my time, I quit the debate.

Of course, it is up to the readers to decide what they think was the outcome of the debate. There are some messages I have received that suggest that Mr Ali has had the better of me. There are others that suggest the otherwise. Although I am thinking of posting some parts of the debate on my site, I am still undecided. The reason is that Mr Ali is convinced that he cannot debate without using a language which I and many Muslims would regard as foul and insulting for our religion and its revered personalities. I used to find difficulty in stomaching his messages not because of the quality and force of his arguments but because of the filth and venom in the choice of his words. I don’t want my fellow believers to go through the same process. However, as I said, I am certainly looking into the possibility of doing something about the exchanges.

Despite his language, I used to respect Mr Ali in my heart until such time that I realized that he was a biased person: When I realized that he wants to win the debate by hook or by crook. He was not prepared to accept anything positive about Islam. Not a single small thing could be reported, he believes, to show that Islam has contributed positively to mankind! I therefore had to call it quits. Despite loving my religion because I have accepted it with both my mind and heart, I used to approach debate with him with an understanding that my religion is correct but there is a faint possibility that Mr Ali could be right. However, Mr Ali believes and he mentioned this belief in his last message to me that no amount of evidences would convince him that Islam was the right religion. Don’t be surprised then that I said to myself: “enough is enough”. I can talk to people. I can’t talk to walls. Of course, I could be absolutely wrong in my perception about him.

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