Mary Jo Sharp, M.A. of Confident Christianity Apologetics Ministry will be formally debating Tabasum Hussain, PhD. of The Muslim Debate Initiative. The debate will take place in Scarborough, Ontario (Toronto) on SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20th at 5:30pm.
Debate Topic: “Women: The Qur’an and The Bible”
MARY JO SHARP BIO:
Mary Jo Sharp is a former atheist from the Pacific Northwest who thought religion was for the weak-minded. She now holds a Masters in Christian Apologetics from Biola University and is the first woman to become a Certified Apologetics Instructor through the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Mary Jo has spoken to numerous groups, including audiences of over 1,000 people. Some of her speaking engagements include: The Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma State and Youth Evangelism Conferences, the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia Youth Evangelism Conference, The Southern Baptists of Texas Evangelism and Leadership Conferences, and the Evangelical Theological Society National Conference. Mary Jo administrates the website, Confident Christianity, and the Facebook group, Two Chix Apologetics, where she engages people from around the world in dialogue concerning the truth of Christianity.
DR. TABASUM HUSSAIN BIO:
Dr. Hussain. Born and raised in London, England, she acquired a BSc(HONS) in Biological Sciences at the University of Westminster, an MSc in Advanced Neuroscience at University College London, and lived in Australia for six years acquiring a PhD in Psychological Medicine (Neuroscience) at Monash University, Victoria. Recently settled with family in Toronto, Canada. Outside of her profession she has developed an interest over the years in Muslim-Christian Apologetics. Dr. Hussain has recently become a member of the Muslim Debate Initiative to become more involved in debate/dialogue focusing on women`s issues in the Bible vs the Quran.
Update 2/2/10: We continue to receive donations for this debate beyond our need. We have decided to allow for an honorarium for Mary Jo specifically from these funds as they come in. Thank you for supporting our efforts. To give to our GENERAL BUDGET: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=7265503
Update 1/28/10: WE MET OUR GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(We ran two campaigns for this event: Facebook and the above Chip In campaign.)
Update 1/27/10: We are running two campaigns to raise the funds for the debate. One here through “Chip In” and one on Facebook on the Debate Fund Raiser page. So far, the two campaigns have nearly raised our necessary funds! WOW! Thanks for supporting us!
Send Roger & Mary Jo to Toronto, Canada for Mary Jo’s debate with Dr. Hussain! We are needing to raise $2,206 in order to purchase airline tickets, lodging, local travel and food needs. Mary Jo will not receive an honorarium for this event.
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Does Tabassum have a website?
What id the debate topic? Is it going to be recorded?
Yahya,
As far as I know, Dr. Hussain does not have a web site. You can find out some info about her at http://www.thedebateinitiative.com
Roger
Thank you for your donations! Through this blog as well as Facebook and our web site, we are about halfway with our fund raising! Pass the word….
Roger
Thanks for posting.
Regarding Dr. Hussain. In email correspondence with her, she spells her name with one 's.' MDI has it spelled differently.
Roger Sharp
Super Excited about this debate, can't wait till it hits youtube.
Thanks for your support Negeen!
Roger
Debate Flier is up! http://www.namf.ca/new/sub-page.php?page=women_bible_quran.html
Looks interesting…
You go in YHWH's mighty power and Name MJ! 🙂
I just found out.
And I love it.
Woot!
Hi Negeen,
It is great to hear that you are interested and well.
@Roger…thanks my friend
Attended the debate last night and thought it was one of the best I saw recently. Both sides brought up good points and generally kept to the topic. The Muslim side however seemed more pleased with how it went.
The Muslims have put up the complete recording of the debate at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLcbMkzqtx8 with their own promo.
I just went to check out the posting of the debate by the Mulism poster above. The video first shows a short segment with some quotes from my appearance on ABN in an attempt to discredit me before showing the debate (there are some false written quotes about me at the start). Wow. And to think I was trying to be ethical and just post the debate without any commentary on the debaters. You will notice that I did not attempt to slander my fellow debater or discredit her integrity with a video promo of any kind. That is unethical.
The video says it is a Muslim Debate Initiative production, so I can only assume it has their approval. Disappointing. I hope this is not representative of their organization in general or of my debate opponent, Tabasum Hussain, or of the North American Muslim Foundation that hosted the event. That would really be too bad. It was a great debate and this post really discourages further engagement.
MJ
I don't think their promo does you any harm because you're only speaking the TRUTH. Why should we be ashamed of how we feel about Islam? Wouldn't worry about it.
The video has been removed. I appreciate that it has been removed for it really did present the Muslim organizations involved with the debate in such a bad light. And I did not get this sort of feel from talking with Dr. Hussain, who was very respectful and engaging. I hope that the posting of the video on Muslim Debate Initiative's site will be a marked improvement, allowing each debater to be critiqued on their arguments.
MJ