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A few weeks ago Jay was asked to explain what happened last July (2025) when Dr Yasir Qadhi and Dr Shabir Ally both admitted publicly that we really don't have any written evidence for what Muhammad said or did, and that everything we do possess are ALL dependent on what 5 generations of men believed he said and did, thus completely dependent on "Oral Tradition"; in fact 200 - 300 years of Oral Tradition! Muslims call these 'chains of narrations" by the term 'isnad', which basically means that so-and-so told so-and-so what they had heard from someone else, who then passed it on to another person, and so on for 4-5 generations, so that what was finally written down 200-300 years later was simply "hearsay" concerning what they thought Muhammad said and did. This all blew open for Dr Qadhi on July 9th, 2025 where he publicly admitted that due to the science of 'isnad' all Western Scholars consider the those sciences to be "discredited" because they simply don't trust what Muslims claim Muhammad said or did, since none of it was written down by anybody who either saw or heard Muhammad in the 7th century. When asked to explain why Dr Qadhi had said this, Dr Ally on July 28 agreed with him and then tried to suggest that we don't have to worry because those who saw what Muhammad did and heard what Muhammad said could be trusted because they were "sinless", and could not lie. What's more, what they passed on was therefore 100% correct; and that this sinless purity could be attributed to those who heard it as well, so that what was finally written down in the 9th - 10th centuries was 100% accurate. These public admissions caused quite a stir within Muslim circles and around the world, not only because these two men are two of the most admired Muslim scholars today, particularly in the West where they both live, but they are also both admired by Western scholars as well, due to their academic standings in both camps. It was obvious that on July 31 Dr Qadhi would be questioned by his students at his EPIC school in West Plato, Texas, who wondered why he had made these public confessions. Dr Qadhi tried to assuage their anxiety by saying that Muslims don't have to worry about the Western Scholars and their historical critical opinions because those opinions were based on a biased science, which could only be used for the Bible. Non-Muslims, he continued, simply could not understand the importance of the 'isnad sciences' since they did not have "Iman", or belief, something which only Muslim believers possessed. Only those who had "belief" would NOT question the authenticity and purity of those who were with Muhammad, and recorded with 100% accuracy everything Muhammad said and did; and this accuracy continued for over 200 years of passing it on from mouth-to-mouth In the West we have a children's game which is similar. We call it "Chinese Whispers", or "Telephone". In this video Jay unpacks the ramifications of what they actually said in July of 2025, but then concluded by pointing out that even with 'iman', belief, these two scholars still haven't realized what was waiting for them with the newest research we have done on the extant manuscripts that they point to in the 9th and 10th centuries, and just how weak their admissions are for the historical veracity of anything Muhammad may have said or done. Watch the conclusions to see what exactly he is talking about. © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, May 14, 2026 (129,450)

Jay was asked by the pastor (Chris) of a large Calvary Chapel church in the Philadelphia area to speak on the subject of Islam, in order to help the members there understand what Islam's agenda for the West was, and what then our responsibilities as Christians should be in engaging with them. Here is that talk. He noted that most Americans still assumed that the majority of Muslims in the world were Arab speaking, a common misunderstanding, due perhaps to the fact that the countries with the largest percentage of Muslims in them were mostly found in the Middle East. Yet, Arab speaking Muslims only make up between 15%-20% of all Muslims worldwide. In fact, of the 10 largest Muslim countries, only two of them are Arab speaking, while the 5 largest Muslim countries are Indonesia (240 million), India (220 million), Pakistan (210 million), Bangladesh (185 million), and Nigeria (107 million). None of those five are Arab speaking countries. Yet, almost all of our methodologies here in the West, and in particular, here in the USA are geared towards the Arab Speaking world, whose countries don't allow missionaries to evangelize freely at all, and certainly don't allow missionaries, or for that matter any Christians the freedom to be critical of Islam in public. Thus, all of our methods for evangelism come out of that environment, and favor the "Irenical approach", which is better known as "Friendship Evangelism", or the "Grace Method", or any other variety of names. But they all start from the premise that you never confront Islam, but spend your time 'loving people into the Kingdom', by using love and reconciliation. Yet, the majority of Muslims today come from countries where it is quite possible and even permissible to engage in public religious discussions, or dialogues, and even in public debates. This is especially true of many of the Asian countries. What's more, in the West where we live, public religious discussions, or dialogues, and even debates are absolutely permissible, and even encouraged, especially in our universities, and on-line, and certainly on YouTube. The problem is that we just don't have any experience in this area of engagement here in the West, because it isn't taught academically anywhere, except in Jay's MAPI courses on-line, or in a few Bible Schools or Seminaries who are brave enough to even teach it. In his talk at CCCS Jay went briefly through the 10 most popular methods used in public evangelism today, pointing out that only one of them, that of Apologetics and Polemics employed any form of a strong public engagement with Muslims. He noted that both Apologetics and Polemics had strong Biblical support, and then ended by showing who were our best Apologists and Polemicists in the West today, noting that the numbers were finally increasing, and the caliber of our engagements with Muslims was improving massively. © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, May 8, 2026 (129,300)

We now come to the final recording with Dr Rami Halaseh concerning the many readings (Qira'at and Riwayat) of the Qur'an within the last 1400 years, which he refers to as the 5 stages of canonization. 4TH STAGE OF THE QUR'AN'S CANONIZATION: In this episode Dr Halaseh refers to the 15th century, where the scholar Al Jazari (d.1429) was commissioned to choose another 3 Qira'ats (or Eponymous Readers) along with 2 students from each of the 3, who are known as Rawis. Note: An “Eponymous Reader” refers to the canonical Qur’an reciters whose names became attached to a reading tradition. In other words, a qirāʾa is called “the reading of Nafiʿ,” “the reading of ʿAsim,” and so on, not because they invented it, but because later Muslims preserved and organized that recitation under their names. In Islam this term is used to distinguish the named master reciters from their students or transmitters. So, al Jazari added 9 more readings (three masters and 6 students) to the previous 21 chosen in the 10th and 12th centuries. Many would argue that only the students differed from the Eponymous Readers, so it would be a total of only 20 differing readings, rather than the 30 which has been popularized by Jay and others on the Internet. Either way, even one difference destroys the notion that the "Qur'an has always been preserved, every word, every letter, and even the dots"! By the 15th century, there were a total of 10 Eponymous Readers, 7 chosen by Ibn Mujahid in the 10th century, and another 3 chosen by Al Jazari in the 15th century. Concerning how many differences we can find within these 20-30 readings, Dr Halaseh, quoting the ERQur'an.org site, says that they have noted 15,000 variants, but Dr Shady Nasser, his superior, has found over 100,000 variants! 5TH STAGE OF QUR'AN'S CANONIZATION: We now come to the 5th and final stage of the 5 stages of CANONIZATION OF THE QUR'AN. Because of the many readings of the Qur'an, there was a dilemma in the city of Cairo, Egypt, in 1924, as they couldn't have standardized tests for high-school students who were giving 20-30 different answers, depending on which Qira'at they had grown up with. So, the education authorities went to Al-Azhar University and asked Muhammad b. ‘Ali al-Husayni al-Haddad to choose one of the 20-30 Readings as the official one for the schools in Cairo, and he chose the 'Hafs an-Assim' (Assim would by the Eponymous Reader, while Hafs was his student and thus his Rawi). Why did he choose that Rawi? Because, according to Dr Halaseh, it was the most popular reading in Egypt at that time, due to the fact that it was the preferred reading of the Ottoman Empire, which was still in control of the Caliphate when he chose. So, it was a political choice. Dr Halaseh noted that there were different geographical variations even within the Hafs an-Assim. Hatun Tash said that she has bought 7 different Hafs an-Assim and has them in her library. Dr Halaseh went on to say that the present Hafs-an-Assim which was finally chosen as the standard text of the Qur'an for the whole world in 1985 by King Fahd has orthographical variations from the earliest 8th - 9th century Qur'anic manuscripts. He opened his book on the Topkapi Manuscript to show what he meant. In his research on that manuscript he has found 2,483 orthographical variants with today's Hafs-an-Assim script (see page 235). More needs to be fleshed out on what these orthographical differences actually are, but that will have to wait until we get Dr Halaseh back to talk about them in a future episode. In Conclusion: The claim by Muslims that the Hafs an-Assim Qur'an we read today is exactly the same as the Qur'an that exists in heaven (the "Al-Lauh Al-Mahfuz", or the 'Preserved Tablet'), "Word-for-word, letter-for-letter, even dot-for-dot", or even the same as that which was revealed to Muhammad between 610-632 AD, or that which was finally written down and codified by Uthman in 652 AD is simply not supported by the evidence we see in these 4 episodes with Dr Rami Halaseh. Dr Halaseh has proven that there are at least 5 different stages of Canonization of the Qur'an, the first with Uthman in 652 AD, the second with Ibn Mujahid in the 10th century, the third with Shatibi in the 12th century, the fourth with Al-Jazari in the 15th century, and the fifth and final with Al-Haddad in the 20th century. So, the Qur'an has been changed and accreted and deleted, and corrupted for the past 1400 years, which is typical of any book written by men, and borrowed from a variety of other sources, proving that it is not a book from God at all! You can buy Dr Rami Halaseh's book "The Topkapi Manuscript H.S. 32" on Amazon: © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, May 5, 2026 (129,260)

"Liberty to the Captives" can be purchased here: https://luke4-18.com/ To support Nelson and Line Wolf you can go here: https://salaamministries.com/ Jay brought Nelson and Line Wolf to talk about their ministry of discipling Muslims who have come to Christ but are finding many problems in their lives which they can't seem to fix. In their ministry Nelson and Line have been using a book written by the Rev. Dr. Mark Durie from Australia who found this problem with many of the converts that he was discipling in Melbourne. When counseling them he noticed that many "Muslim Background Believers" (commonly known by the acronym MBB) brought a good bit of "baggage" from Islam with them, which he found were vestiges of evil spirits that remained in their lives and incapacitated their new life of freedom with Jesus Christ. Dr Durie was able to identify many spiritual powers in those he was counseling which were controlling them and forcing them into submission (interestingly, Islam means 'submission'). When a Muslim becomes a new Christian, however, they now must renounce those spirits which control them and give their complete allegiance to Jesus Christ, and be under the authority of the Holy Spirit. This is best evidenced in the life of Jesus himself. In many of his miracles and teachings in the New Testament Jesus casts out demons which were binding and controlling so many of those who confronted him publicly. In the same way, therefore, we today need to do likewise, and recognize that many Muslims are controlled by evil spirits. Just like Jesus did we need to get those spirits cast out of the new convert so that they can be free to follow Jesus completely. Dr Durie puts it best when he says: "It is one thing to get Muslims out of Islam. It is quite another thing to get Islam out of them". We as people who work with Muslims have spent so much time evangelizing them by engaging publicly with Muslims about their faith that we forget that the most important work comes once they have renounced that faith and have come home to Jesus Christ, due to the fact that they still have many evil spirits embedded in them. In order to confront those evil spirits Dr Durie wrote a very important book entitled "Liberty to the Captives", which has now become so popular that it has gone through 5 reprints. In that book he details how former Muslims must renounce their past lives in Islam by saying out-loud certain prayers of renunciation, which he includes at the end of the book. One of the most important prayers which they need to do is a renunciation of the "Shahada" the statement of faith for every Muslim (that Allah is one and Muhammad is his messenger). He considers the Shahada as a "covenant of death", in that to renounce it would make one an apostate, which is a capital offense in Islam, even today in many Muslim dominated countries. In this video we walk through all of this material with Nelson and Line Wolf, who are taking this book and its teachings to many Muslim dominated countries around the world to help new MBBs renounce the control that Islam still has on them. They give a number of testimonies where they have seen amazing recoveries from evil spirits once they have used the prayers found in this book. It has become so effective in helping former Muslims completely leave Islam that they are now training up many other workers to help former Muslims renounce their evil spirits. Their ministry is called 'Salaam Ministries' (go to their website here: https://salaamministries.com/). I'm sure that some of you would like to support them in this most important work, so feel free to go to their web-site (listed above) and help them continue to train people to bring Muslims 'fully home'. © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, April 27, 2026 (129,190)

Dr Sasan Tavassoli is a leading Iranian Christian Scholar, and a minister in the Presbyterian Church in Iran, as well as a long-time friend of Dr Smith's, who has contacts with thousands of Iranians worldwide and in Iran itself. Because of his expertise on Iran, he was asked by Dr Smith to record a short video concerning his thoughts on the current Iranian crisis with the USA and Israel. Here is Dr Tavassoli's response, which should help dispel so much of the confusion concerning what is actually happening there, and what he wants from us here in the West. According to the latest statistics coming out of Stanford University, between 88% - 90% of Iranians do NOT support the current Iranian regime and believe that they have been "taken hostage" by the Iranian regime. Dr Tavassoli says that the Iranian people want to be "rescued" from 47 years of oppression. In January of this year people came out to protest in 400 towns and cities, and the regime massacred 40,000 Iranian people in only 2 nights. This was the "Red Line" which has finally turned the vast majority of Iranian people against their government. They no longer want to be ruled by the Mullahs, and that is why they want outside forces to come and help them get rid of the IRHG tyrannical regime. He then ends with a prayer for the Christians in Iran. © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, April 19, 2026 (129,110)

Jay went to Germany recently and was interviewed by Grace and Klaus while there concerning the freedoms the Germans have to speak freely in public, especially when criticizing Islam, unlike what the Christians have in the UK, where the 'Freedom of Speech' is being curtailed and taken away, especially the freedom to criticize Islam. In the 3 open airs that they did in Berlin and Hamburg, Jay and Grace were able to speak freely on almost any subject, especially when Jay went into a polemic against the historical origins of Islam. The Muslims weren't exactly pleased, and at one point even pushed Jay off of the ladder, and at another time spat upon him. But the police were right there and arrested them; something which has not been evidenced in the UK in his 25 years of street preaching there. Now, for those who are confused by the video; no, Jay doesn't speak German, and this interview was done entirely in English. It was translated and then transcribed into German by Klaus and Grace, who are interviewing him, and were Jay's translators wherever he went in Germany. You will notice just how accurate all three of their voices are; even getting the tone of their voices and their intonations correct. We're told that they used the 'Heygen' program. Nonetheless, how they were able to make the interview so realistic, only they know, but this highlights just how advanced we have become technologically, so-much-so that they could have had Jay say almost anything they wanted, and he would have never known any difference. That's a little scary 'going forward'... © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, 2025 (129,090)

While in Berlin, we decided to go to a large Muslim area, the Kotbusser Tol, situated close to two of the largest mosques in Berlin. We chose a Friday afternoon, their holy day, in order to try and see how Polemics would work there. This meeting turned out to be quite a contrast to the previous day at the Alexander Platz, where mostly Germans walked by mostly blank stares and with nothing good to say. Here, surrounded by Muslims, we were able to get many more responses by those who stood around and reacted to what we were saying. I can imagine that this was the first time that they had heard of the historical problems with their Qur'an and their prophet, and they didn't like what they were hearing. At one point Jay was pushed off the ladder, and a little later a Muslim man came and spat on him. But at no time did Jay or Grace feel threatened, and these encounters led to quite a few Muslims staying around and talking to the few Christians in the crowd who were there to engage face-to-face with them. What was interesting was the reaction that we received from the police on both occasions. We had to get permission from them to even do the 'open airs' with loud speakers, and to use Polemics in public. So, they had a police car stationed both times around 50 feet away in case of any problems. When we finished both days, they came to thank us, as they felt that no one was helping them with their "Muslim Problem" which they had to face on a daily basis. You will note that when Jay was pushed off the ladder a policeman immediately came and arrested the man. Jay had never had that kind of help or backing in all of his 25 years of doing the same thing in Speaker's Corner, in London. In fact, the Police in the UK always supported the Muslims and often blamed the Christians for being pushed off the ladder or being punched, at Speaker's Corner. Such a contrast to what we experienced in Germany. Jay purposely began his talks with the need for the 'Freedom of speech' especially in Europe, where it is quickly being taken away, and replaced with a "Two-Tier policing system", one for Muslims and another for anyone else. For the German Christian street preachers, these new examples of using Historical Polemics when engaging Muslims was a 'paradigm shift' for them, as they realized that in Germany, their country, they had all the right to confront Islam historically, just as was done in Germany so many centuries ago when it was created to do the same for Christianity. It's appropriate that what was first invented and then introduced in Germany for Christianity should now be likewise employed for Islam, a similar religion which makes similar historical claims. © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, April 14, 2026 (129,040)

We've now moved to our 3rd episode with Dr Rami Halaseh where we approach the 3rd canonization of the Qur'anic text. Dr Halaseh notes that in the 11th century Al Dani, who lived in Spain and died in 1052 AD (444 AH) decided to choose 2 students (Rawis) from each of the 7 eponymous readers (Qira'ats) who had been chosen by Ibn Mujahid in the 10th century, so a total of 14 Rawis were chosen. These 14 were solidified by al-Shatibi about 100 years later before he died in 1194 AD (590 AH). So, by the 12th century we now had 21 different readings of the Qur'an chosen by 2 men commissioned by the caliphs of their time to do so for mostly political reasons. Jay and Hatun asked what the criteria was for choosing this additional 14 students from the original 7? Dr Halaseh stated that at times it had to do with political reasons, at other times it had to do with geography, and at other times it had to do with popularity; in other words, those students who had the largest number of students under them were chosen. Thus, Assim ibn Abi al-Najud from Kufa had 91 students, of which 2 were chosen (Shu'bah and Hafs), and the other 89 were discarded because they weren't popular enough. What's more, according to Dr Halaseh we have no original manuscripts for any of these Qira'ats or Riwayats to know what exactly they wrote; we only have those books which are attributed to each of them. But even more puzzling, we are told that the Hafs an-Assim text, from Kufa, which is the most popular reading today has 6,236 verses in it. But the others from other cities don't have the same number of verses. The Medinan Qur'an has 6,217 (or possibly 6,214) verses, while the Meccan has 6,210 and the Basran has 6,204, and the Qur'an from Damascus has 6,227. So, even those readings from these various cities don't agree in the number of verses they have between them! You can buy Dr Rami Halaseh's book "The Topkapi Manuscript H.S. 32" here: https://www.amazon.com/Topkap%C4%B1-Qur%CA%BE%C4%81n-Manuscript-H-S-32/dp/3111455254/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3CQL8OXJXVL33&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.LdGt9166h1QgbrLcdStNtDehvtvC87_qbhsuTjm8lHiwlsoVJiOIITtzhslU1SLUxWBDRlmcRaNaglR03wAe_FBYK6zPBsRPuFXT_n-9OUY.Gu-i1rI2TFNI43fAI32X1lq84jaxQ_TtPraL3CbSBz8&dib_tag=se&keywords=rami+halaseh&qid=1775612765&sprefix=Rami+Hala%2Caps%2C123&sr=8-1 © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, April 7, 2026 (128,900)

Dr Rami Halaseh from Jordan continues his talk about the 5 canonizations of the Qur'an with Dr Smith and Hatun Tash. In this second episode he introduces the 2nd stage of canonization of the Qur'an. The first was that of Uthman in 652 AD, in Medina, Arabia. Dr Halaseh noted that Muslims claim that the Qur'an was canonized, or rather finalized in 652 AD, and that the Qur'an we have today is exactly the same. Many even state that not "One word or even one letter has changed since this time". Dr Halaseh disagrees, as the literary sources in Islam paint a very different picture, one which includes later developments, as well as different transmissions with differing acceptances and rejections so that a multiplicity of changes leading to what his colleague Dr. Shady Nasser states were 5 different stages of canonization. The first we already did a previous episode on, that of Uthman, who supposedly introduced the "Textus receptus" in Medina, which had 114 Suras, and a "fixed skeletal Rasm" (consonantal text). Yet, according to Dr Halaseh, within a few years other "Companion Codices" began to appear in other cities; including a codex in Damascus, written by Ubay Ibn Ka'b, which had 116 Suras, and another codex in Kufa (Iraq) which was written by Ibn Mas'ud; yet it had only 110 Suras, and contained different Sura titles as well as different verses and even different wordings. These Codices were suppressed about 50 years later by Al Hajjaj, the governor of Iraq under Abd al Malik. By the 10th century, Dr Halaseh suggested that there were many variant Qur'anic readings which were written using the newly created dots and vowels. These variants were such a problem that the scholar Ibn Mujahid (d.936) was commissioned to choose 7 "Eponymous" (self-titled) Readings before he died in 936 AD. But what did he use to choose the 7 among more than 50 which existed at that time? According to Dr Halaseh there were two criteria which he could have used. Either that of 1) "Mutawatir" (an agreement of many people who were separated from each other, so that they could have not influenced the decision of others), or 2) that of "Ijma" (the agreement of the leaders amongst the Umma, known as the 'Ulemma'). In the end he seemed to use geography for much of his choice, so that 3 were from the city of Kufa, while one each was chosen from Mecca, Medina, Basra, and Damascus. But these 7 were only chosen from the 50 or so 'Eponymous' Readers (Qira'ats). What about the few hundred 'Rawis', or transmitters who also had differing variant readings by the 10th century? And what of the two most popular readings which are used today, the Hafs and Warsh, neither of which were included in these 7 'Eponymous Readings' chosen by Ibn Mujahid? That will be answered in the next episode by Dr Halaseh...so, stay tuned... You can buy Dr Rami Halaseh's book "The Topkapi Manuscript H.S. 32" here: https://www.amazon.com/Topkap%C4%B1-Qur%CA%BE%C4%81n-Manuscript-H-S-32/dp/3111455254/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3CQL8OXJXVL33&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.LdGt9166h1QgbrLcdStNtDehvtvC87_qbhsuTjm8lHiwlsoVJiOIITtzhslU1SLUxWBDRlmcRaNaglR03wAe_FBYK6zPBsRPuFXT_n-9OUY.Gu-i1rI2TFNI43fAI32X1lq84jaxQ_TtPraL3CbSBz8&dib_tag=se&keywords=rami+halaseh&qid=1775612765&sprefix=Rami+Hala%2Caps%2C123&sr=8-1 © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, March 31, 2026 (128,840)

We are proud to introduce the 10th of our Ten MAPI courses for our 'Master's Degree in "Apologetics and Polemics to Islam" program (MAPI). This course is entitled IS510[26] "Methodology of Ministry to Muslims", which will be taught by Dr Daniel Janosik and Dr Jay Smith every Monday evening, from April 6 to May 25, 2026 This is our final course in the Master's Degree Program and looks at 10 different methods used around the world by Missionaries with Muslims. We look at each method and ascertain what are the advantages of using each and what are the disadvantages. All of them have been used and practiced by us, so we will be speaking from experience as well. Note: this course is for Christians alone. Why? Because it is being taught at the Veritas International University (VIU), which is an academic seminary belonging to the Calvary Chapel Denomination. If you would like to take this course, just e-mail "Eliott Davis" before April 6 at: edavis@ves.edu Beginning on Monday the 6th of April (starting at 8:00 p.m. - EST) Daniel and Jay will lecture for 8 weeks, with each lecture followed by a 'live' Q&A between students and Drs Janosik and Smith on the material introduced that week. Both teachers have promised that they will be "live" so that you as the students can have "live" and personal access to them. Often the Q&A time following the lectures can go for another hour or two. Since all of our teaching is by Zoom Webinar, those of you who have registered can watch the lectures from the comfort of your own home, anywhere in the world, or at any time, as every lecture will be recorded and the URL of the lecture, along with the accompanying PowerPoints, and the PDFs will be sent to you by Dr Smith the next day (usually Tuesdays) by a Mailchimp email. As we have in the past, we are offering this course for 3 categories of students: 1) FULL-TIME MASTER'S OR DOCTORAL DEGREE STUDENTS: The first category are those students who want to take this course for a Master's or a Doctorate academic credit. This is a 3-credit course, so the fee for each credit is $330, coupled with administration costs makes the total for the whole course around $1,350 (depending on whether you are a returning or a new student). For these full-time students, the full course itself continues for 15 weeks, stretching from April 6, 2026 until July 13, 2026 (though there are only 8 weeks of lecture). This will give you ample time to read and then write logs on the books required for the course, participate in the discussions, write your Research papers, and write your final 'open book' exam. 2) AUDIT STUDENTS: The second category are those students who want to simply audit the course. The fee for the entire 8-week course is $340. An Audit student will not have any assignments, but will have access to the Populi site where the discussions and assignments are found (like the Full-time academic students), and will be able to listen to the lectures and will be sent the Power-points and PDFs to download. 3) PERSONAL ENRICHMENT STUDENTS: The third category are those students who simply want to take this course for their 'Personal Enrichment'. Their fee for the 8-week course is only $240. Unlike the Full-time students or the Audit students, they will not have access to the Populi site, but they will still have "live access" to all of the lectures, and they will be sent the Power-points and PDFs to download and use in their own ministries. To underline the distinctions, while all of the students in all 3 categories will have access to all of the lectures, the Power-points and the PDFs for the entire 8-week course, the full-time Academic (as well as the Audit students) will also have admission to the Populi site to participate in the ongoing weekly discussions, and will have access to the reading lists and assignments, though the full-time students will be the only ones required to fulfill them. If you are interested in any of these 3 levels, simply e-mail the registrar 'Eliott Davis' at: edavis@ves.edu But hurry, as the first lecture begins on Monday, April 6, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time (US). LECTURE TOPICS: Part 1: What are the major methodologies employed by missions today? Part 2: The ‘Program’ & Proclamation Model Part 3: The ‘Tent-Making’ Model Part 4: The ‘Irenical’ & Contextual Approach Part 5: The ‘Insider Movement’ Part 6: The ‘Gospel in the Qur’an’ & MITs Model Part 7: The ‘Interfaith Dialogue’ Model Part 8: The ‘Confrontational’ Model © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, 2025 (128,800) Music: "Uplifting Blockbuster" by Rafael Krux, from filmmusic

Dr Jay Smith was asked to try to create a Speaker's Corner at the Berlin's famous "Alexanderplatz" in central Berlin on March 12. Along with his friend Grace he spent 2 hours unpacking the problems with the Qur'an to the many people passing by. This has never been done before, so perhaps this is the beginning of something new, which will catch on with many people talking about difficult subjects, including questions about Islam. Because it went so well we plan to replicate this in other European cities where the 'freedom of Speech' which allows people to critically analyze the sources and fundamentals of their faith is still permitted. © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, March 13, 2025 (128,550)

You can buy Dr Rami Hussein Halaseh's book, "The Topkapı Qurʾān Manuscript H.S. 32: History, Text, and Variants" here: https://www.amazon.com/Topkap%C4%B1-Qur%CA%BE%C4%81n-Manuscript-H-S-32/dp/3111455254/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PFX6BXGRLKDD&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Ue8grS_n8olFqwRepx6-pw.Hm82Zppvn4xcdCRfQCay7czrXBwlK_WSMZR6Ind6QKc&dib_tag=se&keywords=Rami+halaseh&qid=1772328115&sprefix=rami+halaseh%2Caps%2C129&sr=8-1 Hatun Tash and Dr Smith carried out their first Zoom interview with Dr Rami Hussein Halaseh, the author of the new critical book entitled: "The Topkapı Qurʾān Manuscript", which is his PhD dissertation on the same subject. Because of his expertise on early Qur'anic manuscripts, Jay and Hatun had a few questions to pose to him concerning the Islamic Traditional narrative of how the Qu'ran was initially compiled in the 7th century. He began by answering a question by Hatun on whether the blood stains on the Topkapi were authentic, saying that they indeed were not real, but was a later tradition imposed on the manuscript many centuries later to give authority to the notion that this was one of the manuscripts Uthman was reading when he was assassinated in 654 AD. When asked about the date of the Topkapi, he said many scholars were reticent to state any specific date. Nonetheless, he placed it between 767-816 AD. He noted that in order to bring the text upto 99% of what our current Qur'an contained, around five folios with a later styled script were added to the Topkapi codex at a much later date, so that the total genuine text from the 8th-9th centuries was around 97.8% of the total Qur'an. Even if we were to grant that at some point this manuscript contained nearly 100% of today’s Quran, there were significant differences between the official 1924 Hafs an Asim text, which has become our standard today, and the 8th-9th century Topkapi manuscript. What was more damaging was that Halaseh counted 2,483 orthographic variants and 309 variant readings between the Hafs and the Topkapi, of which 63 of these variants affected the consonantal skeletal text. What was significant was that many of these differences changed the meaning of the text and cannot be located in any of the existing Qira’at versions or secondary literature, meaning they fall completely outside of the canonical traditions. Yet, this is likely the best manuscript that Muslim scholars can produce from the first three Islamic centuries. Moving back to the 7th century, Rami supported Jay's notion that the disagreements between the first Qur'anic recension of Abu Bakr's in 634 AD, and the second recension of Uthman's in 652 AD had to be consonantal (Rasm) in nature, due to the fact that the dots (i'jams) and the vowels (Harakats) had not been created or introduced that early, or at least had not been standardized in any uniform way in the Arabic script. So, when Uthman took all the codices which disagreed with his canonical and final codex, and burned them, he was burning manuscripts which contained entire words and phrases whose differences were made up of consonantal letters. This meant that the differences within the codices which were burned had nothing to do with any Dialectical differences at all, because dialects require vowels, which didn't exist this early. This does a lot more damage to the idea which Muslims hold that the Qur'an has always been preserved, every letter and every word, even every dot since the time of Uthman until today! Rami also asked the question concerning why Uthman needed to rewrite a new Qur'an in 652 if they already had Hafsah's copy at their disposal? He then noted that in the 11th century Al-Dani (d.1053 AD) said that there were 44 differences between the companion codices and that of Uthman. Earlier, in the 10th century Ibn Mujahid (d. 936 AD) said that one of the criteria he used for choosing his 7 readings was that they had to agree with Uthman's text, and not any of the others which disagreed. Conclusion: It's obvious from this 30 minute interview that the earliest Uthmanic codices (if indeed they ever existed) had many problems, especially the fact that in the first 20 years after Muhammad's death two different renditions of the Qur'an had to be written, and then re-written, using a different dialect, though no one could do that in the 7th century, because the vowels which are used to delineate dialectical differences hadn't yet been invented. The fact that even after this 2nd recension many other Qur'ans were found which differed with it, so much so that they all had to be burned to retain an official standardized text! So much for a completely preserved Qur'an from the century Muhammad lived. What next will Rami offer us in the next episode? Stay tuned! You can buy Dr Rami Halaseh's book "The Topkapi Manuscript H.S. 32" on Amazon.com © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, February 28, 2026 (128,320)

In Jay's fifth and final recording with Chris from Speaker's Corner, they unpack the problem with the Qur'an's preservation. Muslims claim that the Qur'an is eternal, that it was never created, because the Qur'an makes this claim when it refers to the Qur'an in Surah 85:21-22 as the "Al-Lauh al-Mahfuz" which means 'the eternal preserved tablets' that have always existed in heaven, and from which the Qur'an was revealed to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel piecemeal over a period of 22 years. The Qur'an also claims in Surah 10:15 and 18:27 that no one can therefore change any of it, not even "one word or one letter" (according to Dr Yassir Qadhi). And the reason, because Allah will guard it, according to Surah 15:9. Chris, however, suggests that this is not what history tells us, as the historical record paints quite a different picture. Even the Islamic Traditions suggest that there were 4 different Qur'ans written by four different companions of the prophet; including: Ubay ibn Ka'bs Qur'an in Damascus, which had 116 Surahs, which is 2 more than in the Qur'an today. Ibn Masud's Qur'an in Baghdad, which had 111 or 110 Surahs, which is 3-4 less than in the Qur'an today. Ibn Musa's Qur'an in Basra, which had 114 Surahs, which is the same as the Qur'an today, but with 100s of variants from our present Qur'an. And finally the canonical Qur'an compiled by Zaid ibn Thabit, from Medina, with 114 Surahs. This shows that even within the 7th century there were at least 4 different Qur'ans which had different Surah orders, and up to 15,000 differences between them (according to Dr Arthur Jeffreys). Chris then turned to the different subsequent Codices of the Qur'an, including the Mashhad codex, which though it is the same size as today's Qur'an the Surah orders did not follow the Hafs an Assam text, but followed that of Ibn Mas'ud's from Baghdad. He also pointed to the San'a codex, which was partly made up of a Palimpsest (lower and upper layers of script). Yet, this manuscript which can be dated from the 7th and 8th centuries does not follow today's present Hafs an Assim text. Chris then turned to the research of Marijn Van Putten who refers to the "Tawatur" as his proof of Qur'anic preservation; yet he could only come to such a conclusion by claiming that the large number of agreement by scholars (i.e. Tawatur) concerning which chains of names (Isnads) were authoritative gave credibility to the Qur'an's authenticity. Chris ended with the statements by Dr Yassir Qadhi, who for years has stipulated that not one letter of even one dot has been changed in the last 1400 years, but now due to the discovery of the 30 different Qira'at and Riwayats, his claims have been completely debunked, and so has any notion of the Qur'an's "Perfect Preservation". © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, February 20, 2025 (128,210)

In the second series on the subject, Chris introduces another facet of early Islam, the introduction of Exclusivity within Islam within the first 100 - 200 years. Much of what he proposes comes from Dr. Fred Donner's book, "Muhammad and the Believers, at the Origins of Islam". Donner proposes that in its very early stages, in the 7th century, Islam was very ecumenical, so that the prophet Muhammad wanted to unify the monotheists (i.e. the Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians) into one community. To support this notion Chris turned to the Qur'an itself, where you can find a number of verses that suggest this ecumenical view. Surah 2:62 says that Jews, Christians, and Sabeans all agreed in the doctrines of the Last Days and righteousness, so that they would all be together in Paradise. Surah 5:69 says that whoever amongst the Jews and Christians believed in Allah and the Last days and does good, they would have no fear, nor be grieved. Surah 3:113-114 says that some amongst the 'People of the Book' (Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians) who are upright and do pray, and believe in Allah and the Last days, so they will be righteous. Surah 5:111 says that those amongst the disciples of Isa who believe in Allah and his messenger will be called Muslims. This suggests that there will be some Christians and Jews who were close to Islam in this early period. But there are other verses which suggest that not all Christians and Jews were with the Muslims. Surah 9:29 backs this notion by stipulated that those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day among the people of the Book must be fought. The architecture of that time seems to suggest a likewise Ecumenical fervor within Islam. The Maronite Chronicle of 660 AD, written during the rule of Muawiya, the Umayyad caliph says that he prayed at Golgotha and permitted the Christians to build churches, suggesting an ecumenical attitude. The Cathedral of John the Baptist in Damascus had both Christians and Muslims worship within its walls upto 706 AD. The Inscription of Muawiya written in Ta'if in 663 by Muawiya has a cross on its upper left corner, suggesting an ecumenical support. While these examples could support an ecumenical viewpoint within early Islam, at least in the 7th century, Jay believes that these artifacts, coupled with coins suggest something else; namely, that they are representative of a very Christian environment, with Trinitarians and anti-Trinitarians (Arians) vying for power and control from the time of Muawiya, and especially during the time of Abd al-Malik. You decide what you think is going on in this time period and at that place. © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, February 13, 2025 (128,160)

Chris and Jay are back; this time to talk about the changing doctrines within Islam which are becoming problematic for them. Now that Muslims are being scrutinized more publicly, especially on the Internet, they are coming under a lot of attacks concerning their prophet, and the other prophets listed in the Qur'an, suggesting that Muhammad isn't as great or as sinless as the other prophets, and especially when compared to Jesus Christ. In order for their prophet Muhammad to be equal, or at least similar to the person of Jesus Christ (even in the Qur'an), Muslims have had to publicly elevate their prophet to bring him alongside Jesus. The most obvious area which they are looking at is Muhammad's supposed 'SINLESS-NESS', his PURITY, which in Arabic is "ISMA". But, does the Qur'an agree? Watch this video by Chris and find out... © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, February 5, 2026 (128,070)