“Well, my colleagues, what do you think?” Jon asked.
Heads nodded in approval, until al-Ghazali commented, “What do you want to send there, Jon, a love letter? This man wants to trounce you in a debate!”
Jon was taken aback. “Are you serious, Osman?”
“No, I guess not,” he said, smiling. “I’m just a little ticked that he went public before reaching you.”
“He claims it was someone else’s error. That sort of thing can happen, Osman, right-the ‘error’ bit?”
Al-Ghazali threw his arms up and chuckled. “ Touche! I plead guilty!”
“Okay, then. Marylou, please send this to Cairo. The e-mail address is on al-Rashid’s letterhead.”
“Done.”
Jon turned to al-Ghazali again. “Now, please tell us, Osman, why in the world would al-Rashid issue this debate challenge? We all thought he was progressive, a Muslim moderate who was anything but doctrinaire.”
“Simply because that’s exactly what al-Rashid is.”
“What do you mean?”
“I heard from my contacts in Cairo that he got a tremendous amount of flak after that address you raved about-and it was worth raving about, believe me! But some archconservative mullahs started scheming to have him replaced. He learned of it, and in a steamy faculty meeting, he announced, ‘It is easily possible to be faithful both to Islam and the cause of academic freedom!’
“That led to more hot debate, until one of their reactionaries, who inclines a bit to the right of Genghis Khan, yelled out, ‘Prove it, then! Prove that you are indeed faithful to Islam by taking on that Christian professor from Harvard in debate!’”
“But why me, for goodness’ sake?”
“Glad you asked,” Osman said with a twinkle. “Whether or not you know it, Jon, you are big in the Arab world, big -thanks to that innocent mistake in the Arabic edition that seems to have catapulted you into stardom!”
“Can’t be.”
“Remember those Christian versus Muslim discussions you had Marylou ask me to monitor after you spoke to her from Meteora?”
“Yes.”
“Well, they’re starting also in the Muslim world. Not Christian-Muslim debates so much as Muslim-Muslim discussions on some of the issues you raised in your book. Al-Rashid simply had to put his money where his mouth was.”
Marylou was staring at her laptop when she suddenly raised her hand. “Sorry to interrupt you all, but a return e-mail has just arrived from Cairo.”
“Please plug your laptop into the projector so we can all read it at the same time, Marylou.”
When the screen at the far end of the conference table lowered from the ceiling, they read the following message: Dear Professor Weber: Again I apologize for the premature announcement of our possible debate, and I thank you for accepting. I am certain that you and I can discuss the topic without the high emotion that often characterizes such exchanges, and the result might even benefit Muslim-Christian relations. I would suggest that we consider the event for sometime within the next two or three months. As to place, we would be happy to invite you here to al-Azhar University. I am sure that the Coptic Christian population in Cairo would be glad to welcome you here as well. We are, of course, open to other locations. Yours truly, Abbas al-Rashid
“How come his English is so good, Osman?”
“Who knows? He could have used someone from the American University in Cairo.”
“Well, team, what’s your opinion? Is Cairo a good location?”
“I’d prefer New York,” Richard Ferris said, half-joking. Then he added, “No, I think it’s a very bad location, Jon-bad for your health. Not the climate, but the security situation. Cairo’s the home of the Muslim Brotherhood-many of them jihadists-and of al-Gama’a al-Islamiyyah, the people who assassinated Anwar Sadat. And when you win the debate, they could even take it out on the Copts. Not a season goes by in Egypt without some Christian church getting burned. Plus, it would be al-Rashid’s home ballpark.”
“You seem a little optimistic about the outcome of the debate, Dick.”
He laughed. “Is there any question?”
“You bet there is!” Jon glanced out the windows and saw an even larger media crowd outside. “Uh-oh, time to throw them a fish. Marylou, let’s work up a press release that says I not only accept but look forward to the debate, since al-Rashid will be an excellent opponent, and that it will take place within the next three months at a location still to be determined. Okay?”
“Got it.”
“Then bring it back here and we’ll check it out.”
This set the pattern for other such meetings to come. An international debate like this might come off with apparent technical brilliance-or not!-which only masked the immense amount of preparation involved. Jon’s “cabinet” met twice a week and exchanged hundreds of e-mails with Cairo until everything was nailed down. A long checklist was involved.
The hardest nut to crack was the location. Al-Rashid wanted a venue with a large Muslim population, in order to demonstrate his theology of loyalty yet flexibility within Islam. For obvious reasons, Jon preferred a large Christian presence. They exchanged suggestions for neutral sites or those with something of a religious balance between Muslims and Christians, like Beirut. But Beirut was finally rejected by both in view of the violence that so often and so tragically disrupted that beautiful city.
They finally agreed on a place that brought gasps to Christians but smiles to Muslims: Istanbul, Turkey. Had Jon lost his senses, agreeing to a location that was overwhelmingly Muslim? Not really, he claimed. Turkey was the most Westernized of the Muslim countries and a secular-not religious-state, thanks to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey. Geographically, too, it lay almost at the interface between Muslim and Christian lands.
But it was a third reason that had finally convinced Jon. He received a letter from no less than “the eastern pope,” His All Holiness, Bartholomew II, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, pleading with Jon to have the debate in Istanbul. The Eastern Orthodox Christians there were a small minority and needed all the recognition they could get in that quarter of the world. Although Jon’s advisers were against the idea, he was adamant. The debate would take place in Istanbul. Once that was settled, the other details quickly fell into place and were outlined in a forty-page document. Specific Location: Hagia Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom, constructed by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the sixth century, now a public museum. Date: September 3, two months away. Time: 9:30 a.m. local time, with as much of the afternoon as necessary. Audience: Exactly half Muslim and half Christian; ticket distribution to be administered by each side, independent of the other. Seating: Christians will occupy the western half of the nave, Muslims the eastern half. Moderator: Two will serve concurrently: the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and Mustafa Selim, the Muslim mufti of Turkey. Translation: Simultaneous translations of the debate will be provided in Turkish, Arabic, English, Greek, Farsi, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Chinese. Media Coverage: Live radio and television coverage will be permitted. All cameras and all representatives of the press will be limited to the second-story galleries of the basilica. Publications: All official printed materials resulting from the debate, whether in pamphlet or book form, will be carefully checked for accuracy by both sides against master audiotapes of the debate. Video: Similarly, all DVD reproduction will be mutually approved, and all proceeds from sales of any media products subsequent to the debate will be shared equally by the Muslim and Christian parties involved. Security: Metal and nitrate detectors will be in place at all entrances to the basilica, and no packages will be permitted inside. The government of the Republic of Turkey will have final responsibility for security and will provide same at both the civil and military level.