Islamic Terror Concerns Cause Alex O'Connor to Drop Debate with David Wood at Debate Con
/Alex O’Connor, host of the Within Reason Podcast, has a massive following of over 1.21M subscribers on Youtube. He’s a graduate of philosophy and theology from St. John’s College at Oxford University and one of the most famous agnostics in the world. O’Connor has debated Christians such as Trent Horn, William Lane Craig, Frank Turek, Cliffe and Stuart Knechtle, and more. Most recently, O’Connor was featured on Jubilee’s “Surrounded” series, where he debated a room mostly full of Christians.
One of the topics debated on Jubilee was whether or not Jesus claimed to be God, which O’Connor disputes. One Christian apologist who has had many discussions on this topic is David Wood Ph.D. Wood has a fascinating conversion story. He’s a psychopath who tried to murder his father and landed himself in prison. After challenging a Christian, who knew how to answer typical atheist objections, Wood went down a stubborn rabbit hole to disprove Christianity and defeat his inmate. That plan massively backfired. Later, Wood led his Muslim friend, Nabeel Qureshi, to Christ after years of debate. Wood convinced Qureshi of the reliability of the Bible, that Jesus claimed to be God, that he was crucified, and that he rose from the dead (Qureshi wrote about his conversion in Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus). Since then, Wood has focused on criticizing Islam and converting Muslims.
O’Connor and Wood were set to debate whether Jesus claimed to be God at Debate Con 5, taking place on February 15 in Newark, NJ. VIP tickets for the religion debates were already sold out, which included a VIP dinner with debaters. Unfortunately, O’Connor decided to drop out of the event due to security concerns and threats from Islamic extremists.
Ridvan Aydemir, known online as “Apostate Prophet,” was supposed to originally debate “Central Dawah” on whether or not Muhammad was a true prophet, but after Central Dawah explicitly threatened the safety of his opponent, a search went on to replace him. During an online debate, Aydemir said Islam allowed apostates to be executed, and Central Dawah replied, “One hundred percent!” He also issued warnings, “When I see you in February,” and made throat-slashing motions when the host brought up the convention. He also told Aydemir, “Your blood is halal.”
Debate Con replaced Central Dawah with Neal Sandlak (Gnostic Informant). Their new topic will be, “Is Islam or Christianity Worse for Society?”
On February 2, Modern-Day Debate issued an update on X. “Dear all, Due to concerns over Islamic extremism potentially threatening the safety of our upcoming DEBATECON 5 conference, Alex O’Connor has decided not to attend. And after careful consideration, I have decided that DEBATECON 5 will go ahead as planned. Islamic extremists will not stop this event from happening. We will have armed security on the premises at all times. They will not hesitate to swiftly handle any potential threats.”
Modern-Day Debate encouraged their audience “not to attack Alex over his choice,” and to instead focus on spreading the word about the event. One of Debate Con’s representatives also stated on X that O’Connor’s reasons “were more of a conglomeration rather than a single thing like CD [Central Dawah].”
Alex O’Connor was once asked by a fan why he didn’t talk about Islam and whether it was for personal or safety reasons. “Yeah, well, of course, it is a much less safe thing to do. That is a benefit of Christianity, by the way.” O’Connor admitted he doesn’t believe Islam is true and “has all kinds of problems” as far as ethics. But he mostly leaves the topic alone because he knows far less about it. “But of course, you do have to be much more careful as well because I’ve never had to fear for my safety when debating a Christian like today.”
According to Aydemir, O’Connor had once criticized Islam and took down his video due to backlash. Aydemir was “disappointed,” but they chatted through messages. “He can’t really tolerate the massive reactions that he gets to any criticism of Islam.” Someone O’Connor knew also received personal threats.
David Wood defended O’Connor’s past decision. “You might say, ‘We have to stand up.’ That’s true. It doesn’t have to be Alex. He’s [a] pretty recognizable guy. He would be extremely recognizable in public. So even though people need to stand up against this, not everyone needs to do it if they’re going to be especially in danger where they are.” Wood also understood that since atheists don’t believe in an afterlife, they probably don’t want to be martyrs for speaking out against Islam. Wood also said O’Connor’s critics may feel it’s his obligation to speak out about the dangers of Islam’s influence in the UK where he is from, but Wood believes that it is too much of a burden for a young agnostic to bear when the government is hellbent on capitulating to Muslims, so they won’t be called racist.
That doesn’t mean Wood has no criticism for atheists who duck Islam. He sees their constant attacks on Christianity as self-defeating, and it paves the way for more Islamic control.
Wood has recently been outspoken over the murder of Iraqi refugee in Sweeden, Salwan Momika, who was shot dead last week. Momika sparked outrage after burning the Koran. His co-conspirator, Salwan Najem, was found guilty of hate crimes for “having expressed contempt for the Muslim ethnic group because of their religious beliefs on four occasions.” A British man burned a Koran in protest of Momika’s death, and he was arrested and plastered on social media.
Andrew Wilson, who is also debating at the convention, said he didn’t understand why O’Connor dropped out. He pointed out that David Wood would be the greatest target and joked about using him as a human shield. Wood, who has a twisted sense of humor, retweeted his post.
Wood, Aydemir, Wilson, and Michael Jones (InspiringPhilosophy) would be far greater targets for radical extremists. Aydemir defected from Islam, and he joins Wood on Apologetics Roadshow to refute and openly mock Muhammad and Islam. The Christian speakers have gotten into testy debates with Muslims in the past, yet they’re all still slated to debate on February 15. If O’Connor had a successful debate against Wood and proved Jesus didn’t claim to be God, it would benefit Muslims and their claims about Jesus and the Bible.
Information about DEBATECON 5 can be found on their website.
