In order to avoid the press and the crowds, Click, Clack, and a detail from the CIA and the Turkish special police escorted Jon, Shannon, Richard, and Osman through a small exit in the southern apse of Hagia Sophia and into several black Mercedes sedans. They were whisked eastward around the basilica and into the gates of the Topkapi Palace grounds, where walking tourists parted ranks to let them drive by. Stopping at the eastern end of the enclave, they descended a steep flight of stairs to the Konyali Topkapi restaurant and its beautiful view overlooking the Bosporus. Here they all sat down at outdoor tables in an area separated from the rest of the restaurant terrace.

Osman and Dick were ebullient over the first half of the debate. Ferris, in fact, gave Jon a big hug and ordered champagne. Shannon was finally smiling again too, though she voiced her apprehension over the fanatic who had yelled his hatred inside the basilica. Kemet Bankasi, one of their Turkish liaisons, overheard her and said, “Again, we’re very sorry about that. He turned out to be a young student from Bodrum who is studying under a radical cleric there.”

“But how did he ever get a seat so near the front?” Dick Ferris asked.

“That’s still a mystery. He wouldn’t tell police, but it could be as simple as using a chair that was unoccupied for some reason. We thought we had screened everyone properly, but—well, one in eight thousand isn’t a bad average, is it?”

They all chuckled.

In discussing strategy for the afternoon, the talk was so spirited that they barely noticed the delicious seafood luncheon the chef had specially prepared. Jon passed on the champagne, since he wanted to keep all his wits in gear for rounds three and four.

Ferris’s cell phone rang, and he excused himself from the table. Minutes later, he returned, wearing a big grin. “The debate won’t air in the States until 3 p.m. our time, which is 8 a.m. Eastern time in the U.S. But Europe’s just an hour behind, and the BBC is reporting a huge audience. They even set up big projection screens at various points in London—Waterloo Station, Trafalgar Square, St. Paul’s—you name it. The same with Télévision Française. And at the Reichstag in Berlin, they even suspended a morning meeting of the Bundesrat so all could watch.”

“No riots so far?” Jon asked almost timidly.

“Not that I’ve heard.” Then he added, impishly, “And that’s all due, of course, to the high plane on which the debate is taking place.”

“Well, we’ll change all that this afternoon. That’s when we take our gloves off, so prepare for fireworks!”

“Jon . . .” Shannon’s plaintive tone was corrective enough.

“Just hyperbole, dear,” he soothed. Though maybe not, he mused.

By 2 p.m., all had reseated themselves inside the immense basilica, having lunched at hundreds of different eateries in the heart of Istanbul. Although Jon half expected the audience to diminish—who watched all-day debates anymore?—this time it was the opposite. Even the crowds outside had swelled. All seemed to know that the fun was about to begin. This would be the open, free, unstructured segment of the debate, in which the moderators promised to intervene as little as possible. Abbas, Jon, Bartholomew, and Selim had reminded one another of that agreement moments before the debate resumed, and the moderators opened the afternoon half of the debate by reminding the audience of that arrangement as well.

Again, Abbas al-Rashid seemed interested in starting off. “Dr. Weber, your explanation of the Christian Trinity is interesting in terms of how you illustrated it with the sun, or gold, or whatever, but I find it less than convincing. Please, once again, kindly explain how one can equal three. The word Trinity is not even in your Bible.”

The Trinity again, Jon reflected, then replied, “You are absolutely correct, Dr. al-Rashid. The term was first used by our church father Tertullian, but it faithfully reflects both the unity of God as well as his ‘plurality’ as Creator, Savior, and Sanctifier, qualities that we find all over the Old and New Testaments.”

Jon went on to cite the appropriate passages, then marshaled the traditional and philosophical evidence Christians have always used. The bottom line, in any case, was that mathematics alone stands as a warning sign that—unless one equals three—humanity, this side of eternity, cannot hope to probe the essence of God who is dimensionally different from his creation. “But permit me, honored Imam, to deal with the most significant problem that Christians have with Islam. It is so basic that all the other difficulties we find become secondary to this one.”

“Indeed? I look forward to hearing it!”

“And that, of course, is the role of Jesus and what happened to him in Jerusalem on the day we call Good Friday. To deny his crucifixion flies in the face of all historical evidence. You explained that as best you could, by claiming that ‘it was made to appear’ that he was on the cross. This, however, will simply not do. It would have required something of a mass hallucination on the part of all bystanders at Golgotha—which was not possible. And what about the Roman executioners? The Romans were grimly efficient when it came to executions: no one escaped.”

“With Allah, everything is possible. But you, worthy Professor, claimed that there are no records stating that Jesus did not die by crucifixion, other than that Basilides person. I fear you are mistaken on that point. The Gospel of Barnabas reports that someone else took Jesus’ place on the day of crucifixion and that Jesus escaped death. Now, the—”

“Honored Sheikh, The Gospel of Barnabas is a medieval forgery! It has no historical value whatever.”

“Well, perhaps a forgery based on facts, on a true secret tradition of what actually happened.”

Jon simply shook his head. “As I recall, one reason you deny Jesus’ crucifixion was because God would not allow such a punishment for one of his faithful prophets. Well, there we have a problem. Quite a few of God’s prophets have indeed suffered and died for his sake despite their faithfulness. Elijah had to run for his life, Jeremiah was cast into a pit, Zechariah was stoned to death, and John the Baptist was beheaded.”

“Well, Jesus was perhaps a favorite son among the prophets. In any case, you Christians have been fearfully wrong in turning him into a god, when there is no God but God.”

“What about Jesus’ own claims to deity?”

“He never made them. This is only another example of how your Scriptures have been corrupted, or, to phrase it better, an example of how errors have intruded into their texts when manuscripts were recopied. In fact, here is what Jesus did say on this subject.” Abbas picked up his Qur’an, paged through it, and said: “Here it is. I quote from Sura 5:116:

“Then God will say, ‘Jesus, son of Mary, did you ever say to mankind, “Worship me and my mother as gods besides God”?’ Jesus will answer, ‘Glory be to You. I could never have claimed what I have no right to. If I had ever said so, You would surely have known it. . . . I told them only what You bade me. I said, “Serve God, my Lord and your Lord.”’”

Al-Rashid closed the book and looked directly at Jon.

Jon again shook his head and said, “Jesus would never, ever have said, ‘Worship my mother and me as gods.’ This drastically violates everything we know regarding his relationship with his mother, Mary, and so—”

“So you agree with me, then?”

“No, I do not. In his ministry, Jesus took great care to distance himself somewhat from his mother, most probably so that any worship of his mother would never take place. Accordingly, God could never have asked a question like that.”

“But the Holy Qur’an says that God will ask Jesus this question.”

“And our Holy Bible shows that it would be utterly impossible for God to ask Jesus a question like that, especially in view of everything we know about God, Jesus, and Mary from the pages of the New Testament.”

“So, then, you also deny that Jesus ever said or ever would say what the Holy Qur’an plainly states are his very words?”

“Yes, I simply must deny that Jesus ever said, or ever would say, the words that you quoted.”

“Then are you calling the Prophet—may his name be blessed—a liar?”

“No—” Jon started to reply but was forced to pause as loud, agitated murmuring arose from the crowd. He raised his voice a bit. “No, I would never call him a liar. Muhammad did not write down those words himself, since he could neither read nor write. They were first written down—as the Qur’an—under his successor Caliph Uthman twenty years after his death. How can we be sure that those were the actual words of the Prophet?”

This prompted an even louder drone of disapproval until silence returned when the crowd seemed eager to hear Abbas’s response.

“It is an article of faith in Islam that they actually were the Prophet’s words—may his name be blessed. And certainly the same could be said about the words of Jesus in the Gospels. He never wrote them down.”

“This is true enough, Dr. al-Rashid. But the overwhelming evidence of the different followers of Jesus who wrote down his words is consistent in reporting what he said. Many were eyewitnesses. The same cannot be said for a source six centuries after Jesus.”

Silence followed. It was a very powerful argument, not because Jon had come up with it, but because it was simple, logical, historical fact.

Finally Abbas responded, “I must prefer the true and final revelation of God himself in the Holy Qur’an against that of human beings, whether they wrote as eyewitnesses or were removed even thousands of years from what they reported.”

Jon waited out the inevitable applause from the Muslim half of the audience, then replied, “I respect you for your faith, worthy Imam.” He suppressed what he wanted to add: even though no historian in the world would agree with you. What he did add was: “And I trust that you will respect mine.”

The moderators rang a bell, indicating that it was time for the midafternoon break. Both sides of the sanctuary offered applause, clearly enthusiastic enough to exceed what was merely routine or polite.

Jon’s luncheon group, along with their detail from the Turkish police and the CIA, retired to what would have been the green room in any other public venue, but at Hagia Sophia it had to be a robing room in the apse of the basilica. More than anything else, Jon wanted to hear Osman al-Ghazali’s reaction to the afternoon debate, thus far. As a convert from Islam, his opinions were of utmost importance.

“Brilliant defense of the faith, Jon,” he opened. “And you really scored some potent points against Islam. By the way, it seems that most of the national television networks in the Muslim countries are making use of Al Jazeera’s feed from their big camera crew in the east balcony.”

“Great. But why are you frowning?”

“Oh, was it that noticeable? Well, I’m . . . just a little concerned . . .” His voice trailed off.

“Concerned about . . . ?”

“Well, during the debate, I’ve been watching the other side very carefully, particularly several of their well-known mullahs whom I recognized, sitting near the front. Some Shiites were there too. One, in fact, was Ayatollah al-Kazim from Tehran, not the one who laid a fatwa on your head, but his lieutenant. And then there was Imam Chasbullah, who evidently came all the way from Indonesia, Amir Ahmad Riza Khan from Pakistan too. Among the Sunnis there were several princes from the royal family in Saudi Arabia, as well as a big Egyptian delegation—mainly faculty colleagues of al-Rashid. But I digress. My concern is this: every time you scored a debating point against Islam, I watched their reaction. We’re talking narrowing of the eyes, clenching fists, and corrugated foreheads. Lots of frowning, too.”

“You mean they weren’t exactly applauding me?” Jon quipped with a wink to Shannon that was intended to forestall any worry on her part.

“Well, put it this way: I wouldn’t want to break bread with any of them afterward.”

“Hadn’t really planned to, Osman.” Jon looked up. “Uh-oh, here comes Ferris with that cell phone molded to his left ear.”

“Hi, team,” he said. “Our debate’s been on for an hour now in the States. It’s replacing the morning shows on NBC and CBS, with ABC cutting in from time to time on Good Morning America. CNN is covering everything from gavel to gavel, but with a commentary team that’s half-Christian and half-Muslim.”

“Excellent!” Jon said. “I’ll bet watching that would be more fun than the actual debate!”

“Yeah, but—” Ferris’s face fell a bit—“the NBC studios at Rockefeller Center received a bomb threat from someone who called in with a Middle Eastern accent.”

Shannon bit her lip and glanced at Jon with a look that all but shouted, I knew something like this would happen!

“What are they doing about it?” Osman wondered.

“Well, they have to take it seriously, of course,” Ferris replied, “but that sort of thing is quite routine nowadays, unfortunately.”

“We have to go back shortly,” Jon said. “Any further advice, Osman?”

“Just beware of any traps that al-Rashid may try to set for you. If you’re caught in one, he could win the debate. I’d only suggest that you continue walking that tightrope, Jon. You have to defend the faith, of course, but try to do it as diplomatically as you can—”

“Without enraging the other side. Got it, Osman.” Blasted restraint, he almost muttered. How I’d love to cut loose!

On the way back to the dais, Jon weighed the obvious. They were now on the last lap. What if he got tired—or impatient—and let his guard down? One ill-chosen phrase, evidently, could ignite the Islamic world. Again that dreadful double standard: Curse Christ as much as you wish in the West, or draw caricatures of his church, or place a crucifix in a pan of urine and call it art (duly funded by the government), and you easily get away with it. Try the same with Islam or Muhammad and you’re dead!

Just before stepping onto the dais, Jon looked at row ten on the Christian side of the sanctuary, because it seemed to be filled with Roman collars. And on the aisle, whom should he see but the wonderfully familiar face of Kevin F. X. Sullivan, “my personal ambassador to the Vatican,” Jon often told friends. He immediately walked over, and they exchanged several slaps on the back.

“And what brings you to Istanbul, Kev?” Jon asked. “Converting to Eastern Orthodoxy, are you?”

“Right! But only when you return to Mother Church, Jon. The Holy Father sends you his blessings.”

“And mine to him, Kev. Gotta run. What’re you doing for dinner?”

“No special plans.”

“Great! We’re at the Hilton. Say 7 p.m.?”

Before Kevin could answer, Jon had to return to the dais. But he looked back and saw his friend flashing a thumbs-up sign.

The moderators now announced that the same, freewheeling dialogue would govern the final session of the debate, with a minimum of their interference. Applause actually broke out at that point, which both the patriarch and the primate took graciously.

“I have a question for you, Professor Weber,” Abbas al-Rashid began. “What in Islam do you find the most difficult doctrine to accept?”

Clever, Jon thought. Makes Abbas look like he’s ready for anything, while luring me out on a dangerous limb. Why didn’t I think of that one first? Jon finally opened his mouth and said, “The doctrine of abrogation.”

Abbas looked puzzled. “The doctrine of abrogation?”

“Yes, the idea that God could lay down one precept and then—in what is claimed as a subsequent revelation—change his mind and say something entirely different. I find that demeaning to God’s perfection.”

“But the later command is an improvement on the previous one, as Allah tells us. Isn’t that gracious of the Divine Majesty?”

At that point, Jon had to bite his tongue, for he wanted to say, Well, why didn’t the deity get it right the first time? Didn’t he have a second cup of coffee that day? What he actually said was “One only wonders why anything that God did or said would need improvement.” This was met with applause from the Christian contingent. Then he added, in tit for tat, “And what in Christianity do you find the most difficult doctrine to accept, esteemed Imam?”

“Two claims, really,” he replied. “The Trinity, of course, is still incomprehensible to any Muslim. But the other is what you Christians call the doctrine of the Incarnation, that the God of the universe could have taken on human flesh in Jesus. That is impossible by any standards and is far more demeaning to God than the idea of God improving on his commands.”

“Well said! And I certainly agree that the Trinity and the Incarnation are the two greatest mysteries, the two greatest miracles of the Christian faith. Again, though, I side with Augustine who said, ‘I believe because it is absurd’—absurd to human logic, to be sure, but our minds are so dimensionally different from that of God that what seems absurd to us may be entirely logical in the divine dimension. And what greater revelation could God give us than to cross the cosmic divide into humanity, forming the divine bridge by which we can truly know God and experience the blessings of having our sins forgiven by faith in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?”

“Very well, then, let me ask you the most important question any Muslim can ask of anyone else. May I?”

“Of course.” Here it comes, Jon thought, with no idea how it might be defined.

Al-Rashid asked, “What is your true opinion, your honest opinion of the Prophet Muhammad—may his name be blessed?”

A sudden, tense silence filled the vast reaches of Hagia Sophia. Well, it was dynamite, Jon realized. Or better, his tightrope was now stretched across the caldera of a volcano bubbling with hot lava and threatening to explode whether or not he fell off the tightrope first. What he wanted to say was not what he could say at that place and time. Yet he had to be honest.

Jon smiled. “I have many good things to say about the Prophet Muhammad.” A loud stirring on both sides of the aisle showed that he had startled the entire audience. He paused to let the strange tidings digest, then continued. “First of all, he led his people away from the terrible error of paganism, polytheism, and their worship of many different desert deities to monotheism, since there can be only one God. Belief in the one God sets Judaism, Christianity, and Islam apart from all other world religions then or since. We surely have that in common.”

“Well said!” al-Rashid replied. “I heartily agree.”

“Muhammad also taught people to abandon idolatry and other sad practices of paganism. He taught them spiritual disciplines, such as prayer, fasting, and concern for the poor, and he set higher ethical standards than had previously been the case among the desert tribes of Arabia. His reforms aimed in the right direction, for example, reducing the number of wives a man might have to only four. Previously, there had been no limit.”

“Again I must agree. Well spoken. Why, then, can you not also become my brother in the true faith? All you must do is define Jesus correctly as one of the greatest of the prophets, yet less than God—and thus restore unity in place of trinity. But are there any other reasons you cannot join us?”

“Yes, there are. But first I must thank you for your fraternal spirit. We need much more of that in Muslim-Christian dialogue. There are indeed many other reasons that I cannot follow Islam, but a single day’s debate is not long enough to air them. Since our time is expiring, let me mention only one. I find it extremely unwise to hazard my entire spiritual future by believing in one person’s claimed revelation, whether that person be man or woman, boy or girl. What if that one person should be wrong? And I do believe that every religion founded by just one person has indeed been mistaken.”

At the loud Muslim murmuring, al-Rashid held up his hands for silence, then replied, “Well, I would agree with you in the case of Zoroaster, or Gautama Buddha, or Mithra, or Joseph Smith, or Mary Baker Eddy—all single founders—but you have just admitted, then, that Christianity is false, since it was founded by one man: Jesus of Nazareth.”

“No, my honored opponent! Christianity had many founders who lived and taught God’s revelation across many centuries. We believe the testimony of God’s patriarchs and prophets in the Old Testament, who predicted matters that were fulfilled with incredible accuracy many centuries later. We believe the further testimony of God’s evangelists and apostles and missionaries in the New Testament, as well as in the ultimate embodiment of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. Now that is what we call a whole ‘cloud of witnesses’ who can be trusted since their testimony is unanimous.”

Spirited Christian applause filled the basilica.

The moderators now tinkled their bells, indicating that it was time for a final summation by each side. Al-Rashid was given the favored position of having the last word, due to the essentially Muslim environment.

Jon started his summation with a surprising twist. “I am most grateful to everyone in this basilica for your attendance and for your patience, as well as to all who had a hand in preparing this event. I don’t think a final summary of the Christian position is necessary at this point, since that should be quite obvious by now. Instead, I would like to close with an urgent appeal for further dialogue and tolerance between Muslims and Christians. Both sides have been guilty of failures in this respect. In the West, we’ve been traumatized by radical Islam—especially since 9/11—and so there the debate rages as to whether Islam is a religion of peace or violence.

“The answer, of course, is yes, meaning that one can find both in the Qur’an. Yet so often when Muhammad advocated violence it was more in the form of a general inspiring his troops prior to actual warfare, since the Prophet had been attacked militarily. Does anyone think that—were Muhammad alive today—he would have condoned the attacks in New York or Washington, the subway bombings in London and Madrid, the assassinations in Beirut, the bombings of mosques in Pakistan, the murderous rampage in Mumbai, and dozens of other acts of Islamic terrorism across the world?”

“Never! He would not have!” al-Rashid interposed.

Jon smiled and continued. “And so I would plead that the great moderate majority in Islam across the world become far more vocal, far more active in curbing the incendiary rhetoric of radical mullahs and other militants who preach violence. I would plead that their governments become far more active in eradicating terrorist cells in their own nations and elsewhere. These fanatics have killed far more of their own Muslim brothers and sisters than the Western Christians they have targeted!

“To be sure, Christians in history have also failed to follow the teachings of the Prince of Peace. But in general, our period of religious violence ended centuries ago. Today, we do not see Christian or Jewish terrorists blowing up Islamic mosques, do we? Sadly, the reverse is often the case, which is why I would rejoice to see a true Islamic reformation take place in terms of the same mature moderation now achieved in both Judaism and Christianity. If you forget everything else in our discussion today, please remember this vision, this plea.

“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.” Amid applause that bordered on ovation, Jon sat down.

Abbas al-Rashid stood with slow deliberation and said, “I, too, thought of using this summation to ‘win for Islam,’ as it were, but I agree so thoroughly with my opponent’s plea for peace, dialogue, and moderation that I am pleased to say that I agree with his statements in almost every respect. Even in the Christian West, however, we also hear radical voices denouncing Muslims as ‘camels’ or ‘towel heads.’ This is not to say that our radicalisms are the same. Ours, I must confess, are far more violent, far more dangerous, and far more in need of correction.

“For that reason and others, I join with Professor Weber in appealing to all Muslim authorities in both state and religion to denounce radical Islam, to curb terrorism, and finally to end it. They must admit this truth to their people: that terrorism has never—anywhere in history or anywhere on earth—succeeded in establishing a successful government or society. Its history instead has been one of bloodshed, civil upheaval, anarchy, and general chaos. For that reason, reason itself must prevail. If it does, I have great hopes for another golden age for Islam—as was the case in the Abbasid era, for which I was named—but only if it escapes the clutches of those who would restrict it. These are the same false leaders who have prevented Muslim progress in so many fields in the centuries since. I hope people of goodwill everywhere may support this effort.

“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, Christians and Muslims alike, for your presence at our discussion today.”

Al-Rashid received applause similar to what Jon had evoked, though actually more from the Christian than the Muslim audience. In the eastern half, some had refused to applaud, especially Shiite representatives. Abbas and Jon walked toward each other, met near the center of the table on the dais, shook hands, and then actually embraced. Instantly, the applause became a vast, genuine ovation.