Southwestern Seminary appoints Emir Caner new dean

(RNS) Emir Caner, a convert to Christianity from Islam who has written controversially about his former religion, has been named dean of the College at Southwestern, the new undergraduate school at Southwestern Seminary.

Caner, 34, will leave his post as associate dean of Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., for his new deanship at the Fort Worth, Texas-based school. The announcment came on April 5. Southeastern and Southwestern are two of the six Southern Baptist graduate schools in the United States.

In February, Caner's brother Ergun, also a convert to Christianity, was named dean of Jerry Falwell's Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.

The brothers co-authored a controversial 2002 book called Unveiling Islam: An Insider's Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs. Jerry Vines, a Southern Baptist minister from Jacksonville, Fla., said he was referring to that book when he called the prophet Muhammad a "demon-possessed pedophile" in an address to the Southern Baptist Convention that deeply offended Muslim groups.

Southwestern Seminary officials said that Caner will also serve as a professor of history at the school. Baptist Press reported that seminary president Paige Patterson called Caner a "colorful figure" who would make the new undergraduate school "a large college."