Jay Smith

Jay Smith (born 1953) is an American polemicist of Islam. Since 1983, he has been a full-time missionary with the Brethren in Christ Church with a focus on polemics among the Muslims of London.

Biography Early life Smith was born in India to Brethren in Christ missionaries and attended Woodstock School in India. His grandparents were also missionaries. He earned a BA from Messiah College and then a Masters of Divinity from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in apologetics. He has also earned an MA in Islamics from the Fuller Theological Seminary, and a PhD in apologetics and polemics from the Melbourne School of Theology.

Focus on Islam In 1981, while studying for his masters, Smith attended a seminar on Islam while noting that there were only 1,500 Christians ministering to Muslims worldwide, he decided to become a missionary to the Muslim world and pursued a second master's degree in Islamic studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. and the London School of Theology. In 2001, he halted his education to concentrate on apologetics following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. for over 24 years. Smith also engages in formal public debates with prominent Muslim apologists and scholars including Omar Bakri Muhammad, Azzam Tamimi, Smith believes the growth in radical Islam in Britain is due to disaffected Muslims, often minimally religious, returning to their Islamic roots. He says that after reading the Islamic scriptures (the Qur'an in conjunction with the hadith, tafsir, and sira), they come to the conclusion that the Salafi/Athari understanding is the true form of Islam.