A self-proclaimed Islamic-terrorist-turned-Christian-evangelist is speaking in Clatskanie on Sunday (Nov. 8) about what he says are the dangers of his former faith.

But critics say Zachariah Anani has embellished his role as a fighter in the Lebanese civil war of the 1970s, and they worry his hardline views stoke anti-Muslim sentiment.

Anani, a Canadian citizen, will speak at 1 p.m. at the American Legion Hall in Clatskanie at the request of the Church of Beaver Creek. The independent Baptist church, which meets in a house in Clatskanie, is too small to accommodate the expected crowd, Pastor Larry Bond said.

Anani has been giving lectures on Islam in the United States and Canada for about 10 years. He accepts donations as a speaking fee, he said Saturday in Longview.

“If we don’t face this Islamic doctrine, then the future will be very dark.”

Anani was born in Beirut and started attending an Islamic school at age 3. As a teenager, he said, he was a member of an underground militia during the Lebanese civil war. The militia credited him with killing 223 people, he said.

When he was 16, he met a Christian missionary from the United States. “I got converted, and the journey began,” Anani recalled Saturday, his tan suit hanging loosely on his shoulders. At 49, he is more frail than during his years as an Islamic extremist. On Saturday he proudly displayed a tie bearing the Star of David — a symbol of his support for Israel.

Nearly three years ago, Anani gave a talk titled “The Deadly Threat of Islam” at a church in his hometown. Last year, he gave a similar talk at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. Joining him on stage were Walid Shoebat and Kamal Saleem, who say they are former Palestinian Liberation Organization members. Together, the men called themselves “The 3 Ex-Terrorists.”

Following the Air Force appearance, the Council on American-Islamic Relations lambasted the group, saying their speeches were filled with hate-filled rhetoric and short on facts about the Muslim faith.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Muslim civil rights group, on Saturday said Anani paints all Muslims with an extremist brush, which is damaging.

“It’s a very corrosive mentality,” Hooper said. “If you want to know about Islam, ask a Muslim.”

Tom Quiggin, a Canadian terrorism expert, has questioned the veracity of Anani’s claims, saying the serious fighting didn’t start until after Anani left Lebanon to attend college in Egypt.

“Mr. Anani’s not an individual who rates the slightest degree of credibility, based on the stories he has told. To have Mr. Anani described as a terrorist grants an impact to his words that simply is not rated,” Quiggin told the Windsor Star newspaper in 2007. “He may have been a low-level militant, radical, street fighter or insurgent, but he was not a terrorist of any description based on his stories,” Quiggin said.

Anani said Muslims destroyed records of his fighting in Lebanon after he converted to Christianity. Also, his weapons of choice — knives and guns instead of bombs — differ from the modern definition of a terrorist, he said.

After he converted and moved back to Lebanon, Anani said, Muslims tried to kill him seven times for speaking out. He said a large scar on the back of his neck is from a knife wound that left him without a pulse for seven minutes.

Anani moved to Canada in 1996 as a refugee. He lives in Windsor, Ontario, with his wife. They have three adult children.

He said he is not promoting violence against Muslims, but he thinks their faith is dangerous.

Christians “should stop being politically correct. They should face (Muslims) as they are and work to change the situation,” he said.

Anani first met with Clatskanie’s Church of Beaver Creek members in February at the urging of an associate pastor. Church members wanted to help him tell his story to a larger audience, said Bond, the church’s pastor.

“Our interest is to awaken the sleepiness of Americans with regards to the threat of Islam in the world,” Bond said.