[Jaysh]

There is another issue here . The man was asking to debate Imam Malik and it seems to be in private, as there were only two in the "room" at that time. This is like if a bidati were to add a rightly guided Sunni to MSN Messenger and then waste his time by arguing with him via messenger. (I hate it when people do this.) So this is just a waste of time.

On the other hand, if the people of bidah are posting on public forums, blogs, and websites....then the matter is different! We are not even debating them JUST to show THEM the falseness in THEIR ways, but to show THE PUBLIC the falseness in their ways. In fact, most times they themselves will remain stubbornly upon falsehood, but the matter is clarified for the rest of the believers, who will come to know the truth. If we sit back and don't refute the people of innovation, then the masses will remain confused on the matter and may err.

For example, brother Bassam (founder of the Call-to-Monotheism website) would probably find it a waste of time to have Sam Shamoun (admin of Answering-Islam) on msn messenger...but the minute Sam Shamoun posts on a website, THOUSANDS of people are going to read it, so Bassam needs to refute it...not for Sam's sake, but for the thousands of people, of them whom would include Muslims and future Muslims. So there is a difference between debating for sport (i.e. 1 on 1 match) vs refuting a person for the good of the community, the preservation of the religion, and the promotion of Tawheed.

As another brother told me: it is not as if Imam Malik would remain silent if the Muslims were engaging in shirk, i.e. calling on other than Allah [swt].