Posted on 09/27/2001 6:56:26 AM PDT by francisandbeans
The most sacred spot on earth to all members of the Islamic religion is the Holy City of Mecca, revered as the birthplace of Mohammed. It is one of the five basic requirements incumbent upon all Moslems that they make (if their health will allow it) a pilgrimage to Mecca once in their lives (the other four: recognize that there is no god but Allah, that Mohammed is Allah's prophet, ritually pray five times a day, and give alms to the poor).
The founding events of Islam are Mohammed's activities in Mecca and Medina, a city north of Mecca. The life of Mohammed, known as the Sira, is popularly accepted to be fully documented historically, that everything he did and said was accurately recorded. According to one hagiographer, although Mohammed "could not read or write himself, he was constantly served by a group of 45 scribes who wrote down his sayings, instructions and activities.... We thus know his life down to the minutest details."
The evidence for this is "the earliest and most famous biography of Mohammed," the Sirat Rasul Allah (The Life of the Prophet of God) of Ibn Ishaq. The dates given for Mohammed's life are 570-632 AD. Ibn Ishaq was born about 717 and died in 767. He thus wrote his biography well over 100 years after Mohammed lived, precluding his gaining any information from eyewitnesses to the Sira as they would have all died themselves in the intervening years.
However, no copies exist of Ibn Ishaq's work. We know of it only through quotations of it in the History of al-Tabari, who lived over two hundred years after Ibn Ishaq (al-Tabari died in 992). Thus the earliest biography of Mohammed of which copies still exist was written some 350 years after Mohammed lived.
It is curious, therefore, that there seems to have been so little serious scholarly research of the historical evidence for how Islam came to be. Yet what seems to be isn't so. A number of professional academic historians, both Western and Moslem, have produced a large body of research on the origins of Islam. For reasons best known to the pundits and reviewers who should be aware of it, this research remains publicly unknown.
From my experience in the Middle East, I suspect that much of the conflict stems from the fact that Muslims are taught that everything Muslim is superior to everything infidel.
It is almost impossible for an infidel to teach a true believer, because they do not believe that a an infidel could possibly know anything that a true believer does not already know.
Every superior achievement of the West is a blatant affront to their religion and thus must be the work of the devil. The World Trade Towers were a standing insult to their god and thus they had to be destroyed.
I was in Turkey when we first set foot on the Moon. Muslims were either in shock or in denial. It was not a happy time in the nation of Islam.
How can Muslims revere Jesus as a prophet and at the same time claim he's a liar?
Worth repeating.
1) Why is the color green on their countries flags?
2) Why is the crescent moon and star on their flags?
3) Why is the meteorite in the middle of the city so important?
Always wondered about these things.
Thanks for the insight.
OK, shoot. Give me one specific criticism of the the Bible and the Catholic church or one contradiction in either. That shouldn't be too hard.
An absolutley fascinating article and unfortunately, Dr. Crone's book is out of print and the local library doesn't carry it.
Know your enemy...
The New Testement was complete by 100 AD, less than 70 years after Jesus' death. There are more manuscripts of the NT than any other Greek work. We don't doubt the writings of Julias Caesar--why Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?
If the disciples lied and Jesus didn't rise, there's no reasonable explanation of why they were willing to be martyred for a lie. Do you have one?
There suddenly was an American terrorist group by, let's say, the name of "The Minutemen". And, these Minutemen terrorists threatened any Islamic country by blowing up Mecca or the Temple Mount if any more acts of war were waged on Americans anywhere in the world? Would that get anyone's attention?
That's the road I think we should take, except that we need not create a terrorist group ourselves. We should just point a nuclear missile at Mecca, announce to the Arab world that Islamic terrorists of all stripes are now their problem and their problem alone to deal with if they wish for Mecca not to become a smoldering crater of glass. We will provide them with every aid and incentive that they might desire to save their most holy city and root out the terrorists once and for all, but if the terrorism begins anew, they have no one but themselves to blame for what happens to Mecca if they allow their madmen to get out of control one more time.
We've been reasonable through the bombings of embassies, the bombing of the USS Cole, the numerous suicide bombings of Palestinian nutcases in Israel, but it is clear that being "reasonable" hasn't gotten us anywhere. It's now time to become unreasonable.
Thanks for the post, and bump it.
None of the links work anymore, but the whole article is posted at #20.
If anybody has a new link please post on that thread. Also if anyone knows where to find more from Dr. Wheeler, I would love a ping.
NOTE: You will not find a lot of literature on the Koran because the Koran is the Word of God made text, and questioning its sanctity or authority is thus considered an outright attack on Islam -- as Salman Rushdie knows all too well.
FReegards . . .
So does the Bible.
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