The Myth of Mecca

PoliticalUSA.com ^ | 9/27/2001 | Dr. Jack Wheeler

[JoeGOP]

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. MORE

[francisandbeans]

Do a search before posting...already posted here

[Raging Against the machine]

Quite frankly , im getting tired of everybody bastardizing the muslim people simply because of guilt by association... there are dozens of passages in the bible that can be scrutinized and picked at ...

so we're going to condem a whole religion (1 billion strong) over the actions of a few... thats such typical american white trash thinking...
why dont we all just join the klan and go about 'doin a coupla hangins!'...

[JmyBryan]

Excellent article - thanks for the post. That pesky history gets in the way for literalists every time.

[caddie]

Shut up you wimp.

Their own "holy men" are behind the terrorists. Their religion is all a part of it.

Go to Salon's website.

P.S. Liberalism is dead. Deal with it.

[NicR]

Quite frankly, I'm tired of punctuation and spelling impaired nitwits from DUh "bastardizing" this site.

[surferUSA]

Autumn Afghanistan sunrise...

Place your head between your knees, kneel in the direction of Mecca, and kiss your a*s good-bye.

[Richard Kimball]

Yeah, are we going to condemn a whole religion over the actions of twenty or thirty million extremists who claim to represent it?

Also, hi to whoever is reading this to you.

[Publius6961]

Your generic outrage is noted.
Your obtuse reference to the Old Testament is also noted.

Now, do you have any useful refutation, correction or addition to the facts presented in the article?

[r9etb]

So what Wheeler's saying is: Islam has a history not unlike that of the "holiday" of Kwanzaa: made up for the specific purpose of uniting the Arab tribes under a single religion.

This may or may not be true; however, I note that it's an awfully convenient conclusion allowing Jews and Christians a way out of "pretending" that we share the same God.

Considering how Islamic fundamentalists have no difficulty justifying the killings of infidels, we really ought to beware of attempts to paint Moslems as infidels in return.

Judging by some of the crap posted on this thread, I'd say there's plenty of folks who are well down the slippery slope already.

[x]

Your sentiment is laudable, but why don't you apply it to your fellow Americans as well? I don't get why so many appeals not to "stereotype" or "discriminate" or show prejudice against other peoples always end up with expressions of the same sort of blanket animosity directed against people closer to home.