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Did the Prophet Muhammad Really Exist? This Is Robert Spencer’s Shocking Answer
The Blaze ^ | 05/05/2012 | Billy Hallowell

Posted on 10/10/2014 12:51:59 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Did the Prophet Muhammad really exist? This question, which may seem bizarre on the surface, is at the root of a new book by Robert Spencer, a prominent author and the director of Jihad Watch. Spencer, a figure who is praised by his fans and loathed by his detractors, has written numerous books on Islam.

Earlier this week, The Blaze spoke with the expert about his controversial, new book, “Did Muhammad Exist?” As can be derived from the title, the text delves into some uncomfortable subject matter, as Spencer examines the historical documentation surrounding the Muslim prophet.

The book’s official description perfectly encapsulates its central tenets:

Did Muhammad exist?

It is a question that few have thought—or dared—to ask. Virtually everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, takes for granted that the prophet of Islam lived and led in seventh-century Arabia. But this widely accepted story begins to crumble on close examination, as Robert Spencer shows in his eye-opening new book.

In his blockbuster bestseller The Truth about Muhammad, Spencer revealed the shocking contents of the earliest Islamic biographical material about the prophet of Islam.

Now, in Did Muhammad Exist?, he uncovers that material’s surprisingly shaky historical foundations. Spencer meticulously examines historical records, archaeological findings, and pioneering new scholarship to reconstruct what we can know about Muhammad, the Qur’an, and the early days of Islam. The evidence he presents challenges the most fundamental assumptions about Islam’s origins.

The premise of the book is that Islam — like Judaism and Christianity –deserves to be scrutinized and appropriately examined. Spencer maintains that Islam, unlike the other massive faith systems, has never truly been given the academic attention and examination it deserves. Like Christianity, he maintains that the faith is one that “deserve[s] historical scrutiny.”

(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...


TOPICS: History; Religion
KEYWORDS: faithandphilosophy; islam; jihad; koran; lycurgus; mohammad; muhammad; quran; robertspencer; spencer
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To: GeronL; ejonesie22; Elsie
He was a warlord pedophile and he created a so-called “faith” to support it.

Except for the 'warlord' part, there is some resemblance to another 'prophet' named Joseph Smith ... no?

21 posted on 10/10/2014 1:30:29 PM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: Vermont Lt

Hey, I wonder if this guy caused ISIS back there a couple years back.

Obola has his cover story now.


22 posted on 10/10/2014 1:32:30 PM PDT by right way right (America has embraced the suck of Freedumb.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I can’t respond to the specific claims about Mohammed, but to me it is undeniably true that the Koran has not received a fraction of the critical scholarship that has been devoted to the Bible over the last 150 years. Scrutiny of the origins and development of the Koran by Western scholars is long overdue.


23 posted on 10/10/2014 1:36:45 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: SeekAndFind

24 posted on 10/10/2014 1:41:43 PM PDT by Brother Cracker (You are more likely to find krugerrands in a Cracker Jack box than 22 ammo at Wal-Mart)
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To: SeekAndFind

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

—The Usual Suspects


25 posted on 10/10/2014 1:45:59 PM PDT by Molon Labbie (Prep. Now. Live Healthy, take your Shooting Iron daily.)
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To: SeekAndFind
The book by Norbert Pressburg, What the Modern Martyr Should Know - 72 Grapes and Not a Single Virgin

also makes a case that Mohammed did not exist. The English edition of the book is rather hastily translated from the original German but is worth struggling through.
26 posted on 10/10/2014 1:48:45 PM PDT by Paine in the Neck (Socialism consumes EVERYTHING)
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To: SeekAndFind

Spencer is wrong about it needing historical scrutiny....it needs to be expunged from history, the present, and the future. It is a cult of death and that;s all that is needed.


27 posted on 10/10/2014 1:55:23 PM PDT by Ouderkirk (To the left, everything must evidence that this or that strand of leftist theory is true)
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To: PIF

“There are some coins which suggest what we call Islam is far older.”

The holes in those coins must be so big that they couldn’t fit anything else on them.


28 posted on 10/10/2014 1:55:55 PM PDT by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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To: Servant of the Cross

Actually, Joseph Smith had a military and was considered a general.


29 posted on 10/10/2014 2:01:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.)
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To: PIF

——There are some coins which suggest what we call Islam is far older.——

The cult of the moon god is ancient.....pagan....

Mad mo was an illiterate Bedouin....

I find it difficult to believe he started a religion and just picked up on the moon god and added to it....


30 posted on 10/10/2014 2:01:56 PM PDT by Popman (Jesus Christ Alone: My Cornerstone...)
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To: Servant of the Cross

The Mormons did put up a fight but not long enough for their leader to be called a warlord


31 posted on 10/10/2014 2:04:06 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: A Formerly Proud Canadian

Looks like the comedian SINBAD, with whiskers.


32 posted on 10/10/2014 2:21:03 PM PDT by Tucker39 (Welcome to America! Now speak English; and keep to the right....In driving, in Faith, and politics.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Gross errors in writing:
1. Muhammed s/b Mohammed
2. Muslim s/b Mohammedan
3. Qur’an s/b Koran
4. Islam s/b Mohammedanism

We speak English. We use the English alphabet. We spell in English. Stop legitimizing this mongrel “cult of hate” with their words, their spelling, their definitions.


33 posted on 10/10/2014 2:27:02 PM PDT by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners. And to the NSA trolls, FU)
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m sympathetic to Robert Spencer, and I haven’t read the book, but this reminds me of something Karl Keating once said. “If Homer didn’t write the Iliad, it was written by someone else going by that name.”


34 posted on 10/10/2014 2:34:37 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: 2banana

maybe he was just a composite of the child rapists, mass murderers, slave traders, liars and thieves in charge at the time?


35 posted on 10/10/2014 2:36:14 PM PDT by ransomnote
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To: Popman
I find it difficult to believe he started a religion and just picked up on the moon god and added to it....

AFAIK, he claimed that an angel appeared to him in a manner unlike angelic encounters recorded in the Bible. At this point, I can only think of one candidate for that "angel."

36 posted on 10/10/2014 2:42:09 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: SeekAndFind

Satan had to have used somebody to introduce the scourge of Islam to the world. It didn’t spring full grown out of a rock.


37 posted on 10/10/2014 2:44:27 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: dfwgator

Robert Spencer does a Daily Email Called Jihad watch he is the real deal!


38 posted on 10/10/2014 2:54:12 PM PDT by philly-d-kidder (AB-Sheen"The truth is the truth if nobody believes it,a lie is still a lie, everybody believes it")
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

“for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14)


39 posted on 10/10/2014 2:54:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind (If at first you don't succeed, put it out for beta test.)
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To: BenLurkin

“for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14)


40 posted on 10/10/2014 2:55:03 PM PDT by SeekAndFind (If at first you don't succeed, put it out for beta test.)
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