[Angelus Errare]

I am still preparing a response, but let me just say that I tend to take most claims of higher criticism and deconstructionism of religious texts (on this I believe that myself and JasonC are on opposite ends of the spectrum) with a whole tanker of salt because I feel that were the same methods applied to say Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time or Tolkien's Lord of the Rings they would yield results several degrees opposite to the facts.

To me, much of this talk about the role of oral tradition, multiple authors, redactors, and editors (who are curiously never identified by name in any of these theories but whose existence and roles are simply taken a priori) in the formation of holy texts outside of the tradition in which they were raised to be purely speculative and based largely upon deconstructionist premises that the traditional sources and story behind a holy text simply cannot be true.

That being said, I believe (and I would really just as soon not get into a long-winded discussion on this) that the traditional origins of the Qur'an are by and large true (which is to say that I believe that Mohammed wrote it, not that it was dictated to him by Gabriel).

Additionally, I think that one of the reasons as to why there was a great deal of resistance to the Qur'an being translated lies in the fact that Arabic is an extremely difficult language to correctly translate (for example, can somebody please give the correct spelling of the Libyan dictator's name?), hence the special precautions to prevent textual errors.

[secretagent]

Thanks.

[Nogbad]

can somebody please give the correct spelling of the Libyan dictator's name?

Using the usual rules of transliteration it is Qaddafi,
which means, by the way, "Slinger".

[Nogbad]

which is to say that I believe that Mohammed wrote it.

Nobody, not even orthodox Moslems, believes Mohammed wrote the Koran.

[justshutupandtakeit]

The fellow from 100 yrs ago quoted has it most accurate. The Koran is one of the most stubborn enemies of Civilization, Liberty and the Truth which the world has ever known.

It is a compliation of crap without any redeeming features and reads like it was composed by an illiterate camel driver and caravan thief. Only among the ignorant could it have flourished. Only by killing its enemies could it have survived.

Unlike most high religion's scriptures it is devoid of beauty and eternal truths which is to be expected since it takes the tales of the Holy Bible and twists and perverts them into incomprehensible garbage. People need to read this junk or they will never comprehend the depth of the world's problem with Islame.

[philosofy123]

He did not read or write. He used a disgraced priest to write a bastardized version that is loaded with sex, and violence. The priest then went into a deep well with the book. Mohamed took his followers to the well, and said look here, God asked me to drop a rope in the well, and he will give me his KORAN! Voila, he dropped the rope in, the stupid priest tied the KORAN to it, and the ignorant bunch started shouting, what a miracle. Mohamed then commanded them to throw a stone in the well to kill show rejection of the devil. They still do till today, throw a stone in the same area.