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Please try not to bring in tirades about the modern versions of this particular religion
A recently published book by Robert Spencer, Did Muhammad Exist?: An Inquiry into Islam's Obscure Origins is a compilation of historical studies about the origins of Islam, citing scholars going back to the late 19th/early 20th Century who doubted the existence of a man named Muhammed as the orginator of the faith.
Günter Lüling is a German Protestant theologian, philological scholar (Dr. in Arabistics and Islamics) and pioneer in the study of early Islamic origins. From 1962 to 1965 he was the Director of the German Goethe-Institut in Aleppo, Syria. Professor Lüling sees the foundation of Islam in a group of Christians who denied the Trinitarian orthodox beliefs.
German Muslim scholar says Muhammed is a mythical character
SPIEGEL ONLINE: There is a group of prominent German Islamic scholars, who are becoming increasingly aggressive about questioning whether the existence of the Prophet is even historically accurate. The theory got its most recent backing from the University of Münster's Professor Muhammad Sven Kalisch, who is in charge of training teachers for Islamic education at the secondary-school level. The Ministry of Education of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is now planning to calm the waters by appointing an additional professor of Islamic pedagogy. Are we witnessing a split into two camps?
Marx: I don't see it that way. But we should note that what we have from Kalisch at the moment are only the things he has allegedly said. From them, it sounds like he has decided to back the thesis of Professor Karl-Heinz Ohlig, which Ohlig publicized three years ago in his book "Dark Beginnings" ("Die dunklen Anfänge"). There, Ohlig posits that the Koran is a Christian text and that Muhammad probably never lived. But this group, which also includes the numismatist Volker Popp and some others, is very small. I'd say that their position isn't really within the realm of accepted scholarship.
A recently published book by Robert Spencer, Did Muhammad Exist?: An Inquiry into Islam's Obscure Origins is a compilation of historical studies about the origins of Islam, citing scholars going back to the late 19th/early 20th Century who doubted the existence of a man named Muhammed as the orginator of the faith.
Günter Lüling is a German Protestant theologian, philological scholar (Dr. in Arabistics and Islamics) and pioneer in the study of early Islamic origins. From 1962 to 1965 he was the Director of the German Goethe-Institut in Aleppo, Syria. Professor Lüling sees the foundation of Islam in a group of Christians who denied the Trinitarian orthodox beliefs.