Did Muhammad Exist?

Submitted by Carl Goldberg (United States), May 16, 2012 at 18:06

What's truly important, of course, is not whether Muhammad really existed but whether people believe he existed. After all, people act on their beliefs, not on the basis of facts. Did Jesus exist? Did Moses exist? For our purposes, we need to know what Moslems believe Muhammad said and did, including whether Muhammad got the Koran revealed to him directly from Allah by Archangel Gabriel. The fact that Moslems believe all of that is supremely important. Whether it "really" happened is not important -- unless you seriously think that Moslems can be persuaded to give up their religion because historical facts do not support it. Good luck with that!

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".