Was Muhammad moderate? The answer is no and this is what the Muslim masorites tell us

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Jan 26, 2013 at 18:04

Hi Ianus

I cannot speak for Dr. Pipes and you wrote

I once asked Dr. Pipes if in his opinion Mahomet was a moderate Moslem. He answered :

" Not to be facetious, but I am far from convinced that such a person even existed, much less do we have credible information about his life.

The key is what Muslims make of Muhammad, not what he did or did not do. And that is very malleable. Note this quote from Hasan Hanafi, professor of philosophy at the University of Cairo: the Koran "is a supermarket, where one takes what one wants and leaves what one doesn't want" (http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3234)."

Here is the poeblem with islam

1. Did Muhammad exist? Dr Pipes is correct if he indeed existed then we do not have the evidence (as in extant literary sources and no neither Seboes nor John of Nikiu are enough to tell us that Muhammad indeed existed or was he a real historical character and for this you need to read Wansbrough's review of Hagarism) as why would the extant Arabic language literary sources are silent about him for almost 72 years after his death and the truth is every religion must have a founder and more likely than not the masorites had to look back and invent yes invent a founder for Islam with the suspicious name of Muhammad

2. The Muslim masorites had to deal with the Muhammad whose Allah tells him that la ikrah fi al deen or the no compulsion in religion but he is also the same god who tells him to iqtoloo al-muskrikeen or kill the idolators and qatilo ahl al-kitab or fight the Jews and Christains

So how do you reconcile this poor theology?

The way out for the ulama was to tell us that Muhammad's Allah must have nasakha or abrogated the no compulsion in religion and made kill the idolators or ayat al-sayf or the sword verse is what Islam is all about

I hope that I helped

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