Thanks to Dave

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Jan 26, 2022 at 14:32

Dear Dr Pipes, this is to thank Dave for his thoughtful reply to my criticism of his message.

If our goal is to prove from the historical evidence that Islam was never created by a person called Muhammad, I can never be a good participant in that debate because of my very limited knowledge of Arabic and History. And, in fact, most of the humanity, Muslim or otherwise, will not be able to participate in that debate. This is not to say that proving or disproving the historical truths related to Islam is not a worthy intellectual goal.

When it comes to religions, the exact historic truths do not matter. It does not matter whether Jesus had a virgin birth or not. Or, if the hindu gods and demons churned the ocean to find the elixir of life. And, similarly, if Quran was revealed to Muhammad or not.

What matter are the versions of the doctrines on which people base their faiths on. It is these doctrines that need to be questioned. They can be left untouched if they are reasonably harmless. They ought to be opposed if they are harmful to the believers and to others.

That is exactly why people should be able to oppose the Hindu caste system without being called apostates and killed. And, this is exactly why the Banu Quraish massacre (and tens of Islam's other deficiencies) need to be challenged. If they are bad, Muslims should distance themselves from them. If they are both bad and historically false, all the better. Distancing from them should get even easier.

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