I wonder

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Dec 6, 2006 at 17:30

In his reply Dr. Pipes kindly admitted :

"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."

As far as I know some Soviet Arabists once expressed similarly critical - if not hypercritical - views. Not questioning their validity at all - although I myself strongly prefer to consider Allah as a myth and Mohammad as a historical personality - I just wonder how many moderate Muslims would listen to them without becoming radicalized.

And he further pointed out :

" 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).

Thanks a lot for the link ! But rather than reassuring the hopeful reader it illustrates - to my mind- quite a pessimistic conclusion : "In Egypt, as elsewhere in the Muslim world, critical interpretation of the Quran can land you in hot water." In other words , a very strange supermarket where a customer saying "No , thank you" to the standard products can't escape prison or threats and curses of the personnel.

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