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Robert Spencer - 'Did Mohammed exist?'

Reader comment on item: The Difference between Shari'a and Halakhah

Submitted by Chris heathj (United Kingdom), Oct 21, 2013 at 17:04

I suppose it is an axiom. Mohammed 'had' to exist'. If he did not , where would Islam be?

I mean, millions of people dead, for no reason?

I am about to read the book, but I am already considering the consequences.

The premise, is that the Koran was written AFTER, the major 'Islamic' expansion, 630-670 AD.

And , actually, this makes perfect sense (in hindsight!), the Koran is basically, a political, ideological, totalitarian (OK, and a small amount of religion) manifesto.

And I can see that the expansion happened so quickly, why was that? A contention is that regions had already been infiltrated with spies, and subversive elements - the area was already weakened by exploiting political, cultural, religious, and economic rifts.

The invading muslims, basically made the point that Jesus (or any other prophet) was a Muslim .

Join us and be successful, look at the booty we have obtained, or die.

So, by a variety of means, the battles they won, were only a part of the story. The already weakened ( or divisive) town, city, or nation, caved in to many pressures - under the illusion that the takeover was merely an extension of what existed.

But the warfare created booty, slave warriors, concubines, and a healthy slave revenue.

It was only later, that the differences ( and the concept of Mohammed, and the Koran) were created, (eg to insure a continuous supply of revenue, via slave trade, jizzya tax, etc.), and the other religions were persecuted, (monuments churches destroyed) , and my belief is that this occurred, because the initial 'thrust' of war won rewards began to diminish. and the general population of Muslims felt they needed to revitalise the war effort.

Submitting....

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".

Reader comments (2) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
2Another difference between Jewish and Muslim approach to application of religious laws. [211 words]prashantNov 1, 2013 02:48211118
Robert Spencer - 'Did Mohammed exist?' [287 words]Chris heathjOct 21, 2013 17:04210852

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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".

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