I foresee seething and raging in the streets over this one.
Robert Spencer beat him to the punch, nice to see independent research backing his own conclusions though.
Muslim Professor of Islamic Theology Concludes After Research: Prophet Muhammed Never Existed
Professor Hired for Outreach to Muslims Delivers a Jolt
Islamic Theologian’s Theory: It’s Likely the Prophet Muhammad Never Existed
By ANDREW HIGGINS | The Wall Street Journal
MÜNSTER, Germany — Muhammad Sven Kalisch, a Muslim convert and Germany’s first professor of Islamic theology, fasts during the Muslim holy month, doesn’t like to shake hands with Muslim women and has spent years studying Islamic scripture. Islam, he says, guides his life.
So it came as something of a surprise when Prof. Kalisch announced the fruit of his theological research. His conclusion: The Prophet Muhammad probably never existed.
Theology Without Muhammad
Read a translated excerpt from “Islamic Theology Without the Historic Muhammad — Comments on the Challenges of the Historical-Critical Method for Islamic Thinking” by Professor Kalisch.
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Muslims, not surprisingly, are outraged. Even Danish cartoonists who triggered global protests a couple of years ago didn’t portray the Prophet as fictional. German police, worried about a violent backlash, told the professor to move his religious-studies center to more-secure premises.
“We had no idea he would have ideas like this,” says Thomas Bauer, a fellow academic at Münster University who sat on a committee that appointed Prof. Kalisch. “I’m a more orthodox Muslim than he is, and I’m not a Muslim.”
When Prof. Kalisch took up his theology chair four years ago, he was seen as proof that modern Western scholarship and Islamic ways can mingle — and counter the influence of radical preachers in Germany. He was put in charge of a new program at Münster, one of Germany’s oldest and most respected universities, to train teachers in state schools to teach Muslim pupils about their faith.
Muslim leaders cheered and joined an advisory board at his Center for Religious Studies. Politicians hailed the appointment as a sign of Germany’s readiness to absorb some three million Muslims into mainstream society. But, says Andreas Pinkwart, a minister responsible for higher education in this north German region, “the results are disappointing.”
Prof. Kalisch, who insists he’s still a Muslim, says he knew he would get in trouble but wanted to subject Islam to the same scrutiny as Christianity and Judaism. German scholars of the 19th century, he notes, were among the first to raise questions about the historical accuracy of the Bible.
Hmm, I been following this Kalisch story for years now. I remember he went into hiding a few years ago when he declared that Muhammad was fictional. Whats surprising is that he still considers himself a Muslim. Obviously he is not teaching (or lecturing) anywhere, and he hasn’t published anything in years. Several authors and researchers have made the case that the meshugga prophet never really existed, but since he exists in the minds of 1.5 gazillion lunatics (who are commanded to kill and die for him) it would be suicidal to ignore him.