The more you know about Islam, the more there is not to like.
H/T: Nicolai Sennels
Banned in some countries. A UK seasoned journalist, historical author attempts to find archaeological & literary evidence for the alleged Arabian Prophet of Islam outside of the Qur’an/Hadiths having access to the latest findings, going to the lands in question to look for key historical evidence.
First I’d like to thank you for the efforts you made to realise/produce this documentary.
I’d like to discuss two points that seemed to puzzle you during the program:
1- The lack of evidence about the existence of el-kaaba or the name of kaaba before 60 years after the death of Mohammed. I’d like to comment that in pre-Islamic literature, there were long poems called (mu.allakat) that used to be ‘glued’ to el-kaaba, which was the pulpit of the desert and the religious and commercial centre of the pre-Islamic region. This proves that writing existed long before Islam, although poetry was the only literary form known.
2- Although the Islamic tradition explains the shared information between the three religions as being inspired by God, there is the recount of this strange source that was called Waraka Ibn Nawfal, who was supposed to be either a Christian monk or a Jewish scholar, living in Macca. This man had very strong ties with Mohammad to the point that after his death, inspiration ceased for two whole years!
3- Unlike how you portrayed Mecca in your documentary, this city used to be vibrant and was the centre for commercial and cultural activities before Islam. In this city, there lived tribes of Jews and there were also some Christian followers as well as other belief systems.
4-It was almost impossible for Quran to speak in details about Mohammed or his whereabout because of its style. ‘Sajaa’ is a type of poetry where the ending of verses don’t have to rhyme always, but the poet is still restricted on what he could say in that form, and the amount of information he could give. Another reason for the lack of mention of the whereabout is that Mohammed wrote to the people around him, and there was no obvious need to write about Mecca. However, he wrote about ‘Yathrib’; the new city he built after he left Mecca with his followers. This city still exist and it is within 470 km from Mecca. It seems to be far fetch for the prophet to come all the way from Syria or Iraq to Yathrib to build a city there. Also, why does the tradition talks about all the politics that took place in search for tribal support, although this doesn’t necessarily help the image of Islam in its details.
5) Mohammed spoke about kettle in the Quran. Ancient poetry speaks about kettle as well. In fact that’s how the old bedwin tribes lived. They invested on camels, horses and goats which was their sole asset, and engaged in warfare against each other to increase their wealth, dominate sources of water and rid the enemy of their power.
6) According to the Islamic tradition, Mohammed belonged to the tribe of Kuraish. He was neither Arab nor spoke Arabic. This language he chose because of his influence with a particular rural tribe during his life as a shepherd. This small tribe went to impose their name and language on the whole of the Middle East and North Africa. Studies in Semitic languages of the region back this claim.
7- Although I’m not Muslim myself, I don’t think sixty years after the death of an initiator of a movement, people can alter history to that point.