TALK GIVEN AT SEVENTH INARAH CONFERENCE IN TRIER, GERMANY, 4 MAY 2022 Good afternoon, welcome to the seventh Inarah Conference. My name is Ibn Warraq. I played, as Dr Markus Gross has adumbrated, a modest part in helping launch the Inarah Institute and the attendant Inarah conferences. I fear some of you may now have […]
The Critical Qur’an: The most comprehensive critical edition of the holy book of the Muslims ever published
A Review of Robert Spencer, The Critical Qur’an. Explained from Key Islamic Commentaries and Contemporary Historical Research. Introduction, 114 Suras, Appendix: Two Apocryphal Shi ‘ite Suras, Endnotes, Index. Pp. 548. Bombardier Books, 2022. In his lucid introduction, Robert Spencer makes an important point that must be borne in mind: his book is a compilation of […]
‘Did Muhammad Exist?’: ‘Intellectually exhilarating.’ ‘Leaves no stone unturned.’
Author’s note: This is the fifth and final segment of my review of Robert Spencer’s new revised and expanded edition of Did Muhammad Exist?. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. Here is more from chapter thirteen, “Making Sense of it All,” which gives a wonderful […]
Could the Qur’an have been adapted from a Christian text?
Author’s note: This is the fourth segment of my review of Robert Spencer’s new revised and expanded edition of Did Muhammad Exist?. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. In Chapter nine, Spencer tackles the vexatious problem of the variants in the Koran, largely but not entirely, due to the […]
If Muhammad is legendary, why were stories invented about him that portray him in a negative light?
Author’s note: This is the third segment of my review of Robert Spencer’s new revised and expanded edition of Did Muhammad Exist?. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Chapter 5 discusses the work of Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham, the earliest biographers of Muhammad, in considerable detail, and shows how totally unreliable […]
The earliest texts mentioning ‘Muhammad’: examined and found wanting
Author’s note: This is the second segment of my review of Robert Spencer’s new revised and expanded edition of Did Muhammad Exist?. Part 1 is here. In chapter 1, Spencer shows how, while the origins of Christianity have been subjected to critical examination for a very long time (after all Spinoza scrutinized the Old […]
Ibn Warraq on ‘Did Muhammad Exist?’: ‘I learnt much new information and arguments from Spencer’s splendid book’
Robert Spencer’s Did Muhammad Exist? was first published in 2011. The present book is thus a second edition, comprehensively revised and with more up-to-date references. Spencer’s work has been diligently researched, and all the possible evidence for the existence of Muhammad is thoroughly examined and, finally, found wanting. It is often argued that logically […]
Islam: Fastest Shrinking Religion in the World (Part 3)
PART THREE: APOSTASY IN ISLAMIC COUNTRIES. The very notion of apostasy has vanished from the West, where one would talk of being a lapsed Catholic or non-practising Christian rather than an apostate. There are certainly no penal sanctions for converting from Christianity to any other religion. In Islamic countries, on the other hand, the issue […]
Islam: Fastest Shrinking Religion in the World (Part 2)
PART TWO CONTINUED: CONVERSIONS TO CHRISTIANITY. MOROCCO In Morocco, there is also a certain amount of evidence of Muslims converting to Christianity. While the majority of Christians are foreigners, the organisation known as the Voice of the Martyrs, founded to help persecuted Christians round the world, claims that there are at least 45,000 native Moroccans […]
Islam: Fastest Shrinking Religion in the World
PART ONE: POPULATION AND THE TRUE NUMBER OF CONVERTS. Immediately after 9/11, many journalists in the United States and Europe came out with several glib generalisations that I found, and still find, irritating, and furthermore, I am very skeptical of the claims contained in them. We were told that either 40,000 [1] or even 60,000 […]