The following pages have been added newly or substantially revised during the year 2008 at the following dates:
December 19, 2008
Many Muslims may wonder what is the true meaning of Christmas.
Merry Christmas to Muslims? and
Eid ul Adha: The Christmas Connection
are written to help them understand.
We also updated our Index entry on CHRISTMAS with a number of links.
What Does Christ Offer to a Muslim? and
What is the Bible all about? by Dallas Roark.
The Status of Women in Islam according to the Quran
by Rev. Bassam M. Madany. Roland Clarke reflects on Apostasy
and Freedom and Politically Correct Dialog?
Jacob Thomas analyzes an article that appeared on an Arabic website:
An Increase in the Islamic Terrorist Danger
Facing Europe and America. Sam Shamoun provides a number of rebuttals to Sami Zaatari:
(1) The Lord Jesus Christ
- God's Preeminent Heir, (2) Jesus Christ The Omniscient Lord of Glory!
[Part 1,
Part 2].
Already a couple of days after the last update, we published
(3) Jesus Christ
the Heavenly Sent One as an addendum to the earlier article
My Lord and my God.
Finally, Is the Father God? takes a second look
at a common Muslim argument.
December 9, 2008
The Heavenly and Earthly Yahweh:
A Trinitarian Interpretation of Genesis 19:24 by Anthony Rogers. Sam Shamoun takes a second
look at Proverbs 30:4 in Jesus Christ
The incomprehensible Son of God and sovereign Lord of all creation and examines
the Deity of Christ in light
of his absolute moral perfection. Roland Clarke contributed a new short tract,
Messiah the Peacemaker, and has thoroughly
revised his older article, Converging Destinies:
Jerusalem, Peace and the Messiah. The credibility of the Qur'an is examined by Cornelius in
The Crucifixion and the Quran. Sam Shamoun
revisits the question, Was Muhammad certain of
his Salvation? Furthermore, we have a number of responses to various Muslim polemicists. (A) Rebuttals
to Sami Zaatari: (1) My Lord and my God,
(2) The Lord Jesus The Lord God who sends forth the prophets!,
(3) Did the Jews believe or didn't they?,
(4) The Lord Jesus Christ
The Incomprehensible Son of Proverbs 30:3-4, all written by Sam Shamoun. (B) Rebuttals to Bassam Zawadi:
First, he receives two rebuttals to the same article dealing with a contradiction in the Qur'an:
(1) Haste Makes Waste is an analytical
rebuttal by Jochen Katz examining Zawadi's faulty approach, and (2) Mutee'a Al-Fadi presents
Further thoughts by a former Muslim.
(3) Does Islam encourage scientific
advancement? by Dallas Roark rebuts another article published by Zawadi on his website.
(C) Jesse Toler rebuts a polemical piece published on Answering Christianity:
Israel Shredded! Why?
Then we have three articles by Jacob Thomas:
Western Christian Dhimmitude Versus Islamic Intransigence,
Revisiting Islamic Imperialism, and
Does the Christian West Owe Anything to the Islamic East?
Finally, we want to mention that a Muslim academic has recently made headlines because he doubts
the historicity of the person of Muhammad. We added a short section on this matter at the top of
our Index entry on Muhammad.
November 10, 2008
We provide several substantial additions on the central topic of the Trinity:
The Historic Case for the Trinity
by K. Dayton Hartman II, Let Us Make Man:
A Trinitarian Interpretation of Genesis 1:26 by Anthony Rogers, and a link to the recent ecumenical
manifesto Our Trinitarian Faith (off site).
Sam Shamoun starts a new series, The Messiah in the Jewish Traditions —
Part 1: The Old Testament Texts,
Part 2: New Testament Application of OT texts.
Roland Clarke contributed three new articles,
Facing Our Common Foe,
God of Comfort, and
Saviour: A Beautiful Name of God,
and expanded an earlier one, Signposts to Paradise.
Then we have some rebuttals to Sami Zaatari by Sam Shamoun:
The Lord Jesus Christ
The God of the Miraculous! and Jesus as others saw Him:
Examining the views of Jesus' contemporaries according to John's Gospel
(Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3),
and a number of rebuttals to Bassam Zawadi by Dallas Roark:
Salvation by faith alone,
Does God Deceive People?, and
Some Answers to Zawadi's comments
(a rebuttal of a rebuttal of a rebuttal).
Is Lying a Sin, or Just a Good Strategy?
by Jesse Toler. Two new entries in the section on Qur'an Versions:
Allah: "Above all schemers" or "the best of schemers"?
on Sura 3:54 and Deceiving us about Deception? on Sura 7:99.
"Appendix A – Predestination in the Creed of al-Tahawi" was added to the Qur'an contradictions
article The Problem of Divine Sovereignty, Predestination,
Salvation and Human Free Will. Finally, Silas updated his article
Muhammad, Aisha, Islam, and Child Brides.
October 17, 2008
Mutee’a Al-Fadi looks at the question,
Does Allah Answer Prayers?
Roland Clarke continues his series on the attributes of God:
God our Savior and Protector
and Lighting up the Darkness.
Another difficult attribute of the Islamic understanding of God is examined in
Allah: Truthful Or Deceiver? by Cornelius.
Various inconsistencies in Muhammad's actions,
Muhammad and the (non-)Priority of Prayer
and Prohibiting a Lawful Marriage,
are but small aspects of the larger and central question,
Is Muhammad a true Prophet of God?,
in regard to which Sam Shamoun does not only provide this article, but also a critical examination of
Jalal Abualrub's debate points from his debate against David Wood on the same topic, "Is Muhammad a Prophet?"
(Part 1,
Part 2)
The discussion started with the earlier article, The descent
of the Quran: Piecemeal or all at once?, continues with these two articles:
Is half the Quran already fully detailed?
and Examining the inherent problems with
the descent of the Quran. Two more contradictions in the Qur'an are expounded upon in
Will people stay in Hell forever, or not? and
The Perspicuity of the Quran and It’s Mysterious Letters.
Finally, the Index entries on Predestination in Islam and
Salvation in Islam have been expanded by detailed collections
of quotations.
September 30, 2008
In our section with responses to "A Common Word Between Us And You",
we added the booklet The Truth About "A Common Word"
by Sam Solomon. It is a thorough examination of this letter written by 138 Muslim scholars that was "addressed
to the leaders of all the world's churches". "Kill those who Associate
Partners (Mushrikun) Wherever You Find Them!" by Sam Shamoun provides a historical and contextual exegesis
of Q. 9:5 and 29. Do Not Be Afraid Of Him is Anthony Rogers'
analysis of Deuteronomy 18, a text that is often claimed to predict the coming of Muhammad.
Sam Shamoun presents a number of rebuttals to Bassam Zawadi, partly in form of appendices to earlier files:
(1) Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah and the Text of the Torah,
(2) Fakhr ad-Din Ar-Razi and his views on the inspired Scriptures,
(3) Abraham and the Flame of the Chaldeans:
How the Quran Turns a Fable into Reality,
(4) Muhammad and the treatment of wives,
(5) Banu Qurayza – A Tribe Betrayed,
(6) Revisiting the Problem with Allah preferring
some Prophets over others,
(7) Revisiting the issue of the Quran’s "Descent"
– All at once or one piece at a time?,
(8) Muhammad Literate Still! [Round 2],
(9) Revisiting the Irrationality of
Salafi Anthropomorphism. Being relevant for Ramadan, the article
Heartfelt Fasting and Repentance by Roland Clarke was
added to the site already on September 16, and featured on our entry page for the last two weeks.
September 13, 2008
Roland Clarke continues a dialogue on the attributes of God in
Is there Only One Savior God?
Dallas Roark presents a number of thoughts on topic of
Science and Islam.
Then we have a truck load of rebuttals to various Muslim polemicists.
(A) The "scientific miracle" of the date branch like
appearance of the moon orbit by Al Hudhud is a refutation of Osama Abdallah's
most favourite "scientific miracle of the Qur'an".
(B) Jesus as God's Son in Luke-Acts:
Responding to the Distortions of a Muslim Taqiyyist is a rebuttal to a claim made by
Shabir Ally in his debate with Dr. James White.
(C) We have plenty of rebuttals to Bassam Zawadi:
(1) Are there Prophecies of Muhammad in the Bible? by Derik Adams,
(2) On the value of questioning ... by Dallas Roark,
and six more rebuttals by Sam Shamoun:
(3) Allah's promises to protect Muhammad from the power of Satan,
(4) Muhammad Literate Still! (Round 2 of this particular discussion),
(5) Revisiting the Problem with Allah preferring some Prophets over others,
(6) The Problem of Divine Sovereignty, Predestination, Salvation and Human Free Will,
(7) Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah and the Text of the Torah,
(8) Abraham and the Flame of the Chaldeans: How the Quran Turns a Fable into Reality.
(D) a series of rebuttals to Sami Zaatari: Jesus is equal to God Still!
([Part 1], [Part 2],
[Part 3]). (E) Our rebuttal to Islamic Awareness,
Rahmanan (RHMNN) - An Ancient South Arabian Moon God?,
was greatly expanded after the reaction by IA, particularly in regard to the legend of
Abraha marching on Mecca with elephants. Moreover, David Wood reflects on some experiences from
his first debate in Nadir Ahmed: Taqiyya Incarnate.
Finally, here is an important book review examining Paul-Gordon Chandler's
Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road:
Exploring a New Path Between Two Faiths.
August 14, 2008
Today, most articles deal with various aspects of the Divine nature of Jesus, the Trinity,
and the uniqueness of Jesus among all founders of religions. We begin with three papers by
new authors on our site:
(1) Answering Muslim Objections to the Trinity
by K. Dayton Hartman II, (2) The True Shahada by
Anthony Rogers, and (3) Biblical ‘Original Sin’
or Islamic ‘Original Forgiveness’? by Jesse Toler. Then plenty of papers by Sam Shamoun:
(4) Jesus as the Son of God: A Biblical Exegesis,
(5) Jesus Christ King of kings and Lord of lords,
(6) The Deity of the Messiah in Isaiah and in light of
New Testament Exegesis,
(7) Jesus as Yahweh: Examining Paul's use of Lord in reference to Christ,
(8) Jesus Christ – The God of Gods and the Prince of princes,
(9) Jesus The Faithful Witness in the Skies,
Part 1: God's Covenant with King David,
Part 2: The Son of Man Comes The Divine Witness in the Sky,
(10) An Examination of the Uniqueness of Christ In A Pluralistic Age,
(11) "60 Questions For The Christians" Answered
— Part 1: Trinity. (12) Examining Jesus'
Divine Claims in light of the Quranic View of Allah's Names and Attributes. Two additions to
the series of common questions:
(13) If Jesus really is God how could Satan tempt him?,
(14) If Yahweh alone is the Creator, and Jesus a servant
sent by him, how can Jesus be God? (15) Silas exposes another shoddy newsmedia report about Islam:
Islam's Wrinkled Face. Finally, Masab Yousef,
son of a Hamas leader, has become a Christian. We are providing a link to his
conversion testimony.
July 30, 2008
Today, the focus of attention is on several errors and contradictions found in the Quranic version(s)
of the story about Moses and Pharaoh. (1) Pharaoh and
Haman is a rebuttal to an article by Islamic Awareness.
(2) How many gods did the Egyptians worship?,
(3) A Pharaoh Who Forgot to Die in Time?
and, associated with this, another response to Islamic Awareness:
The Qur'an and the Pharaoh of Moses.
(4) Was there a second period of slaying
the sons of the Israelites?, (5) Moses or Jacob?,
and perhaps the most surprising discovery is found in (6) Israel,
the Quran and the Promised Land. Moreover, an article investigating background information on
the mysterious Asiya: The Wife of Pharaoh was added to
the classical library. However, despite all these controversies, we should not forget that the story
of the Exodus teaches us much about the nature of the Lord God: A Dialog
about the One True God. Three ex-Muslims tell their story of how they found new life in Jesus:
Martha, Mutee'a
and Paul, the first of these being a new addition
while the two brothers updated and expanded their testimonies with many more details. Finally,
the Bengali translation of Dr. Campbell's
book The Qur'an and the Bible in the light of history and science
is now available for download (PDF file, 5.7 MB).
July 20, 2008
Today we present a number of new errors and contradictions in the Quran, several of them
being rather fundamental. Some are errors in formulation, others errors of fact,
or logical contradictions between various statements of the Qur'an.
(1) Allah, his messengers, and their language,
(2) Did Allah give a Greek Injil to the Jews?,
(3) What kind of book is the Injil?,
(4) Compel them or Not?,
(5) The descent of the Quran: Piecemeal or all at once?,
(6) A Contradiction Regarding Muhammad's Fatherhood,
and concluding with a question that surely has to be answered in the negative:
(7) Is the Quran Completely Clear or Not?
Dallas Roark comments on a recent interview given by a Saudi marriage officiant:
Marriage of a one year old.
Sam Shamoun takes a look at Muhammad
and the Wearing of Silk Garments. Wildcat's (long promised) expanded version of his
Review of the Debate on Muhammad's Prophethood
by David Wood and Ali Ataie is now available. Finally, we added a link to David Wood's
Willy
Wonka and the Prophet Factory: A Tale of Poor Argumentation and Moral Inconsistency in our
section on The Miracle of the Qur'an and the section
on Evaluating Muhammad's claim to prophethood.
July 2, 2008
Sam Shamoun presents four further articles on the divine nature of Jesus:
(1) The Divine Name and Glory of Yahweh – More Biblical Evidence
for the Deity of God’s unique Angel/Son, (2) Christological
Preexistence: Analyzing Jesus' Prehuman Existence in light of the Synoptic Gospels, (3)
Revisiting the Omniscience of the Lord Jesus Christ
A Markan Perspective, (4) The Inter-Testamental
Jewish Literature and the Deity of the Lord Jesus, and he provides yet another rebuttal,
Do Muslims Worship Muhammad?, to Sami Zaatari's
reply to the addendum to Revisiting the Issue of Islam's
Second God. Responding to a statement by the same Muslim polemicist, Dallas Roark ponders the question,
Are Muslims Fideists? Cornelius examines one of the Qur'an's many
‘fabulous stories’, The Sun in the Muddy
Pool and the Prophethood of Muhammad. Moreover, How Muhammad’s
Contemporaries Really Viewed Him is an analysis of the witness of the Quran concerning the opinions of
the disbelievers regarding the prophet of Islam. Finally, Cruel
Excess and Regret - The "People's Crusade" is the third installment in John Stenhouse's series on
the Crusades.
June 18, 2008
Islam: Religion of Life or Religion of Death? by Joshua Newman,
a new contributor to this website. Silas analyzes Weaknesses
in the NYC Police Deptartment's Terrorism Report. Grace shares her conversion testimony,
Jesus is so different! Sam Shamoun provides a number of
rebuttals to various Muslim writers. (1) Bassam Zawadi: Revisiting the Issue of the Logical
Coherence of the Trinity (Part 1,
Part 2), and a further argument was added
at the end of Part 1 of Reexamining
the Logical Coherence of the Trinity (the first round of the same discussion). Moreover,
Muhammad Literate Still! continues
the discussion on the (il)literacy of Muhammad. (2) Sami Zaatari:
Revisiting the Issue of Islam's Second God
(including a further addendum on
the next day), Jesus is Equal to God!,
and an addendum was appended to the article, Muslim
Dawagandist Sami Zaatari Conclusively Proves that Allah is not God! already a week ago. (3) Jalal
Abualrub: Revisiting the issue of Muhammad’s
marital privileges. Finally, in the section on Muhammad,
we now provide a list of links to comparative studies on the lives of Jesus and Muhammad.
May 27, 2008
Today's update deals mainly with problems in the Qur'an: the Qur'an contradicting itself,
the Qur'an contradicting the Bible regarding the earlier prophets, incoherent statements in
the Qur'an, etc. We begin with several articles discussing Sura 6:74-90, a passage which
contains many problematic statements. (1) Abraham
and the Sun, (2) Abraham's Monotheism,
(3) Abraham's Progeny? How the Qur'an messed up
Abraham's family tree, (4) Did All Prophets Receive
the Same Book? The Qur'an frequently attacks the Jews for allegedly killing the prophets,
a topic examined in Divinely Inspired Ignorance?
and Which Prophets Did the Jews Kill?
Then a contradiction regarding Noah's Age
and some claims in regard to which the Qur'an is rather incoherent:
Revelation Given to the Tribes? and
How did John confirm Jesus?
An examination of how the Qur'an confuses fact with fiction is Dallas Roark's article
Islam and Truth. Moreover,
Muhammad – The Prophet of Shirk and
Meeting the Quranic Challenge:
How Muhammad's Sunna Trumps Allah's Book by Sam Shamoun. The article,
Are Christians Baptized, Dyed or Neither?,
was updated and expanded.
May 22, 2008
Jesus Christ The Son of the Living God
(Part 1,
Part 2) is Sam Shamoun's rebuttal
to arguments used Sami Zaatari in his debate with Louis Ruggiero on the topic Does the Bible
Teach that Jesus is God? Since Baptism is "for
the forgiveness of sins", does that not imply that Jesus was a sinner? deals with another
argument by the same Muslim polemicist. Bassam Zawadi receives two two-part rebuttals:
Reexamining The Logical Coherence of the Trinity, Part 1:
On John 17:3,
Part 2: False Analogies, and
another round on the topic of Muhammad's marriage to nine-year old Aisha: Part 1:
Setting the Record Straight: Who is guilty of
insulting whom?, Part 2: Examining the actual
arguments. So that the Islamic Awareness team doesn't feel left out of the discussions,
or get the impression they are totally forgotten, here is a downpayment of things to come:
Rahmanan (RHMNN) - An Ancient South Arabian Moon God?
Two additions to the Classical Library:
Christianity in South Arabia and
Islamic Doctrines in Samaritan Theology.
Finally, with adding the section "Responses and further discussions" in the folder of
Articles by M. Rafiqul-Haqq and P. Newton
we have completed the transfer of materials from their earlier (and now defunct) website to
Answering Islam.
May 17, 2008
Four articles on the nature of Jesus Christ:
(1) The Lord's Prayer More Proof for the Deity of Christ,
(2) Jesus Christ the Exalted Lord Not just a god
but the Most High God of all, (3) Jesus Christ
The Exalted God-man!, (4) The Exaltation of
the Messiah in Isaiah Additional OT Evidence for the Deity of Christ. Then several rebuttals:
Muslim Dawagandist Sam Zaatari Conclusively Proves
that Allah is not God! and two more rebuttals to him,
Isaiah and the Glory of the Triune God Revisited
and Jesus Christ The Divine Son whom the Father
Himself Praises and Glorifies as the Lord God!, were updated and expanded with an Addendum
for each. Jesus Superior Still According
to the Quran! responds to Sami Zaatari, Umar, and Bassam Zawadi together since they all use
a similar argument. Another rebuttal to Jalal Abualrub: Reexamining Satan’s Influence
and Control over Muhammad ([Part 1],
[Part 2]), and Cornelius offers an article on
the same issue: Muhammad, Satan, and Muhammad’s
Prophetic Call. To our Classical Library we added the article
The Moslem Anti-Christ Legend and a link to the website
Documents sur les origines de l'islam
which is a vast resource of materials on early Islam in the French language.
Already on May 11, our new Tamil language section was started.
May 3, 2008
Several more rebuttals to various Muslim polemicists:
The Murder of Asma Bint Marwan Revisited responds to
Jalal Abualrub, Revisiting the Issue of Muhammad's
Marriage with a child bride (Part 1) and Part 2
answers Bassam Zawadi, and Sami Zaatari is refuted five-fold in regard to his attacks on the deity of Christ:
(1) Isaiah and the Glory of the Triune God Revisited,
(2) Jesus Christ The Mighty God: More OT Evidence for the Deity
of the Messiah, (3) The Lord Jesus Christ The Son of God
who is Equal with the Father in Essence, (4) Jesus Christ
The Divine Son whom the Father Himself Praises and Glorifies as the Lord God!, and, finally,
(5) The Lord Jesus Christ The Glorious Messenger of God
exposes Sami Zaatari's failure to disprove the Divinity of the Angel of the Lord. Moreover, three articles
were added to our Classics Library:
(1) Atonement by Blood Sacrifice in Islam by Samuel Zwemer.
(2) The Transmission of the Kur'an (according to Muslim writers), and
(3) The Transmission of the Kur'an According to Christian Writers
by Alphonse Mingana.
April 22, 2008
Further rebuttals to Jalal Abualrub's mockery of the Christian Faith:
Modalism, Polytheism or just plain old Quackerism!
Another Response to one Muslim's Foolishness and Blasphemies, and
Muhammad and Islam The Religion of Antichrist? (Part 1),
Muhammad and Islam The Religion of Antichrist? (Part 2),
and Revisiting the Issue of Puberty and Marriage: Examining
Muhammad's Marriage with Aisha in light of Jewish Tradition. Then a rebuttal to Sami Zaatari:
The Lord Jesus Christ The Alpha and the Omega Still!,
a rebuttal(s) to Bassam Zawadi: Jesus The Preexistent,
Divine Word and Spirit from God, and an answer to a polemic used by both of these Muslim propagandists:
Whoever is good, is also God?
Two files regarding the nature and identity of Jesus according to the Bible and the Qur'an:
The Lord Jesus: The Divine Son who is Superior to all Creation
and The Quran on Jesus as the Preexistent Spirit of Allah.
Already a week ago, we added Volumes Two and
Three of Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad,
Aloys Sprenger's important classical work on the life and teachings of Muhammad (in German, 1869),
to our Classics Library. Moreover, a link to Sprenger's earlier and
less detailed English work on The Life of Mohammad (1851),
which is available via Google Books, was added in the Sprenger section.
April 10, 2008
We continue with our series of rebuttals. Jalal Abualrub's recent burst of
polemical articles against Christian doctrine called for two further responses:
The Mutability of Allah
and Exposing Islam's Pentagonity.
Then two rebuttals to Jamal Badawi regarding the Muslim way of greeting non-Muslims:
Muhammad's Mistreatment of the People of the Book:
A Dawagandist Seeks to Justify Islam's Degradation of Jews and Christians and
Muhammad's Multiple Marriages: A Dawagandist
Seeks to Defend the Indefensible. And two rebuttals to Bassam Zawadi:
Revisiting the Issue of Muhammad's Partnership with Allah,
and Muhammad's prophecy regarding the Last Hour.
Finally, we created an Index entry with some links regarding Zakaria
Boutrus whose public challenge of Islam via satellite TV has made quite some waves in the Arab world.
March 31, 2008
This is "rebuttals day". We start with Shabir Ally who is awarded one rebuttal:
Shabir Ally and the Use of the Bible for Dawah.
Jamal Badawi gets two: (1) Never Shall He
Be Satisfied: Responding to one Muslim Polemicist's Defense of Muhammad's Multiple Marriages
and (2) Eusebius and the Trinitarian Baptismal Formula:
Exposing Jamal Badawi's Desperate Tirade Against the Trinity.
Jalal Abualrub receives four: (1) Kill Them Wherever
You Find Them exposes some of his cover-up operations in a discussion on Jihad. (2) The next
block addresses an older controversy: Did Muhammad cross dress, i.e. did he wear women's clothes?
Part 1: Cross Dressing and Islam:
An examination of Muhammad's Dress Code, Part 2:
The Meaning of Mirt and Thawb,
Appendix: Further References. Another two
rebuttals respond to some of Abualrub's extremely vicious attacks on Sam Shamoun:
(3) Have You Been Invited to Allah's Brothel?
and (4) The Doctrine of the Original Shin!
Furthermore, Sam Shamoun provides detailed rebuttals to many of the points
raised by Sami Zaatari in his recent debate with David Wood on the topic
"Was Muhammad a Prophet of God?" [Part 1],
[Part 2].
Sam Shamoun also adds three more articles to his series of answers to common questions:
(1) Did the Jews Misunderstand Jesus?,
(2) Jesus' Authority To Forgive Sins,
(3) Is the Savior necessarily God? Finally,
the first volume of Aloys Sprenger's rare but important classical work on the life and teachings
of Muhammad, Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad
(in German), was added to our Classics Library.
March 20, 2008
Paul Stenhouse deflates some myths in The Crusades
and the Spin Doctors. Articles on the nature of God and criteria to discern true deity:
(1) The Muslim Criteria For God,
(2) Allah The Greatest Deceiver of them All.
Regarding the deity of Jesus: (1) The Blood of God,
(2) Jesus God the Son was expanded with further
material, and a third section was added to the article On
Some Arguments in Support of the Apocrypha. A two-part response to false arguments by Jamal Badawi
which he used (again) in a recent debate: Part 1: Jesus
as Thomas' God, Part 2: Jesus as Preexistent
Son of God. A response to Bassam Zawadi:
Muhammad the Doubter. Finally,
Muhammad and the Issue of Forced Divorce
is yet another entry to the list of Muhammad's many inconsistencies.
March 8, 2008
Two introductory articles about essentials of the Christian message:
The Real difference between Islam and Christian Faith
by Dallas Roark. Roy Oksnevad's article Does
Goodness Live In You? is now thoroughly revised and illustrations were added to it.
Two articles providing further evidence and discussion regarding the deity of Jesus:
Jesus God the Son and a new
Appendix: The Anti-Trinitarians are Wrong – Yahweh is Adoni
which was added to the Exegesis of Psalm 110:1 —
A look at Its Implications on God as a Multi-Personal Being and upon the Deity of Christ.
Two rebuttals to Muslim missionaries: Allah's
Omnipotence and the Incarnation Revisited answers objections by Bassam Zawadi, and
Did Jesus Command His Followers to be Muslims?
rebuts claims by Ali Ataie. Finally, two articles that discuss issues of mediation and
intercession in Islam: Muhammad as the Mediator of Redemption
and Forgiveness and How the Islamic
Doctrine of Intercession undermines Allah's Omniscience.
February 22, 2008
"A Common Word Between Us And You" —
Evaluating the Muslim Open Letter provides a collection of links to in-depth
discussions of this higly-publicised Muslim address to the Pope and other Christian
leaders, and a number of critiques of the most prominent "Christian response"
written by some academics at the University of Yale. Besides these links to
thorough discussions on other websites, we offer two responses ourselves:
“Who You Gonna Serve?”
— Theological Difficulties in A Common Word Between Us and You and
The Yale Response and "the Prophet Muhammad".
Moreover, A response to the "Open Letter
to the Pope" is an answer to the Muslim letter that was issued before "A Common Word ..."
Since this topic has become so prominent recently, we open a new section in this issue:
Muslim Letters. The true nature of Jesus is the central
question of disagreement between Islam and Christianity. This question cannot and should not
be avoided: Jesus Christ Son of God or God the Son?
One of the most frequent arguments by Muslims against the trustworthiness of the Bible
appeals to the meaning of the word "muhaymin" that is used in Sura 5:48. In the article,
The Quran as Guardian of the Bible: Revisiting
the Meaning of Muhaymin, Sam Shamoun carefully examines this word and
this verse in its context. The Gospel Q and
the Identity of Jesus responds to another common argument that the real or alleged
existence of "other gospels" undermines the credibility of the Bible and Christian beliefs.
Moreover, A Christian Rebuttal to a Muslim response to Dr. James R White's "Anonymous
Books and Inspiration" (Part 1,
Part 2), a rebuttal to Ali Ataie:
Did Jesus Claim to Be God
When He Ascribed to Himself Divine Titles and Attributes? and a rebuttal to
Jalal Abualrub. Finally,
Sam Shamoun issues another Open
Challenge to Muslims. On the technical side, the latest online update for
the Answering Islam CD-ROM is now available [ca. 57 MB],
and for the first time, we offer the download of the complete content of Answering
Islam via BitTorrent [ca. 375 MB].
Note also: Today is the start of our new Albanian
language section.
February 11, 2008
Most articles today deal with the person of Muhammad: claims made about him, observations
on his behavior, etc. A frequent topic of discussion between Muslims and Christians
is the question whether Muhammad was predicted in the Bible. David' Wood's article,
Muhammad in the Bible?, is a good
introduction to this topic. Sam Shamoun takes a second look at Muhammad's alleged
illiteracy in To Read or Recite? That is the Question!
Muhammad regularly preached one thing and did another; two more articles were added regarding
his inconsistent behavior: Muhammad and
Menstruation, Muhammad and Oath-Making.
The Qur'an seems to contradict itself on the role that it assigns to Muhammad,
Is Muhammad Only A Warner or a Prophet/Messenger?,
and on the ability of the messengers, Did
the Messengers Perform Miracles? Twisting the meaning of statements is the common theme
for the next three articles: (1) Eternal Security
for Wrongdoers? — How Muhammad Corrupted the Qur'an,
(2) Another Muslim Corruption of the Torah
examines Sami Zaatari's response to David Wood's argument that Muhammad is a false prophet
according to Deuteronomy 18:20. (3) Since Bassam Zawadi decided to defend his misguided rebuttal
of a parody, Jochen Katz added an update
to his article as well. Moreover, Dallas Roark also has
a Reply to Sami Zaatari. Finally, last week
Dr. Rowen Williams, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, commented on the introduction of Sharia
law in Britain which caused a lot of discussion. The Archbishop
and Sharia lists helpful articles on the matter and gives clear responses to the Archbishop's
statements.
January 29, 2008
Ernest Hahn's booklet, Our Saviour God, How Great You Are!
— Introducing the Muslim to the Christian Doctrine of the Holy Trinity, should be
helpful to Muslims and Christians alike. Sam Shamoun shows how the trinitarian nature of God
is woven into the fabric of the Hebrew Scriptures:
(1) The Aaronic Priestly Blessing A Trinitarian Invocation,
(2) The Heavenly Tabernacle: The Dwelling Place of the Triune God,
and that the Bible depicts Jesus very clearly as God Almighty:
The Lord Jesus the Maker and Ruler of Creation.
On the other hand, Islam is not quite as purely monotheistic as many want to believe:
The Quran's many Gods and Lords,
and a three part series titled On Serving Others Besides Allah — The Hypocrisy and Blasphemy of Islam
(1, 2,
3), and connected with this series,
Did the religion of Islam completely eradicate Arab paganism?
Finally, two rebuttals to Bassam Zawadi:
Revisiting Jesus' Superiority ... Again!
goes with the main theme of this update, while Working Assumption:
Stupidity? drastically illustrates the importance of understanding an article before writing a rebuttal.
January 18, 2008
This update deals with various problems in the Qur'an, logical contradictions, textual
variants etc. The first two articles are rebuttals to Muslim attempts of harmonizing
the discrepancies between Sura 3 and Sura 19 regarding of the annunciation of Jesus' birth
as they are proposed by Moiz Amjad
of Understanding Islam and Ansar
Al-'Adl of Load Islam. The next article provides further discussion on the topic
of Six or Eight Days of Creation?,
and How many wings does an angel have?
examines in detail a contradiction between the Qur'an and the hadith.
The Qur'an contains hundreds of instances of the word qul (say!) and/or qala
(he said), but some of them seem to be in the wrong form or at the wrong place.
The final three articles deal with several problems caused by these two small words:
The Fifteenth Qiraat and
Should he say it, did he say it
or will he say it? both make observations on S. 21:4, 112 and 23:112,
and The Stray Say examines S. 2:97.
January 7, 2008
"Jesus or Muhammad?" is the core issue of disagreement between Christians and Muslims.
All articles in this update are looking at various aspects of this question.
The Quran and the Unlettered Prophet:
Jesus or Muhammad? presents observations that should be quite surprising to Muslims
and non-Muslims, common believers and scholars alike. Another challenging interpretation
is presented in Jesus as the Mercy of Allah:
More Quranic Evidence for the Divinity of Christ, and along the same line of thought:
Jesus Christ: Islam's Greatest Prophet and Messenger.
But in order to really know who Jesus was, we cannot ask the Qur'an; the Bible gives the answer:
Who is the Real Jesus? (Part II) by Dallas Roark.
Last but certainly not least, Deuteronomy
Deductions: Two Short, Sound, Simple Proofs that Muhammad Was a False Prophet by David Wood.
[Postscript to the last update: The debate between Sam Shamoun and Nadir Ahmed
on the topic "Is Islam a religion of Peace?" can now be viewed at the link given
here.]
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