Posted by Eugene Volokh:
"German Police, Worried About a Violent Backlash,
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_11_16-2008_11_22.shtml#1226944911
told the professor to move his religious-studies center to more-secure
premises." So reports the [1]Wall Street Journal:
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.
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....
Prof. Kalisch's religious studies center recently removed a sign
and erased its address from its Web site. The professor, a burly
42-year-old, says he has received no specific threats but has been
denounced as apostate, a capital offense in some readings of
Islam....
I naturally have no idea whether Muhammad existed or not; I leave such
matters to historians (which could certainly include theologians, if
they're doing good history). The conventional wisdom appears to be
that he did indeed exist. "[O]nly a few scholars have doubted
Muhammad's existence. Most say his life is better documented than that
of Jesus.... The Prophet differed from the flawless figure of Islamic
tradition, Prof. [Tilman] Nagel says, but 'it is quite astonishing to
say that thousands and thousands of pages about him were all forged'
and there was no such person."
But the only way one can trust the judgment of professionals on this
is if they're free to challenge conventional wisdom, and to respond to
such challenges. Even if Prof. Kalisch is wrong, and badly so, we
can't know that he's wrong unless he is free to provide his evidence
and his conclusions and others are able to rebut them (or support
them).
Thanks to [2]Religion Clause for the pointer.
References
1. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122669909279629451.html
2. http://religionclause.blogspot.com/
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