For as long as I can remember, the BBC has been to the fore in questioning the Bible, the authenticity of the New Testament etc. But when it comes to the Koran, why it’s a different story as Robert Spencer addresses here.
“The BBC announced enthusiastically Wednesday that “what may be the world’s oldest fragments of the Koran have been found by the University of Birmingham.” This news is not only of interest to scholars and Muslim intellectuals; it appears to buttress the Islamic claim that the Qur’an’s text has remained unchanged for 1,400 years – which is purported to be proof of its divine origin.
There is only one problem with all this: the BBC article raises more questions than it answers, and reveals more about the wishful thinking of the academic and media establishments than it does about the Qur’an.”
If it’s genuine, does it change anything?
If it’s not genuine, does it change anything?
From the BBC’s point of view, it elevates the international profile of Islam to the UK. This suits the narrative of the BBC.
That’s why the BBC dwells on it.
If an alleged fragment of the Bible had been found in Pakistan (unlikely I know), would the Pakistani national media have given it such coverage?
I think not.
Across the pond, its pant wetting time for the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/world/europe/quran-fragments-university-birmingham.
“Graham Bench, director of the Centre for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, concurred, and added a caveat: “You’re dating the parchment,” he said. “You’re not dating the ink. You’re making the assumption that the parchment or vellum was used within years of it being made, which is probably, a reasonable assumption … but it’s not watertight”
Robert Spencer
“There is a great deal that is questionable about this “discovery,” as I showed in this article.
Nonetheless, the mainstream media is making a big deal of it, and this, effusion of unbridled New York Times front page enthusiasm warrants closer examination”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/07/ny-times-quran-manuscript-discovery-a-joyful-moment-for-a-faith-that-has-struggled
http://www.answering-islam.org/Nehls/Ask/collect.html
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/22/oldest-quran-fragments-found-at-birmingham-university
The Guardian has this:
“The significance of Birmingham’s leaves, which hold part of Suras (chapters) 18 to 20, was missed because they were bound together with another text, in a very similar hand but written almost 200 years later….
The verses are incomplete, and believed to have been an aide memoire for an imam who already knew the Qur’an by heart,
but the text is very close to the accepted authorised version.”
Suras 18 and 20, with their long stories of Moses (very odd ones in 18, along with material about Dhul Qarnayn, who is usually assumed to be Alexander the Great, and the Christian story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus), and sura 19,
with its extended retelling of the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ, are some of the most obviously derivative sections of the entire Qur’an
— reinforcing the impression that this could be a fragment of a source of the Qur’an, not the Qur’an itself.
And indeed, it is not the Qur’an itself, we are finally told, for
“the verses are incomplete, and believed to have been an aide memoire for an imam who already knew the Qur’an by heart,
but the text is very close to the accepted authorised version.”
Very close? is how close?
Any deviation could just as easily be not an aide memoire for an imam, but evidence of editing and change,
as Islam was being developed in the latter part of the seventh century and the early part of the eighth.
R Spencer
Why does a Hafiz,(someone memorised the Koran) and could recite any part at will, reciting over and over and over again …probably if an imam his whole life, its his vocation? and … people were much more accomplished at it in those days, through lack of books
… need a aide memoire?, something is not right here?
The Koran is not 1400 years old.
It was written down hundreds of years after Mohammad beheaded his last victim from tales of illiterate Bedouins who used to yarn about it around their camel dung campfires.
it doesn’t matter if the piece is real or if it has been made by little asif in his local primary during islamic brainwashing day, the damage has been done, the message has been sent…look at us in Britain, aren’t we oh so muzzer friendly, we are the leading light in the western islamic world.
I’ve still yet to hear anyone from the bbc or any MP tell us why islam is so important in this country and why we should give a toss? Why are they pushing the muslim agenda?
BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-33624954
“These Koran fragments going on display in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham will add to our rich diversity and culture, and the city will continue to be an important destination in terms of faith tourism.
Birmingham already has lots to offer in terms of faith tourism. “
Isn’t this the equivalent of the Hitler Diaries? What’s really needed is a muslim equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls that change the religion of uncontrolled emotional hatred into the religion of peace that so many dupes want it to be.
I will be offended if this fragment is put on public display. Will the Home Secretary cancel the display please?
I agree G.W.F. Certainly would be offended. Should it not be forgotten that Islamic ideology is a backward, barbaric & brutal-the greatest man made source of misery & suffering in the world today. Carnage & oppression is what this ideology has caused since its introduction in 7th century. Responsible for 100’s of millions of death’s, the figures dwarf the death tolls from WW! & 2. And yet this Christian nation is bending over backwards to accommodate the Muslims demands-they have no place here to make demands. Britain beware the gates of wrath/shariah Law.