Did Muhammad Exist?

Robert Spencer

Cyrus McGoldrick, Civil Rights Manager of the New York chapter of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations, submitted a written statement to the New York State Senate’s Standing Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs during its recent hearings on terrorism. In it, he does his best to obfuscate the reality of Islamic jihad terrorism and to claim victim status for Muslims, and along the way makes this statement about my training military, law enforcement and intelligence personnel about Islam:

In the same video he asserts, “From a historical stand point [sic -- "standpoint" is one word, McGoldrick], it is not even clear that Muhammad existed.” In that video he asserts he is writing a book currently entitled Did Muhammad Exist. It seems realistic to ask how a trainer who questions the existence of Islam’s founder can be expected to present a reasonably-balanced view of the faith. Here is yet another example of how Hamas-linked CAIR uses distractions, diversions, deceptions and fuzzy logic to divert attention away from the global jihad and Islamic supremacism. Obviously, there is no necessary reason why doubting Muhammad’s existence would lead one to give an unbalanced presentation about Islamic jihad terrorism, any more than one has to believe in Santa Claus to mount a decent production of Miracle On 34th Street. (In fact, I’d say that being employed by a thuggish Hamas-linked Islamic supremacist Muslim Brotherhood front group makes one much less likely to be a trustworthy witness about Islam than being a non-Muslim who has examined Islamic texts and teachings.) Not believing that Muhammad actually said or did what Muslims think he said and did doesn’t mean that I cannot and do not explain what they believe accurately — and obviously the plethora of jihad plots and attacks worldwide, perpetrated by Muslims who believe exactly what I say they believe, demonstrates that.

McGoldrick is right about one thing: I really did “assert” that I am “writing a book currently entitled Did Muhammad Exist,” because I really am writing a book called Did Muhammad Exist?. I explored what Muslims, including jihad terrorists, believe that Muhammad said and did in my 2006 bestselling book The Truth About Muhammad, but in that book I noted that while it was important to know what Muslims believe about Muhammad, the historical foundations of the canonical Muslim narrative were actually very shaky.

And so now, in my next book, I’m examining those shaky foundations, and explaining why they matter in today’s conflict between the West and the Islamic world — and indeed, they do matter a great deal, in ways that will surprise you. Right now Did Muhammad Exist? is scheduled to be published next spring by ISI — not that one, but this one. As the date for the appearance of the book draws closer, I’ll give more details at Jihad Watch and Frontpage of why this project is important, and the question in the title worth considering — however Hamas-linked CAIR reps may weep, gnash their teeth, and claim victim status.