A NEW Historical Critique of Islam's Creation @ KT (pt.1)
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From 'Kensington Temple' - London, September 4, 2019. Back in 2016 Jay did a lecture at Kensington Temple (KT) on the Historical problems with the emergence of Islam, which garnered so much interest, that over 370,000 people have watched it in the last 3 years.
Because of that interest Jay was asked to redo this lecture, as well as another on the Historical Problems with the Qur'an, over a period of two nights, upgrading it and introducing all the newest material which has come to light since 2016.
This, then is the first part of that lecture (40 minutes long), which will soon be followed in a few days by part 2 (60 minutes long). Subsequently, we will also put up the two-part lecture on the Qur'an.
Because of its big stage and enormous back-screen KT is an ideal venue for lectures such as these. They allow Jay to really employ his graphics into his talks, which help the audience follow his train of thought.
You will also enjoy KT's 5 hi-definition cameras, and the brilliant editing they have done for these talks, as they enhance the learning experience exponentially.
This first lecture looks at the problems with Islam's initial history, pointing out just how little we know about this religion in the 7th century, supposedly when it was created.
Jay points out that everything we are dependent on for this 7th century period comes from documents compiled after 833 AD, in other words a good 200 years later. He notes just how erroneous much of these later 9th-10th century Islamic Traditions are for this period, because none of the authors were eye-witnesses of anything they write. Yet, they are the only source we have to understand what was happening in the 7th century.
In this first lecture Jay unpacks what modern day revisionist scholars are saying about this false 9th-10th century narrative, as well as what needs to be done to really know what exactly happened.
He is careful to use researched material from the most reputable sources which we have today concerning Islam's early history, taken from the newly formed 'revisionist school'; including Dr. John Wansbrough (Professor of Islamic studies and vice chancellor at SOAS), Dr Gerald Hawting (professor in Islam at SOAS under whom Jay studied in the 1990s as an occasional student), Dr Patricia Crone (professor of Islamic history at Oxford, then Cambridge, and then Princeton universities), Dr Andre Rippin (Scholar from the university of Calgary), Dr Robert Hoyland (Professor at Oxford, University of NY, UCLA, and Univ. of St. Andrews), and Dr Jehuda Nevo (Middle Eastern archaeologist).
From their research Jay notes that we have no references anywhere from the early 7th century, at least not from any Arab sources for a man named Muhammad, nor for a city called Mecca, nor for a book called the Qur'an. In fact we can't find any references at all for any people called Muslims, nor a religion called Islam; that is, not until 691 AD, when the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik introduces these ideas on his coins, on his Caliphal protocols, and on the Dome of the Rock.
Yet, this is a good 60 years after the death of Muhammad himself, which is not only problematic, but undermines almost everything we know about Islam from the later 9th-10th century Islamic Traditions.
This first lecture sets out a foundation for Islam's historical problems, in order to lay a framework for what Jay plans to say in the 2nd lecture.
We hope this first half of the lecture will whet you appetite to come back and see what then really did happen, using only the historical evidence we can find, on the ground, and from the 7th century.
© Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, 2020
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