The Muhammadan biography, reformed

On 17 October, Craig Considine at Rice posted concerning Qutham al-Qurâshî: How did he respond? By remaining calm, ignoring the insults, & focusing on his mission. To that Robert Spencer has objected [UPDATE 3/4/24: original is churchmilitant.com/news/article/catholic-don-spins-jihadi-beheading], based in part on the Ka'b al-Ashraf meme.

There are quite a few scholars out there who would prefer a different Islam than the Islam we have. Fred Donner, famously, has proposed a different early Islam, a Community of Believers. Juan Cole has written similarly, tho' not nearly as well. Considine had earlier jumped on Kendi's "antiracist" bandwagon claiming Muhammad for it. That's supposed to be a good thing and... well [UPDATE 3/4/24 from churchmilitant.com/news/article/catholic-sociologist-calls-muhammad-first-anti-racist; also see Jonathan Brown, Blackness in Islam now].

I do not know if Considine is aware of Roohi's revision of the Muhammadan maghâzî. I do know that Spencer is unaware but, I've tried to make him aware. Spencer (like Donner) is also quite aware of the ZimrielProject and House of War, not that Spencer has spared much attention to this work. So we shall see how that goes.

I will say that Roohi's revisions lead, potentially, to the Madina narrative's overthrow as maghâzî (or Sîra) and its reformation as biography or even gospel. The maghâzî does have Ibn Ishâq and (now) Ma'mar supporting it, that Hijazi / Basran consensus to which the Umayyads and then early 'Abbâsids caught up. But the true story might differ. The true Qurân certainly differs. I was skeptical about this modern scholars' project in 2014; I then followed the counterjihad consensus that academia was tendentious, some mix of wishful-thinking and propaganda, thus unscholarly. I am less certain now.

What is left for the Believers won't be "Islam" anymore, but it may end up better than Francis' Catholicism.

CONSIDINE EXPOSED 12/1-3: Stephen Kirby demonstrates Considine's bad faith 1, 2, 3. We all make our choices in life. You can abandon the sira, but then Muslims won't accept you and you'll - at best - be preaching a paraIslam forever tagged Speculative. Or you can accept the sira, which is a road to Qaeda or worse. Or you can just lie, and be safe in academia. Considine chose the last path. It's a living, as they say.