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Type issues etc in your podcast provider, hit that subscribe button, and leave us a five-star review.

This will make it easier for other podcast listeners to find issues etc. We assume that since one billion Muslims on our planet revered the Prophet Muhammad, they refer to him as the Prophet, that such a man,

the way he is depicted in Islam actually existed, but is it possible that Mohammed, as he's depicted in Islam and by the many

writings there, even by outside historians, never existed.

Welcome back to issues, etc.

I'm Todd Wilkin.

Joining us for a biography of Mohammed.

Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch,

an author of several books including his latest Muhammad a critical biography.

Robert welcome back.

Good to talk to you Todd thank you very much.

Why are so many historians hesitant to look critically and honestly into the life of Muhammad?

Well, the one word that sums that up is fear. They think that they will be attacked, possibly even killed, if they look into Mohammed in the same

way that historians have grown accustomed to looking into the historicity of the stories of Jesus and of Moses and so on.

And so they don't. They simply avoid it. As a matter of fact, the famous critic of Christianity,

Bart Airmen was asked once why he didn't do the same kind of historical inquiries regarding

Islam and he said because I value my life and I thought well that sums it up right there.

Is it legitimate to ask if Muhammad as he is presented existed at all?

I think it's very legitimate to ask as a matter of fact the massive amount of

material that we have about Mohammed about who he was what he did practically from day to day.

It all dates not from around the time that he lived

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