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The following pages have been added newly or substantially revised at the following dates:

May 3, 2008
Several more rebuttals to various Muslim polemicists: The Murder of Asma Bint Marwan Revisited responds to Jalal Abualrub, Revisiting the Issue of Muhammad's Marriage with a child bride (Part 1) and Part 2 answers Bassam Zawadi, and Sami Zaatari is refuted five-fold in regard to his attacks on the deity of Christ: (1) Isaiah and the Glory of the Triune God Revisited, (2) Jesus Christ – The Mighty God: More OT Evidence for the Deity of the Messiah, (3) The Lord Jesus Christ – The Son of God who is Equal with the Father in Essence, (4) Jesus Christ – The Divine Son whom the Father Himself Praises and Glorifies as the Lord God!, and, finally, (5) The Lord Jesus Christ – The Glorious Messenger of God exposes Sami Zaatari's failure to disprove the Divinity of the Angel of the Lord. Moreover, three articles were added to our Classics Library: (1) Atonement by Blood Sacrifice in Islam by Samuel Zwemer. (2) The Transmission of the Kur'an (according to Muslim writers), and (3) The Transmission of the Kur'an According to Christian Writers by Alphonse Mingana.

April 22, 2008
Further rebuttals to Jalal Abualrub's mockery of the Christian Faith: Modalism, Polytheism or just plain old Quackerism! Another Response to one Muslim's Foolishness and Blasphemies, and Muhammad and Islam – The Religion of Antichrist? (Part 1), Muhammad and Islam – The Religion of Antichrist? (Part 2), and Revisiting the Issue of Puberty and Marriage: Examining Muhammad's Marriage with Aisha in light of Jewish Tradition. Then a rebuttal to Sami Zaatari: The Lord Jesus Christ – The Alpha and the Omega Still!, a rebuttal(s) to Bassam Zawadi: Jesus – The Preexistent, Divine Word and Spirit from God, and an answer to a polemic used by both of these Muslim propagandists: Whoever is good, is also God? Two files regarding the nature and identity of Jesus according to the Bible and the Qur'an: The Lord Jesus: The Divine Son who is Superior to all Creation and The Quran on Jesus as the Preexistent Spirit of Allah. Already a week ago, we added Volumes Two and Three of Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad, Aloys Sprenger's important classical work on the life and teachings of Muhammad (in German, 1869), to our Classics Library. Moreover, a link to Sprenger's earlier and less detailed English work on The Life of Mohammad (1851), which is available via Google Books, was added in the Sprenger section.

April 10, 2008
We continue with our series of rebuttals. Jalal Abualrub's recent burst of polemical articles against Christian doctrine called for two further responses: The Mutability of Allah and Exposing Islam's Pentagonity. Then two rebuttals to Jamal Badawi regarding the Muslim way of greeting non-Muslims: Muhammad's Mistreatment of the People of the Book: A Dawagandist Seeks to Justify Islam's Degradation of Jews and Christians and Muhammad's Multiple Marriages: A Dawagandist Seeks to Defend the Indefensible. And two rebuttals to Bassam Zawadi: Revisiting the Issue of Muhammad's Partnership with Allah, and Muhammad's prophecy regarding the Last Hour. Finally, we created an Index entry with some links regarding Zakaria Boutrus whose public challenge of Islam via satellite TV has made quite some waves in the Arab world.

March 31, 2008
This is "rebuttals day". We start with Shabir Ally who is awarded one rebuttal: Shabir Ally and the Use of the Bible for Dawah. Jamal Badawi gets two: (1) Never Shall He Be Satisfied: Responding to one Muslim Polemicist's Defense of Muhammad's Multiple Marriages and (2) Eusebius and the Trinitarian Baptismal Formula: Exposing Jamal Badawi's Desperate Tirade Against the Trinity. Jalal Abualrub receives four: (1) Kill Them Wherever You Find Them exposes some of his cover-up operations in a discussion on Jihad. (2) The next block addresses an older controversy: Did Muhammad cross dress, i.e. did he wear women's clothes? Part 1: Cross Dressing and Islam: An examination of Muhammad's Dress Code, Part 2: The Meaning of Mirt and Thawb, Appendix: Further References. Another two rebuttals respond to some of Abualrub's extremely vicious attacks on Sam Shamoun: (3) Have You Been Invited to Allah's Brothel? and (4) The Doctrine of the Original Shin! Furthermore, Sam Shamoun provides detailed rebuttals to many of the points raised by Sami Zaatari in his recent debate with David Wood on the topic "Was Muhammad a Prophet of God?" [Part 1], [Part 2]. Sam Shamoun also adds three more articles to his series of answers to common questions: (1) Did the Jews Misunderstand Jesus?, (2) Jesus' Authority To Forgive Sins, (3) Is the Savior necessarily God? Finally, the first volume of Aloys Sprenger's rare but important classical work on the life and teachings of Muhammad, Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad (in German), was added to our Classics Library.

March 20, 2008
Paul Stenhouse deflates some myths in The Crusades and the Spin Doctors. Articles on the nature of God and criteria to discern true deity: (1) The Muslim Criteria For God, (2) Allah – The Greatest Deceiver of them All. Regarding the deity of Jesus: (1) The Blood of God, (2) Jesus – God the Son was expanded with further material, and a third section was added to the article On Some Arguments in Support of the Apocrypha. A two-part response to false arguments by Jamal Badawi which he used (again) in a recent debate: Part 1: Jesus as Thomas' God, Part 2: Jesus as Preexistent Son of God. A response to Bassam Zawadi: Muhammad the Doubter. Finally, Muhammad and the Issue of Forced Divorce is yet another entry to the list of Muhammad's many inconsistencies.

March 8, 2008
Two introductory articles about essentials of the Christian message: The Real difference between Islam and Christian Faith by Dallas Roark. Roy Oksnevad's article Does Goodness Live In You? is now thoroughly revised and illustrations were added to it. Two articles providing further evidence and discussion regarding the deity of Jesus: Jesus – God the Son and a new Appendix: The Anti-Trinitarians are Wrong – Yahweh is Adoni which was added to the Exegesis of Psalm 110:1 — A look at Its Implications on God as a Multi-Personal Being and upon the Deity of Christ. Two rebuttals to Muslim missionaries: Allah's Omnipotence and the Incarnation Revisited answers objections by Bassam Zawadi, and Did Jesus Command His Followers to be Muslims? rebuts claims by Ali Ataie. Finally, two articles that discuss issues of mediation and intercession in Islam: Muhammad as the Mediator of Redemption and Forgiveness and How the Islamic Doctrine of Intercession undermines Allah's Omniscience.

February 22, 2008
"A Common Word Between Us And You" — Evaluating the Muslim Open Letter provides a collection of links to in-depth discussions of this higly-publicised Muslim address to the Pope and other Christian leaders, and a number of critiques of the most prominent "Christian response" written by some academics at the University of Yale. Besides these links to thorough discussions on other websites, we offer two responses ourselves: “Who You Gonna Serve?” — Theological Difficulties in A Common Word Between Us and You and The Yale Response and "the Prophet Muhammad". Moreover, A response to the "Open Letter to the Pope" is an answer to the Muslim letter that was issued before "A Common Word ..." Since this topic has become so prominent recently, we open a new section in this issue: Muslim Letters. The true nature of Jesus is the central question of disagreement between Islam and Christianity. This question cannot and should not be avoided: Jesus Christ – Son of God or God the Son? One of the most frequent arguments by Muslims against the trustworthiness of the Bible appeals to the meaning of the word "muhaymin" that is used in Sura 5:48. In the article, The Quran as Guardian of the Bible: Revisiting the Meaning of Muhaymin, Sam Shamoun carefully examines this word and this verse in its context. The Gospel Q and the Identity of Jesus responds to another common argument that the real or alleged existence of "other gospels" undermines the credibility of the Bible and Christian beliefs. Moreover, A Christian Rebuttal to a Muslim response to Dr. James R White's "Anonymous Books and Inspiration" (Part 1, Part 2), a rebuttal to Ali Ataie: Did Jesus Claim to Be God When He Ascribed to Himself Divine Titles and Attributes? and a rebuttal to Jalal Abualrub. Finally, Sam Shamoun issues another Open Challenge to Muslims. On the technical side, the latest online update for the Answering Islam CD-ROM is now available [ca. 57 MB], and for the first time, we offer the download of the complete content of Answering Islam via BitTorrent [ca. 375 MB]. Note also: Today is the start of our new Albanian language section.

February 11, 2008
Most articles today deal with the person of Muhammad: claims made about him, observations on his behavior, etc. A frequent topic of discussion between Muslims and Christians is the question whether Muhammad was predicted in the Bible. David' Wood's article, Muhammad in the Bible?, is a good introduction to this topic. Sam Shamoun takes a second look at Muhammad's alleged illiteracy in To Read or Recite? That is the Question! Muhammad regularly preached one thing and did another; two more articles were added regarding his inconsistent behavior: Muhammad and Menstruation, Muhammad and Oath-Making. The Qur'an seems to contradict itself on the role that it assigns to Muhammad, Is Muhammad Only A Warner or a Prophet/Messenger?, and on the ability of the messengers, Did the Messengers Perform Miracles? Twisting the meaning of statements is the common theme for the next three articles: (1) Eternal Security for Wrongdoers? — How Muhammad Corrupted the Qur'an, (2) Another Muslim Corruption of the Torah examines Sami Zaatari's response to David Wood's argument that Muhammad is a false prophet according to Deuteronomy 18:20. (3) Since Bassam Zawadi decided to defend his misguided rebuttal of a parody, Jochen Katz added an update to his article as well. Moreover, Dallas Roark also has a Reply to Sami Zaatari. Finally, last week Dr. Rowen Williams, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, commented on the introduction of Sharia law in Britain which caused a lot of discussion. The Archbishop and Sharia lists helpful articles on the matter and gives clear responses to the Archbishop's statements.

January 29, 2008
Ernest Hahn's booklet, Our Saviour God, How Great You Are! — Introducing the Muslim to the Christian Doctrine of the Holy Trinity, should be helpful to Muslims and Christians alike. Sam Shamoun shows how the trinitarian nature of God is woven into the fabric of the Hebrew Scriptures: (1) The Aaronic Priestly Blessing – A Trinitarian Invocation, (2) The Heavenly Tabernacle: The Dwelling Place of the Triune God, and that the Bible depicts Jesus very clearly as God Almighty: The Lord Jesus – the Maker and Ruler of Creation. On the other hand, Islam is not quite as purely monotheistic as many want to believe: The Quran's many Gods and Lords, and a three part series titled On Serving Others Besides Allah — The Hypocrisy and Blasphemy of Islam (1, 2, 3), and connected with this series, Did the religion of Islam completely eradicate Arab paganism? Finally, two rebuttals to Bassam Zawadi: Revisiting Jesus' Superiority ... Again! goes with the main theme of this update, while Working Assumption: Stupidity? drastically illustrates the importance of understanding an article before writing a rebuttal.

January 18, 2008
This update deals with various problems in the Qur'an, logical contradictions, textual variants etc. The first two articles are rebuttals to Muslim attempts of harmonizing the discrepancies between Sura 3 and Sura 19 regarding of the annunciation of Jesus' birth as they are proposed by Moiz Amjad of Understanding Islam and Ansar Al-'Adl of Load Islam. The next article provides further discussion on the topic of Six or Eight Days of Creation?, and How many wings does an angel have? examines in detail a contradiction between the Qur'an and the hadith. The Qur'an contains hundreds of instances of the word qul (say!) and/or qala (he said), but some of them seem to be in the wrong form or at the wrong place. The final three articles deal with several problems caused by these two small words: The Fifteenth Qiraat and Should he say it, did he say it or will he say it? both make observations on S. 21:4, 112 and 23:112, and The Stray Say examines S. 2:97.

January 7, 2008
"Jesus or Muhammad?" is the core issue of disagreement between Christians and Muslims. All articles in this update are looking at various aspects of this question. The Quran and the Unlettered Prophet: Jesus or Muhammad? presents observations that should be quite surprising to Muslims and non-Muslims, common believers and scholars alike. Another challenging interpretation is presented in Jesus as the Mercy of Allah: More Quranic Evidence for the Divinity of Christ, and along the same line of thought: Jesus Christ: Islam's Greatest Prophet and Messenger. But in order to really know who Jesus was, we cannot ask the Qur'an; the Bible gives the answer: Who is the Real Jesus? (Part II) by Dallas Roark. Last but certainly not least, Deuteronomy Deductions: Two Short, Sound, Simple Proofs that Muhammad Was a False Prophet by David Wood.   [Postscript to the last update: The debate between Sam Shamoun and Nadir Ahmed on the topic "Is Islam a religion of Peace?" can now be viewed at the link given here.]

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