on muhammad sven kalisch

Admit it.  Muhammad Sven is a catchy name… which is probably not a good thing if you’re Muhammad Sven Kalisch and you have declared the possibility of Muhammad’s nonexistence.  I have to hand it to him, the guy’s got guts… maybe even some intellectual integrity.  From The Wall Street Journal.  All emphases mine.

Professor Hired for Outreach to Muslims Delivers a Jolt
Islamic Theologian’s Theory: It’s Likely the Prophet Muhammad Never Existed

Muhammad Sven Kalisch, a Muslim convert and Germany’s first professor of Islamic theology, fasts during the Muslim holy month, doesn’t like to shake hands with Muslim women and has spent years studying Islamic scripture. Islam, he says, guides his life.

So it came as something of a surprise when Prof. Kalisch announced the fruit of his theological research. His conclusion: The Prophet Muhammad probably never existed.

That can’t have made the natives happy.

Muslims, not surprisingly, are outraged. Even Danish cartoonists who triggered global protests a couple of years ago didn’t portray the Prophet as fictional. German police, worried about a violent backlash, told the professor to move his religious-studies center to more-secure premises.

You have to applaud Kalisch for trying to inspire independent, critical thinking in devotees of a religion that utterly abhors such concepts.

Prof. Kalisch, who insists he’s still a Muslim, says he knew he would get in trouble but wanted to subject Islam to the same scrutiny as Christianity and Judaism. German scholars of the 19th century, he notes, were among the first to raise questions about the historical accuracy of the Bible.

…

He has doubts, too, about the Quran. “God doesn’t write books,” Prof. Kalisch says.

Some of his students voiced alarm at the direction of his teaching. “I began to wonder if he would one day say he doesn’t exist himself,” says one. A few boycotted his lectures. Others sang his praises.

Prof. Kalisch says he “never told students ‘just believe what Kalisch thinks’ ” but seeks to teach them to think independently. Religions, he says, are “crutches” that help believers get to “the spiritual truth behind them.” To him, what matters isn’t whether Muhammad actually lived but the philosophy presented in his name.

And there, I have to pause for a sharp intake of breath.  I fully support Professor Kalisch’s search for truth and independent thinking.  I’m just a little worried about some of the “philosophies” presented in Muhammad’s name.