Luxenberg & Puin: Origins & Revisions Responding to the Channel 4 Dispatches Programme

On Monday 14th July 2008, the British Television Channel, ‘Channel 4’ broadcast a Dispatches
documentary entitled “The Qur’an”. As a result of showing this two hour long documentary many
Muslims are now confused and non-Muslims misinformed.
While searching the internet for a review, response or rebuttal, I have come across many individuals
who have sincere questions and unfortunately doubts about the origins and nature of the Islamic way of
life. Consequently I have decided to explain, contextualise and refute some of the deliberate accusations
against the Qur’an.
Firstly, I will write about the ideas expressed concerning the history and textual integrity of the Qur’an.
Before I go into the counter arguments and responses I would like to highlight the efforts to avoid
engaging in a sincere, ‘positive’ dialogue by Dispatches. Using Dr Puin’s and Christoph Luxenberg’s
arguments on the Qur’an’s preservation and origins is enough evidence to indicate Channel 4’s
deliberate attempt to misinform.
Luxenberg’s argument that the Qur’an has Syro-Aramaic origins has been widely discredited by the
academic community. His attempts to identify an underlying Syro-Aramaic reading of the Qur’an have
been viewed with great suspicion by other scholars. His methodology has been described by Angelika
Neuwirth as “presupposing its very results”. D.J. Stewart describes Luxenberg’s attempts to reconstruct
the Qur’an from an Aramaic reading as being “implausible and often demonstrably wrong”. Even
Scholars, such as Gerald Hawting, who have questioned Orthodox Muslim understanding has described
Luxemberg’s work as “arbitrary”.
Regarding Dr Puin’s work on the so called “revisions” of the Qur’an, why didn’t Channel 4 quote
Arberry, Brockett or Taylor when discussing the static and preserved nature of the Qur’anic text? Adrian
Brockett says (See his article “The Value of Hafs And Warsh Transmissions For The Textual History Of
The Qur'an”):
“The transmission of the Qur'an after the death of Muhammad was essentially static, rather than organic.
There was a single text, and nothing significant, not even allegedly abrogated material, could be taken
out nor could anything be put in.”
In my opinion this highlights the lack of sincere enquiry of Dispatches, as they did not cater for the
majority academic opinions for the origin and history of the Qur’anic text. Thus indicating their
eagerness to create media hype and popular TV viewing rather than inform, educate and provide a
platform for honest debate.
weiterlesen: responding to dispacthes. pdf

Quelle: http://www.theinimitablequran.com/