Dr Paul Allen

A recent public debate between British Muslim polemicist Zakir Hussain and American Christian author Michael Brown helpfully illustrates the two most common Islamic approaches to the Bible. On the one hand, Muslims often argue that the Bible predicts the coming of Muhammad. On the other hand, they will often undermine the Bible’s accuracy and authority. For example, Hussain claimed Moses’s mention in Deuteronomy 18:15 of a future prophet to come was a prophecy about Muhammad. But when Brown carefully demonstrated that according to the verse, the prophet would need to come from Israel (“A prophet like me from among your own people,” NRSV), the debate shifted.  At that point, Hussain asserted the Masoretic Text had added the Hebrew word for “from your midst” to the verse, even specifying that the word wasn’t to be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The debate, accessible on Brown’s YouTube channel, points to the remarkable efforts some Muslims make to search the Bible’s text for claims a...

As a Christian growing up in Egypt, many of my neighbors and classmates were named “Muhammad.” From an early age, I learned the significance of that name—the name of their prophet—to the Muslims around me. Muslims cherish, love, and respect Muhammad. They also believe the use of his name brings blessing to their lives. Now I live in America. And as more Muslims come to this country, I believe American Christians need to know more of what Muslims understand about their prophet. Here are nine things you should know about Muhammad. 1. Muhammad was probably a historical figure. Muhammad was allegedly born in Mecca in AD 570 and died in Medina in AD 632. Many are skeptical of the information about his life because the Muslim accounts of it were documented about two centuries after his death. We have no eyewitness accounts. This is problematic, as we cannot fully trust the records about him. However, we have reason to believe Muhammad was a historical figure. Some Christians in the seventh c...

It started with a hijab during Advent, and ends with a foundational lesson in the Trinity. Larycia Hawkins, a professor of Politics and International Relations at Wheaton, decided to wear a hijab to her classes. She explained on Facebook that she did this as part of her “advent worship” in order to demonstrate that she: “Stand[s] solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.” In addition to her strange identification of Christians as “people of the book” (which is an Islamic category), her expression of solidarity with Muslims was poorly timed, to say the least. For many Middle Eastern Christians, the hijab represents the brutal oppression of women by Muslims. Moreover, in much of Iraq, Egypt, Syria, and Libya, this was the first Christmas season in 2000 years without Christians to celebrate it. Islamic terrorists (who require women to wear a hijab by law) have essentially eliminat...