Does the Quran teach Biblical Corruption? Not According to Homosexual Muslim Apostate Paul Williams (reposted)

Just an everyday outing in London – Not

BY PAUL WILLIAMS on MARCH 22, 2014 • ( 0 )

…or how Sam Shamoun and David Wood were vindicated (no kidding). 

My bizarre day in London town started out with a visit to Trafalgar Square to join the protesters at the Stand up to racism demo and rally (pic taken during clearing up). I bumped into some old Muslim friends who introduced me to one of the sons of Abdel Haleem whose father just happens to be Professor of Islamic Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and editor of theJournal of Qur’anic Studies. I took the chance to ask him if he knew his fathers views on the Quran concerning two questions:

1) Does the Quran teach that the Bible is textually corrupted?

2) Is the Injeel the same as the canonical gospels or the New Testament? Or is it a different book given to Jesus?

Instantly he reached for his mobile phone and offered to ask his dad there and then. Nearly speechless I said ‘yes please’. So he called his dad (the world-renowned scholar Professor Haleem) who was in Oxford, introduced me, and suggested I speak to him myself – which I did. 

This in summary form is what the professor told me:

1) The Quran does not teach that the Bible has been textually corrupted – it does suggest that the Bible has been misinterpreted etc.

2) The Injeel is not the same as the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) or the New Testament. There are just a few shreds of Jesus’ teaching left in the four gospels.

So Professor Haleem would appear to vindicate the oft-stated views of Sam Shamoun and David Wood on subject 1) above and put Muslim apologist Bassam Zawadi (who has argued many times for the view that the Quran teaches textual corruption) in the wrong. Conversely, however, the Professor’s answer to question 2) suggests that contrary to popular Christian polemic, the original ‘gospel’ the ‘Injeel’ has been largely lost to history. The Quran claims to restate the original gospel of Jesus which Muslims follow today.

There is a great deal of confusion surrounding the question of the textual corruption of the Bible. Does the Quran teach this? Apparently not. But we often hear Muslims saying the Bible is corrupted. But this is a quite different question. Professor Bart Erhman – no Muslim – has demonstrated in his scholarly tome The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament why he believes the Bible is textually corrupt. His arguments and evidence are compelling.  But these are separate issues that need to be keep apart in discussions.