What Have I Been Researching Lately

I have been researching an interesting topic which is not related to Muslim Sects.


Why do the Westerner or Western Scholars of Islam think that the message of Prophet Muhammad or al-Islam is a continuation of Christianity and Judaism.


Muslims generally accept past religions, such as Judaism and Christianity. Muslims believe the divine origin of Christianity and Judaism. But they also believe that these religions have been been corrupted by their followers.


Westerners/Orientalist have an aggressive and an opposite reaction (stance) against Islam. To counter-act Islam's position towards the above Abrahamic religions, they consider Islam as a copy-cat religion by claiming that the Prophet of Islam created his religion from a hybrid of other religions, such as, the pagan belief in Arabia, Christianity and Judaism and other Mythical beliefs which was common to the region at the time.


The evidence that are usually provided by the Westerners or Orientalist are generally very speculative.

• They claim that the Prophet of Islam was a tradesman, so he must have known people of other religions. He must have learn from them before setting up this new religion in Arabia
  
• Secondly, they claim that since many Jews used to live in Arabia, then the Prophet must have learned from them by observing and then incorporating it in his religious belief
  
• They then claim that the Prophet of Islam must have met some of the Zorastrians living in the area at the time. They talk about Zorastrians influence on Islam by looking at some of Islamic beliefs and speculating on its origin.
  

I am still reading a number of Western sources that portray the Holy Prophet as someone who has created a hybrid religion called Islam based on his observation of other religion and belief systems.


Most of the works by Westerners on this topic are very speculative. It is not based on written sources.

• Sources are not presented showing that the Holy Prophet meeting specific persons (like priests or a rabbis). 
• Sources are not quoted showing that the Prophet went somewhere to learn or get schooled about other religions. 
• Sources are not provided about his involvement with any group of people.
• Heck, there are not even sources of him sitting down writing and analysing views and ideas from other religions.

The premise used by Westerners is that Islam is not original hence it must come from somewhere.

The Prophet must have learned and picked sources from other religion to create his own hybrid/copy-cat religion.

I am still reading but one thing that I find hard to believe is that no solid evidences have been provided to support the Westerners premise that the Prophet of Islam has learned from the Jews, Christian or Zorastrians.