I thought our comparison of Christianity and Islam was an interesting discussion…In the Ibn Ishaq excerpt and in Fred Donner’s “Muhammad and the Believers’ Movement,” it is clear that God in Islam and the Quran are central, as well as the fact that Muhammad is viewed as the messenger sent by God. When contrasting the Quran and the Bible, specifically the New Testament, it is interesting to note that there are not specific stories about Muhammad in the Quran, which is different than the Bible. When looking at the Apostle’s Creed to see where they intersect and agree vs. where there are differences…for example, the idea that Jesus suffered on the cross problematic bc he was sent by God and he should not allow him to suffer-surprised by how many points of the agreement there were. I think it is also important that, as we noted in class, the earliest sources about Muhammad were the ones who admired and followed him and, not surprisingly, they have a bias because of this and they are going to view that figure or individual favorably. This also leads to a deceptively simple portrait of a particular historical figure and although it is often a complicated process, it is important to evaluate how and what do we know about this person.