God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam is built on the foundation myth of the prophet Abraham. It differs from the other Abrahamic religions in that it is much younger, and that the prophet Muhammed is well-established as a real historical character. According to Muslim texts, Muhammed, like Mary, was visited by the angel Gabriel, who spoke the words of the Koran and other important Muslim doctrine.

Hitchens outlines the parallels between Christianity and Islam, both of which build upon existing Jewish traditions and rely on an illiterate prophet of lowly birth who was chosen as God’s messenger for unknown reasons. The primary texts of both religions contain extensive information about local conflicts and events in a confined geographical area. They claim to be speaking to the people of the world, but do not address the world beyond small portions of the ancient Middle East.

Hitchens admits that he knows relatively little about Islam, and cites the history of the Koran as a primary reason. Many Muslim scholars agree that the Koran is only intelligible in Arabic, a language Hitchens does not speak. Followers of Islam always quote the Koran in Arabic even if they do not speak it, and each publication of the texts requires that Arabic script be printed next to any translation.