It wasn't Mohammed who founded Islam.

[Rayaan]

Yeah - apologists are creative when it comes to contriving excuses.

http://academicatheism.tumblr.com/post/6...e-muhammad

But the author of that passage (Robert Spencer) thinks that the "Muhammad" in those coins most likely refers to his own Prophet:

This could be a derivative of the common Christian liturgical phrase referring to the coming of Christ: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” In that case, the muhammad, the praised or blessed one, would be Jesus himself.

You agree with that also?

He also contradicts himself when he quotes a verse from the Quran mentioning Muhammad as a messenger, and then quotes another that mentions Jesus, as if they're both talking about the same Prophet:

Jesus is the most likely candidate, because, as we have seen, the Qur’an tells believers that “Muhammad is nothing but a messenger; messengers have passed away before him” (3:144), using language identical to that it later uses of Jesus: “the Messiah, the son of Mary, is nothing but a messenger; messengers have passed away before him” (5:75).

Which also makes me wonder, why is this guy even quoting Quranic verses to prove something if he doesn't even believe in it (as a divine revelation)?

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The tale that Abd Al-Malik spread throughout his empire could very well have been a cunning lie, at a time when no one alive would know better and most people just wouldn't care... but it would bring them together under a single nation and religion... and it clearly worked.

But before you were saying that the tale/rumor could have started somewhere between Abd-Al-Malik and Muhammad. Now you went back to saying that Abd-Al-Malik started the tale before anyone else knew anything about it?

Plus, I think it's almost impossible that the people who were alive at that time would have all forgotten who Muhammad was, and yet only Abd-Al-Malik would know something about him.