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Now, how does Islam appear in the theological field of research? Almost without exception it is presented as an amalgam of Heathen-Jewish-Christian ideas and teachings. Generations of scholars have considered it the task of their life assiduously to investigate the alleged origins of the principles of these teachings and to demonstrate the syncretic character of Islam. Just as Christian controversialists never saw in Islam anything but the product of and act of spiritual theft, modern scholars themselves maintain that the basic ideas of Islam are borrowed from the Biblical religions and describe this "a fact which requires not further discussion". "When one examines each of the elements of Mohammad's system of belief," Tor Andrae writes, "it seems impossible to decide to which of these religions he is most indebted." Goldziher asserts "that the assimilative character of Islam was already stamped on its brow at its birth. Its founder Muhammad proclaims no new ideas. He has not enriched the ideas about man's relationship with the transcendental and the infinite.
(144:1)
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