(Note: sorry for the windy noise during parts of the video) Jay speaks from between the Sydney Harbour bridge and the Sydney Opera House about the contrasting robust response Australians have towards Islam in their midst. He contrasts this with the more acquiescent response he has experienced in Britain, and finds the Australian model more refreshing and true, employing both apologetics and polemics freely and often. He comments on the need to cease with the false notion that we in the West are 'multicultural', and asks that, like the example he finds in Australia, we need to appreciate our 'Judeo-Christian' heritage, and ask Muslims who come to live here that they likewise appreciate that heritage, and learn to assimilate; because it is a great heritage, modeled on Biblical principles which are timeless and relevant for every age and everyone. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu4E275iJgY

Dr Bernie Power (see his YouTube channel at:https://www.youtube.com/c/BerniePower/videos) joined Dr Jay Smith on a 'live stream' to discuss how the Qur'an was put together, following what the Islamic Traditions say concerning the compilation of the Uthmanic text, as well as the destruction of all Qur'ans which disagreed with the Quraishi dialect by Uthman in 652 AD, and then sending 5 Mushafs of this Quraishi text to 5 cities with 5 reciters to make sure no other dialects were written outside of the Quraishi text. Yet, a century later 6 others recitations were written down, so that there were 7 official recitations of the Qur'an (Qira'at), which were then increased to 10, and then increased again by another 20 for a total of 30 different Qira'at Qur'ans, by 1429 AD. Then in 1924 the Caireen government commissioned one final text, the Hafs text to be the official Qur'an for Cairo, and then for Egypt in 1936, and finally for the whole world (under the authority of King Fahd, in Saudi Arabia) in 1985, just a mere 35 years ago. The two most popular of the 30 Qira'at Qur'ans today, the Hafs and the Warsh, were investigated by Bernie in this livestream, where he showed just a few of the more than 5,000 different short vowels between them, and the over 100 grammatical errors just within the Hafs text itself! It seems the more we investigate the more we find gaping holes within the Islamic narrative concerning the preservation for their Qur'an. Dr Bernie Power's Youtube site: https://www.youtube.com/c/BerniePower/videos © Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, 2020 (35,000) ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hka9KF6y4rw

The Muhammad we know of today was created by the Abbasids in the 8th and 9th centuries, and then redacted back on to the 7th century. But why and how did they need to create him? This is the question Odon answers here. To understand it one has to return to the 7th century where there were warring Arab leaders who were waiting for the Messiah to return, and when he didn't they took on his Messianic figure for themselves, and often referred to themselves as 'Muhammad', which in Arabic means 'The Praised one'. But it wasn't until Abd al-Malik, who considered himself as the 'caliph of God', that a revelation and a prophet, followed by a place was really needed for the Arab people. This was later solidified under the Abbasid rule, post 749 AD. But they couldn't invent a religion out of nothing, because there was already a historical core which was dependent on a text (the early Qur'an), and existing buildings (such as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem). Similar to Mormonism, which needed a book and a prophet to give them theological legitimacy, so did the Umayyads and subsequently the Abbasids need the same legitimacy. So, the nascent Qur'an was pre-Islamic, thus an Islamic narrative needed to be created to then make it Islamic. This desire to create that narrative was referred to by the French Islamicist Henri Lammens (d. 1940) who said: "Just like the corpus of the Muslim Tradition, the inspiration for the SIra is first and foremost exegetical, derived from the text of the Qur'an. The Sira was intended to serve as a commentary in action. It must be translated into precise and picturesque anecdotes, the most obscure illusions, the least intelligible innuendos of the verses, hunting down the animus, the impersonal, so disconcerting in the reading of the Surahs, everywhere, so-to-speak, affix commemorative places, multiplied dimensions of proper names, dates, so carefully avoided by Muhammad. So, this was exegetical in the first instance, so that the Sira is doctrinal, but with more abandonment, with a sensible affectation than in the traditions itself." Thus, as Lammens suggests, the Standard Islamic Narrative was created to make that which wasn't Islamic (the Qur'an) into an Islamic narrative. That explains why the SIN are so big and long and so descriptive, as they were the vehicle which made sense of what had been before, and given it a body. Muhammad's title existed in the 7th century, used by various Arab caliphs to give them authority as the 'blessed one of God', so this name was quite familiar to those living in that century. Some historical memory existed, and couldn't be done away with (i.e. the story of the Mi'raj) so they were used to give authority to existing structures. Thus, the Miraj became a vehicle to explain the Dome of t ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx_7w2aOIv0

Jay does an interview with Dr James Beverley, a professor at Tyndale Seminary, in Toronto, the largest seminary in Canada, on why he thinks Jesus is so special, when compared to other great religious men. Dr Beverley is a specialist in religions and cults, and so has interviewed countless scholars and religious leaders, and has used the material he has garnered from those interviews to write his many books on the subject of world religions and cults. He has found that every leader he has talked to has a deep admiration for Jesus, to the point that they have to in order for other people to accept their own religious beliefs. As a contrast, when he asked the leaders about Muhammad, he found very few who admired him, due to his violence and the way he treated women. So, in every case, Jesus came out on top. Dr Beverley's two most famous books are 'Getting Jesus Right', and 'The Counterfeit Code'. For those who would like to read Dr Beverley's books, as an added bonus to those of you who have watched the video, or who are reading this synopsis, 'Castle Quay Books', the Canadian publishing company which publishes all of Dr Beverley's books is offering a special 25% discount on any of his books. All you need to do is go to the Castle Quay Books web site, and click onto his most famous book on Christianity and Islam, entitled 'Getting Jesus Right' (http://castlequaybooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=99) Once you order that book, or any other of Dr Beverley's books, then go to the check-out and during that process, when it asks for a discount code, simply write in the box: CQB Castle Quay Books will discount 25% on any of Dr Beverley's books. Happy Reading! © Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, 2019 (22,610) ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peWaSnDVqMk