Last month, Birmingham University announced that they had discovered Qur’anic fragments that were carbon-dated to being amongst the very earliest to have ever been found. It was a fabulous story that thrilled Muslims worldwide.

Today, there is a peculiar story published in The Times  claiming that the Birmingham fragments “may predate the Prophet Muhammad” thereby calling into question the entire traditional account of the history of the Qur’an and Islam. By all accounts, this is a very serious claim, but what is the evidence behind these claims? Let’s take a look…

Sadly, The Times is behind a firewall so I can’t reproduce the entire article for you, but can tell you that the story, by Oliver Moody, appears to be a highly mischievous one.

Consider the following which is an extract taken directly from The Times article:

“At the time the discovery was hailed as confirmation that the Koran had faithfully preserved the words passed on by Muhammad for…