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Home » Raymond Ibrahim on TRIGGERnometry Podcast (Transcript)

Raymond Ibrahim on TRIGGERnometry Podcast (Transcript)

Here is the full transcript of American author and translator Raymond Ibrahim’s interview on TRIGGERnometry Podcast with hosts Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster, December 15, 2025.

Brief Notes: Historian and Middle East specialist Raymond Ibrahim joins TRIGGERnometry to walk through Islam’s origins, from Muhammad’s early life and first revelations to his transformation into a political and military leader who united much of Arabia. He explains how early Islamic conquests rapidly reshaped the Christian world, why doctrines of jihad and loyalty-versus-enmity became so central, and how this history has been softened or erased in modern Western narratives. The conversation examines what life was like for Christians, Jews, and other non-Muslims under Muslim rule, revisits the so‑called Islamic Golden Age, and challenges popular myths about the Crusades. Ibrahim and the hosts then turn to the present, debating whether Islam is compatible with Western societies, what current migration and censorship trends might mean for the future, and which hard questions about faith, power, and identity the UK and Europe still refuse to face.

Welcome and Introduction

KONSTANTIN KISIN: Raymond Ibrahim, welcome to TRIGGERnometry.

RAYMOND IBRAHIM: Happy to be with you guys. Thanks.

KONSTANTIN KISIN: It’s super cool having you on. We’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. You are someone who’s written a bunch of books, particularly about Islam and the interaction between Islam and Christianity. And the most interesting thing to start with, I think, is to talk about how Islam comes into being. It doesn’t exist. Christians and Jews have existed for hundreds of years at this point. Tell us about the start of Islam.

The Traditional Account of Islam’s Origins

RAYMOND IBRAHIM: Sure. So as usual, especially nowadays, there’s different approaches to history and there’s conspiracy theories. What I’m going to give you is the traditional account of the coming of Islam, which Muslims believe and which Christians and non-Muslims in general also believe. And they have for centuries.

I only tell you this by way of preface because as of late there’s a lot of attacks on the early historicity of Islam and Muhammad—did he exist, did he not exist? Much of it I think is kind of polemical. It’s the same sorts of things that arose against Jesus.

So anyway, the standard idea: the rise of Islam of course is tied up to the person of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, who’s born around 570 A.D. in the Arabian Peninsula. And by the time he’s 40, around 610, he starts having revelations, as he calls it, by the angel Gabriel, who tells him—the word we get Quran from, which means recite.

And so he supposedly starts reciting what becomes the Quran, the verses. And this goes on year after year for decades actually. These are all—so now you have the Quran is supposedly based on that and you have surahs, which is essentially chapters made of ayat, which are verses which he supposedly recited because Gabriel told him. And these are supposed to be understood as the words of Allah, the God of Islam, of Arabia, the God.

In fact, the word Allah—it’s in Arabic, it really means God. So when they translate it as God, that is not unfair. I prefer using the proper name Allah because it’s more distinct.

At any rate, so Muhammad does all this and he starts reciting and telling the people around him, the Arabians, who are by and large polytheists at this time—especially he comes from the Quraysh tribe. He presents himself in a long line of the prophets that everyone knows about, all the way from Abraham to Jesus, who of course is a prophet according to the Islamic tradition and according to Muhammad.

And anyway, he preaches basically a sort of staunch monotheism. And that’s why if you look at the Quran, there’s a lot of things that Christians and Jews would find agreeable.

The Two Stages of Muhammad’s Revelations

And then the important thing that we have to understand is that because it goes on for year after year and it’s in stages, the tone of what Gabriel’s telling him to read kind of changes over time. And it really, if you look at it, it depends if you want to look at it as a cynical non-believer or if you want to look at it as a pious believer.

As a cynical non-believer who’s trying to read between the lines, who doesn’t believe that Muhammad was necessarily being told to recite from God—whether he made it up or whether it was an evil spirit talking to him—and these of course are the popular non-Muslim, especially Christian understandings of what Muhammad was going through.

In fact, Muhammad himself, when he was first broached by Gabriel, thought it was a demon because it was sort of—it physically attacked him and squeezed him and he was sweating. And he had to go to his wife Khadijah and she told him, “Oh no, this is from God.” Okay, so even in the Islamic tradition itself, it’s a little curious.

KONSTANTIN KISIN: Let me interrupt you very briefly. Who is Muhammad when he begins to receive these revelations?

RAYMOND IBRAHIM: He’s just a camel driver and he’s part of the Quraysh tribe, which is kind of noble, but he’s a lesser noble who’s an orphan and he’s being raised by his uncle. And at this time he’s very relatively unknown and insignificant.

And he marries Khadijah, who’s an older woman and who is rich. She’s got wealth, she’s got property and livestock. And he starts essentially kind of working for her. So he’s relatively an insignificant, obscure person in the larger scheme of things.

And that’s why in the beginning—so what I was trying to say is there’s—Muslims understand two stages. He starts off in Mecca. This is where he’s young and where he’s born and where he grows up. And this is where he starts getting his early revelations. So from, let’s say 610 to 622, those 12 years, it’s what’s called, when you look at the Quran, these are known as the Meccan verses.

And at this time, Muhammad is essentially, as I just said, he’s insignificant, he’s weak, he’s preaching.