Gordon Nickel, a well respected scholar of Islam admits that he is interested in Islamic studies only because he wants to refute polemics made against Christianity by Muslims and hopefully his works can cause Muslims to have doubts about the Quran and the Hadith 🤣👍 Fair enough but a glaring double standard arises. Why is Nickel's work seen as serious scholarship? I mean would anyone take works done by Muslims who believe the Quran is the word of god and does apologetical works against the Bible and for the Quran whether in Quranic or Biblical studies? I think the answer is clear for why Gordon Nickel’s work is sometimes taken more seriously than that of Muslim scholars with openly apologetic commitments is a double standard within the field. Muslim scholars who affirm the Qur’an as divine revelation are often treated as inherently biased, whereas a Christian scholar who is openly critical of Islam may still be regarded as comparatively objective. The Orientalist field is racist and biased towards White people as well as those from western backgrounds and cultures whose works are seen as less biased..

Just a reminder, whenever anyone reads Gabriel Reynolds' works, Gabriel Reynolds was appointed by the pope himself to engage in interfaith Catholic-Muslim dialogues.