God save us from these scholars

It seems that a cache of photographs of ancient manuscripts of the Qur'an, long thought to have been lost in the bombing of Munich during WWII, has been found after all. A careful study of these manuscripts might lend support to the standard Muslim belief that the Uthman, the third Caliph, gathered all extant recordings of the Prophet's recitations of the Qur'an, and produced the single authorized version in Arabic that exists today. On the other hand, it might not.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Gerd-Rüdiger Puin, one of the scholars studying the manuscripts,

says the manuscripts suggested to him that the Quran "didn't just fall from heaven" but "has a history." When he said so publicly a decade ago, it stirred rage. "Please ensure that these scholars are not given further access to the documents," read one letter to the Yemen Times. "Allah, help us against our enemies."

Such unwillingness on the part of too many Muslims to risk confronting the truth, however uncomfortable it might be, brings to mind another quote, this time about Christianity:

He who begins by loving Christianity better than truth will proceed by loving his own sect of the church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all. — S. T. Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, 1825

The same may be said of any religion, don't you think?