This is fascinating information concerning the origins of the Koran. We Christians have been under secular examination as well, but for Muslims to undergo such scrutiny is rare. Here are some interesting tidbits that Christoph Luxenberg has been able to uncover concerning the Koran: [emphasis mine and comments mine]

The word Koran itself is derived from 'qeryana', a Syriac term from the Christian liturgy that means ‘lectionary’ a book of [Christian] liturgical readings. The book being a Syro-Aramaic lectionary, with hymns and Biblical extracts, created for use in Christian services. This lectionary was translated into Arabic as a missionary effort. It was not meant to start a new religion, but to spread an older one. The word huri, usually interpreted by generations of readers as wide-eyed virgins (who will serve the faithful in Paradise; Koran 44:54, 52:20 ,55:72, 56:22) actually means white grapes. He says that many Christian descriptions of Paradise describe it as abounding in pure white grapes. This sparked much joking in the Western press; suicide bombers would be expecting beautiful women and getting grapes. The Koranic passage in Sura 24 commanding women to cover themselves, one of the texts on which the doctrine of hijab is based, actually commands women to "snap their belts around their waists". The passage in Sura 33 that has usually been translated as "seal of the prophets" actually means "witness". By this reading, Muhammad is not the greatest of the prophets, but only a witness to those prophets who came before him. The Koran was composed in a mixed Arabic-Syriac language, the traders' language of Mecca. The interpretative mistakes that were made by the first commentators suggests that there must have been a gap in the oral transmission of the Koran.

Pretty interesting stuff. I believe that Muslims claim that the Koran was dictated word-for-word from Allah. From this layman's point of view, Mr. Luxenberg states a quite compelling case otherwise.