It may further be said:

Second, the reply may be set out under several headings.

First: Muslims have never claimed that these Scriptures were tampered with after they had become widespread and numerous copies were in circulation. What they do all affirm is that much alteration and distortion crept into many of their meanings and into many of their legal rulings.

This is something every Christian concedes with regard to the Torah and the earlier prophetic books: they acknowledge that the Jews substituted much of their content and their rulings.
Likewise, within Christianity itself the various sects agree that each one differs from the others in how it explains those earlier Scriptures; and the Jews, for their part, are unanimous in holding that the Christians interpret the Torah and the prophetic writings in light of the Gospel in a way that conflicts with their original meanings and that they have replaced the rulings of the Torah.
Thus the fact that a great deal of the meaning of the former Scriptures has been altered is a point of agreement among Muslims, Jews, and Christians alike.

As for the question of whether some of the very wording has been changed, Muslims differ on that issue. The correct view, upheld by the majority, is that certain passages were indeed revised, as has been explained elsewhere.

The second aspect is that their analogy between their books and the Quran, and their notion that, just as