(excerpt, page 56-7 'CONFILCT IN MECCA')           ... To Summerize the Satanic verses incident, Muhammad one again attemted to entice the Meccans to join Islam by compromising his own monotheistic beliefs. Embarrassingly, the prophet declared that is was conveniently permissible to also incorporate the worship of the venerated pre-Islamic godesses, Alat, Manat, Al-Uzza - with the inclusion of his god, Allah. However, to propagate such a message was pure blasphemy (bigot no. 1, 9:12, 61-66 '… Make no excuse; you have disbelieved after you had believed' -> 4:89 '… kill them wherever you find them') in the eyes of Islam. Muhammad realized he had commit Shirk (belief in polythesim) - the concept that god shares his position, or comes in many forms. In Islam, this is considered to be the highest form of heresy and is ultimately unpardonable. Upon realizing his own gross malfeasance, Muhammad quickly recanted and quickly stated that he was "tricked" by Satan for acknowledging that Allah had three daughters. In Islamic

         thology - Allah has no children. Neither is mankind referred to as 'god's children'. Furthermore, the Islamic Shahada states that "There is no other god but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger."
         Even today, no Muslim can tangibly explain why Muhammad was tricked by Satan. However, I believe there is only one logical reason that Muhammad quickly came to his sense:
         The existence of only one god only needs one Prophet - to have more than one deity would indicate that more than one prophet could arise and challenge his[Muhhammad] authority.

… "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."
Bukhari Book of Jihad, ahadith 176-7