A disturbing book worth reading

As "The Trouble with Textbooks" shows, textbooks relate Christian and Jewish religious traditions as stories attributed to some source (for example, "According to the New Testament "), while Islamic traditions are related as indisputable historical facts. The authors cite the textbook "Holt World History," where one can read that Moses "claimed to receive the Ten Commandments from god," but "Mohammed simply 'received' the Koran from God." The textbook "Pearson's World Civilizations" instructs that Jesus of Nazareth is "believed by Christians to be the Messiah" -- which would be a fine comparative religion study observation if the book didn't also disclose that Muhammad "received revelations from Allah."

"The Trouble with Textbooks" is filled with such shocking examples. It also reports on a textbook ("McDougal Littell World Cultures and Geography") that relates that "Judaism is a story of exile" and that "Christians believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah" but that the Quran "is the collection of God's revelations to Muhammad." As "The Trouble with Textbooks" makes only too clear, one instance perhaps could be overlooked, but in fact, there is a consistent malicious practice of Islam -- and only Islam -- being described as historical truth in numerous prominent public-school textbooks. In those textbooks, Christianity and Judaism equally as consistently are described as mere notions of their believers.