Quick quiz. Find the main difference between these brief excerpts from accounts of the world’s two major faiths. First, this:

 

Christians believe [Jesus Christ] to be the Son of God….according to Christian teaching after three days he rose from the dead….Christians believe that there is only one God, but that he is revealed in three different forms.

 

Next, this:

 

The Qur’an was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad during [Ramadan]. The actual night that the Qur’an was revealed is a night known as Lailut ul-Qadr (‘The Night of Power’).

 

The difference, of course, is that while the details of the founding of Christianity are presented as a set of beliefs, the supernatural elements of Islam’s founding narrative are recounted as if they were historical fact.

 

Both of these excerpts are from a BBC website intended for the use of teachers in secular British schools.

 

After 9/11, it was imperative that people in the West be educated about Islam. There was no need to stuff their heads with countless historical and theological details; all that was necessary was for Western leaders to get across the point that Islam isn’t just another religion but is, rather, totalitarian ideology with religious elements. That never happened. Instead, we were all told repeatedly that Islam is a religion of peace, that all those terrorists are misunderstanding it every time they do something naughty, and that the chief victims of their misunderstanding are the overwhelming majority of their fellow Muslims who are thoroughly decent, God-fearing types.

 

As it happens, these days schools across the Western world do set aside time for Islam lessons. But to judge by the teaching materials available online, what goes on during these classroom sessions is the very opposite of education.

 

For one thing, as in the above passage about the “revelation” of the Koran to Muhammed, Islamic articles of faith are routinely treated as chapters of history. For another, the teaching materials either shove the darkest aspects of Islam under the carpet or subject them to a total whitewash. The glossary at one website for teachers defines “jihad” as “to ‘struggle’ or ‘strive’ – to try to do your best for God.” The same site instructs teachers to explain to their pupils that Ramadan “is when the Qur’an was first revealed to Muhammed.” Teachers are then asked to read aloud a story about the night on which the Koran was “revealed”; from it, the children learn that Muhammed (whom some of us know as a bloodthirsty warrior) was “a kind and trustworthy man” and that the religion he founded was a marked improvement over Judaism and Christianity, in part because it treats women so well. Next, the teachers are instructed to assign an “exercise in empathy”: “For each main event in the story, the pupils should try to imagine how Muhammed would have been feeling.”

 

Throughout this detour into Fantasyland, the “revelation” of the Koran to Muhammed is treated as history. By contrast, the same site’s teaching materials about Christianity repeatedly preface statements of belief with these sorts of phrases:

 

            “According to the Bible…”

            “Some shepherds, kings, and Mary believed…”

            “In the Bible it is said that…”

            “Christians say….”