http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/05/dawa-in-pennsylvania-school-system.html
Hat tip to Gates of Vienna.
This one has so many holes that I would need to type for several hours just to refute the claims that were quoted in the article.
We see yet another example of a school textbook that makes Islam and its spread out of Arabia look pretty nice and also makes Christianity look as bad as possible. What's worse is that a Pastor of a Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA), after reviewing the text,, gave it his approval. Incidentally, the 7th-Grade textbook was approved by an Assistant Superintendant of the school district that happens to be a member of the same Church as the Dhimmi Pastor.
Examples were provided in the articles:
“Religious toleration also helped the Arab Muslim Empire expand.”
“The Arab Muslim empire was generally tolerant towards Jews and Christians.”
“As the Arab Muslims build their empire, Islam spread peacefully both inside the empire and to the lands beyond its borders.”
“Mobs of Christian peasants turned on those Jews who would not convert to Christianity.”
“Medieval Christians would not tolerate even minor differences in beliefs"
What do you even do to begin on this one?
The Arab Muslim Empire expanded by warfare and incessant raiding that depopulated border/frontier regions, thus allowing further gains of territory.
Although some Muslim rulers were happy enough to seize a few Churches and turn them into Mosques and exact the Jizya (tax) from the subjugated Christians and Jews, far more made life quite difficult for them. For one instance, taxation and institutional abuse were so harsh that Christianity was wiped out from North Africa. In Spain and Portugal, the Christian Kingdoms of the North were required to provided enormous sums of tribute, including maidens to satisfy the desires of the rapacious and tolerant Muslims.
http://books.google.com/books?id=IOdcjBOoC9sC&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=one+hundred+maidens+muslims+spain&source=bl&ots=xFpihQlfxG&sig=pTOXx2IrNddQ6LpGFqo4wkMkZ6Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=eoa9T--mA6bI6gGfn71Z&sqi=2&ved=0CGAQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=one%20hundred%20maidens%20muslims%20spain&f=false
One must note that revisionists have jumped though hoops in attempts to discredit the accounts of the tribute of young girls but, aside from proclaiming that it never occurred, have been unsuccessful in their efforts when it comes to providing substantive arguments.
Jews were first persecuted in Spain by Muslims, so much so that the great writer Maimonides took care to note how bad it was for his coreligionists in the Iberian Peninsula.
http://www.rasmusen.org/x/2006/10/09/muslim-persecution-of-jews-in-andalusia/
"Indeed, although Maimonides is frequently referred to as a paragon of Jewish achievement facilitated by the enlightened rule of Andalusia, his own words debunk this utopian view of the Islamic treatment of Jews: “..the Arabs have persecuted us severely, and passed baneful and discriminatory legislation against us…Never did a nation molest, degrade, debase, and hate us as much as they.. "
As far as anti-Semitism by Christians goes, they were the Johnny-come-lately to Jew-hatred and Christian atrocities, although shameful, were few and far between (And that is a major understatement) compared to those committed by Muslims. Here are some samples of what the Koran and Haddiths say about Jews:
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/03/antisemitism-in-quran-part-1.html
As far as "minor differences in beliefs" goes, what are we supposed to make of the Sunni, Shiite, Sufi, Alawite controversies and the incredible amount of bloodshed that has gone on and continues in Islam even today? Is this supposed to be another example of "tolerance"? For crying out loud, while Christians put aside our differences a long time ago, these guys are still killing and bombing each other.
As I noted, one explanation for the Lutheran Pastor's approval is that the person who approved the textbook for the school district is a member of his Church. I will, though, add this possibility; although I stated that Christians have stopped persecuting each other, some Protestant Churches still cling to old-fashioned anti-Catholicism. Since the Catholic Church is the subject when we speak about Medieval Christianity in the West, I hold that we must allow that the Lutheran Pastor is seizing on a chance to get a shot at the Catholic Church. I have discussed doctrinal differences with Lutherans, including Pastors, on several occasions, and disdain for the Catholic Church is all-too-often part of their beliefs.
Again, to treat the material in this textbook would take hours upon hours of deciding from the thousands of historical accounts that would body-slam the claims in the text. The information is easy to find, so I will encourage the reader to research the historical record.
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