It is with the utmost seriousness and concern that we bring to your attention problems regarding the book World Religions: Great Lives by William Jay Jacobs (ISBN 0-689-80486-5). It was published in 1996 by Atheneum Book for Young Readers which is part of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10020.

It is our opinion that Dr. Jacob's portrayal of Islam and of Muhammad displays not only an extremely hostile-- perhaps even prejudiced-- slant, but contains factual errors as well. Documentation of the most egregious of these errors is enclosed.

This book came to our attention when one of our children borrowed it from the public library. Muslim Americans expect to read leftover propaganda from the Crusades in many non-Muslim portrayals of Islam, but never would we expect such a distorted and hostile treatment of our faith from a man of Dr. Jacob's academic accomplishments: doctorate from Columbia, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at Harvard, teaching stints at Rutgers and Harvard, as well as many other prestigious listings. Neither would we ever expect to read such things in a recent publication from a respectable publisher.

We cannot help but be somewhat suspicious of the possibility of an overtly anti-Muslim agenda on the part of the author and the publisher of this book. It would appear that Dr. Jacobs relied on outdated, non-academic, irresponsible anti-Muslim writings as his source material. As a consequence, he provides for his readers only false, misleading, and perhaps even bigoted statements about our beliefs and about the life and character of Muhammad.

We challenge Dr. Jacobs, and his publisher, to produce valid and responsible academic references for his assertions regarding Islam and Muhammad mentioned in the enclosed document. As there are no such references, we ask that the author and the publisher acknowledge and correct these errors and issue an apology to the Muslim community.

Sincerely,

Page 69. Dr. Jacobs opens his portrait with statements that are factually incorrect and with a tone and bias that completely contradicts what we actually know about Muhammad's character, personality and values.

He writes:

During his lifetime he was a man who loved beautiful women, fine perfume, and tasty food. He took pleasure in seeing the heads of his enemies torn from their bodies by the swords of his soldiers. He hated Christians and Jews, poets and painters, and anyone who criticized him. Once he had a Jewish prisoner tortured in order to learn the location of the man's hidden treasure. Then, having uncovered the secret, he had his victim murdered and added the dead man's wife to the collection of women in his harem.

Dr. Jacobs then delivers the coup de grâce of this introduction to one of the world's great religions and one of the world's great historical personalities with a delightfully sarcastic coda: "Muhammad. One of history's great leaders in the fields of politics and religion." The intent is not lost on the educated reader, though it might be on the target audience.

We know that Muhammad did say his three favorite things were prayer, perfumes and the company of women. It is quite clear that Dr. Jacobs has made a gross error by writing "tasty food" instead of "prayer".

Dr. Jacobs attempts to portray Muhammad as a cruel, violent, sexist hedonist. It is well known that this is a distorted view of him that can be traced back to the Crusades. On the contrary, even responsible non-Muslim literature recognizes Muhammad's kindness, generosity, and gentleness. His nickname growing up was "The Trustworthy" and the early texts relate how even his enemies would bring disputes to him because of his fairness and sense of justice. He was a man who was a leader in times of war and peace, poverty and starvation and intense persecution. Never did he wage a war of aggression. Indeed, Muslims are commanded in the Qur'an itself to wage war only in defense or against injustice.

Page 69. Dr. Jacobs, discussing the custom of sending infants to Bedouin wet nurses writes that "...Muhammad often was sent to live in a nearby desert tribe because the bleak, rocky hills of Mecca, along with its climate, were considered so unpleasant." This is both factually incorrect and misleading. He implies Muhammad was sent repeatedly. Rather, the custom was to send the infant for a couple of years, at which time he would return to his family. The reason people did this was because city-life was new to the Arabs and they thought such arrangements would "toughen up" the child as they held on to the old nomadic lifestyles. This might be comparable to today's parents sending children on "Outdoor Adventures."

Page 70. Dr. Jacobs refers to the Old Testament to tell the story of Abraham. Why did he not refer to the Qur'an with its many stories of Abraham who is frequently held up as an example to be emulated? In any other chapter of this book does he ever refer to the Scripture of a religion not the subject of the chapter? Is the purpose of this chapter not to teach children something of what Muhammad taught?

Dr. Jacobs continues his hostile slant when describing the plight of Hagar and Ishmael. He fails to mention that they are desperate for water when he writes

...the deeply unhappy young Ishmael kicked the desert sand, causing a miraculous spring of water to burst forth. Near that spring, called the Zemzem, was built a temple, a holy shrine spoken of by Arabs as the Kaaba. Ever afterward, or so the story goes, Arabs considered the city of Mecca a holy place, for it was the site of the temple of Kaaba and the well of Ishmael.

Aside from the petulance ascribed to a child in danger of dying from thirst, this is not an accurate representation of Muslim belief. For instance, the well of Zamzam and the building of the Ka'ba are not related stories. According to Muslim belief, the Ka'ba was originally built by Adam himself, and then rebuilt by his son Seth, and rebuilt again by Abraham and Ishmael as well as by others through time. It is not a temple, nor a shrine, but it represents a "sanctuary consecrated to God since time immemorial" according to one author.

Frankly, we consider Dr. Jacob's treatment of this to be, at best, highly misleading. He has certainly failed to communicate anything at all of Muslim beliefs on the issue.

Page 72. Dr. Jacobs makes a statement regarding Muhammad's illiteracy that is misleading both as to Muhammad's character, and the culture of the times. He writes "...so busy had young Muhammad been with the business of trade that he never had learned to read or write." What is Dr. Jacob's source for such an assertion? It is well known that literacy was rare in such a time and place. The Arabs were an oral culture. In addition, there were few materials that could be used for writing and that could be easily transported in what was still a largely Bedouin culture. Dr. Jacobs gives us the Crusades-inspired vision of Muhammad as a crass and greedy man-- too busy with business to learn to read! Well, history tells us that Muhammad was what we today would call generous to a fault, known for his kindness to the poor and to slaves.

It is also on page 72 that Dr. Jacobs makes one of his more astounding errors. He writes of the beginning of the Qur'anic revelation, when the angel Gabriel first came to Muhammad, that "Even though Muhammad could not read, Gabriel commanded that he say aloud the words written on a golden tablet. Miraculously, he did so."

We are speechless. There were no golden tablets. There was no miraculous ability to read. Perhaps Dr. Jacobs has confused Islam with the Mormons? Rather, Gabriel said to Muhammad "Iqra!" which can mean "read", but also means "recite". Which is what Muhammad did, recited the words he was told to repeat.

Dr. Jacobs continues his hostile sarcasm with statements such as Muhammad "gradually convincing himself that he, too, could become a prophet." Could Dr. Jacobs not have simply stated what we actually believe? That God appointed Muhammad a prophet? Would that not have been more appropriate, especially for a children's educational book?

We question the wisdom of leaving the Arabic "Allah" untranslated. Only in this one chapter do the author and the publisher fail to translate a particular language's word for "God". Many children, the target audience, and even many adults, do not know that "Allah" is Arabic for "God". It is used by Arab Christians as well as Muslims.

Page 73. A picture of Muhammad astride a horse wielding a sword. That Islam is a "religion of the sword" has long been known to be a myth from the time of the Crusades. Contrary to such an image are the words from the Qur'an itself: "There is to be no compulsion in matters of religion." In addition, the publication of a picture of Muhammad in and of itself displays a gross lack of sensitivity for Muslim sensibilities as we generally do not produce pictures of Muhammad. Anyone with more than the most elementary understanding of Islam would know this. Dr. Jacobs thus educates his young readers in how to be insensitive to their Muslim neighbors.

Page. 74. Dr. Jacobs makes another error of fact. He writes "At first, Muhammad sharply criticized such popular activities as drinking, gambling, and fortune-telling." This is not correct. These are issues late in Muhammad's story, and rather than being "sharply critical" the prohibitions of these activities was instituted gently and progressively, as is in keeping with the Islamic approach to change.

Dr. Jacobs fails again to simply educate his audience about Muslim beliefs by writing that a few of Muhammad's followers "...actually began to copy down the words of his speeches, saying that God himself must have supplied the words." Rather, there was a clear and strict distinction made between the times when the words of the Qur'an were being revealed-- the word of God for Muslims-- and when Muhammad was simply speaking on his own. This is all very well documented knowledge, easily accessible to any researcher.

Page 75. Dr. Jacobs reduces the many years of anti-Muslim economic boycott, torture and assassination attempts by other Arab tribes down to "....[Muhammad's] opponents limiting themselves to such acts as dumping garbage in front of his house..." This is simply false and an insult to the memories of the pain and persecution these people endured only because they believed monotheism.

He continues to skew Muslim teachings by stating that in Medina Muhammad set about with many tasks but "perhaps most importantly of all, with the organization of an army." No. The most important task for Muhammad was always the teaching of monotheism. Dr. Jacobs fails to fully communicate the genocidal aggression of the non-Muslim Arabs, and thus the need for the Muslims to defend themselves against them.

Page 76. Dr. Jacobs repeats what must be one of the most pernicious falsehoods of Islamic history, writing that Muhammad "turned against his former friends, the Jewish tribesmen living in Mecca". Unfortunately, the facts are otherwise. The Jewish tribes broke the treaties they had with the Muslims and thus produced a state of war. As the Qur'an teaches, when enemies offer peace, Muslims must accept. And Muslims are always to foster good relations and the use of fair and just treaties among various people.