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Houghton Mifflin's biased version of Jesus and Judaism for the 6th grade

In the Islam section, our children are asked to assume they are Muslim soldiers, being on a Mecca pilgrimage (act of worship), to research and build Mosques. Many California schools have asked children to get on their hands and knees and repeat words of prayer to Allah. I was anxious to see what the Jewish and Christian sections told children to imagine.

In the Jewish section, the ONLY imagination practice I could find was to imagine they are with the Jews when they were conquered and forced to live away from their homeland. (pg 314)

In the Christian section, the ONLY imagination practice was to imagine being in the buried catacombs of the dead Christians. (pg 469)

What religion would rejoice if these imagination exercises came true? Jews conquered and forced from their homeland and Christians in tombs of dead Christians? The symbolism of that, putting Christians, the body of Christ, back in the tomb… I’m speechless.

To accept Islam, one must say, "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his Prophet." To receive Jesus Christ, one must "Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart Jesus is Lord." Compared below please find the number of words in the textbook that support respective claims:

Words supporting claims Disclaimers
Jesus Christ as Lord: 116 10 (i.e. Christians believe)
Muhammad as Prophet: 998 9 (i.e. Muslims believe)

At no time does the textbook state, "Christians believe Jesus is Lord" but anything I could find which even hinted Jesus as more than a teacher, I counted.

Let’s look at it another way to be sure. I counted every time Jesus and Muhammad’s name appeared in their units. I broke it down to how each name was used.

And don’t forget, the Christian section is disproportionately

Muhammad is continuously supported as a Prophet of Allah with few and far between "disclaimers" such as "Muslims believe," whereas Jesus is often referred to as a "popular teacher with ideas" and every sentence that hints a breath of deity is surrounded by disclaimers. Over and over again Christianity is reduced to "ideas" whereas Islam is referred to as "More than a Way of Life." Then it hit me, our children appear to be deceptively taught:

The textbook consistently gives Christian beliefs only to the extent that Islam agrees!

Islamic beliefs about Christ verified in the Quran:

Houghton Mifflin's biased version of Jesus and Judaism for the 6th grade

The Christian Unit states that Jesus’ tomb was discovered empty. His disciples believed he rose from the dead. It convinced his followers that Jesus was the (m)essiah. (pg 318) Sort of by default it seems. Why would an empty tomb alone convince his followers that He was the Messiah? If I was a child I might laugh that Christians have based everything on just an empty tomb. No mention of Jesus’ return, miraculous appearances, spending 40 days with them, and his ascension to heaven as seen by hundreds, or the documented hundreds of Christians who chose martyredom rather than deny what they saw...which was not merely an empty tomb. Why did the textbook purposefully omit Jesus' ascension? Muhammad’s "ascension" is told in two separate accounts in the Islam section. The Dome of the Rock rates a picture with the caption,

"The rock is believed to be the place from which
Muhammad ascended into heaven."

Look at that sentence closely. What’s qualified here? Where he ascended from, or if he ascended at all? I think that on the rare occasion we do see a qualifier regarding Muhammad as Prophet, they are duplistic. (Islam Unit page 59)

Did Muslims ever face death if they claimed they saw Muhammad ascend? I doubt it, but they would probably face death if they said he didn't.

Tacitus shared the Roman view that Christians should be convicted (death) for their "hatred against mankind." (Christian Unit pg 464) No examples of hate are given, our children are just left hanging with that thought. The textbook also states, "The Jews and Gentiles did not always get along. In fact, at times violent hatred led to open conflict between them." (Christian unit, pg 460) True, but why are we told NINE separate times in the Islam section that everyone benefited from the tolerance of the Muslims? How do you conquer everyone with tolerance? (caution: the following is grisly) The Crusades began because in Jerusalem, Muslims were cutting out the guts of Christians, tying one end of their entrails to a stake. They were then chased and flogged until they died. Did you know you could live a while with your guts hanging out? It must be done tolerantly.

The textbook states:

(Then the very next paragraph reaffirms how tolerant Muslims are.)

The textbook continually claims that as long as unbelievers "pay the tax" they’ll do fine. The verse in the Quran states these conditions a little more specifically: "if they repent and keep up prayer [become believers] and pay the poor-rate, (tax) leave their way free to them (9:5) Christians will not "repent and keep up prayer" (convert to Allah). So everything is not just fine. This coincides with the verse from the Hadith "holy book", "I have been ordered to fight with the people til they say, ‘None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.’ (H 4:52:196)

The textbook puts Christianity at the top of the list for reasons of "The Cause of the Fall" (Christian Unit pg 480)

"Christians were more devoted to their faith and to the church than to the Roman state."

Did it matter as they fed us to the lions if we were devoted to Christ or Rome? On pg 466 it quotes Pliny as saying not to hunt us down, but to kill us if we’re Christian. Then it says,

WHAT does North Africa have to do with it, it’s clear across the sea! The textbook just gave all kinds of hideous ways they torturously killed Christians. The textbook actually appears to excuse the abuse, because it states,

How many Christians fed to the lions does it take before other Christians feel terrorized? So,

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