Yes, My New Book Teaching Kids About Religions Portrays Muhammad [View all]
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/nosacredcows/2018/12/yes-my-new-book-teaching-kids-about-religions-portrays-muhammad/
My newest book, a collaboration with artist Chuck Harrison, teaches children about religions and where they come from. A lot of people have asked if that includes Muhammad and Islam, and the answer is yes.
I wrote about the Book of Religions yesterday, and explained that kids can create their own religion using the book’s animated instructions, but I didn’t talk about how Chuck and I handled the issue of Muhammad (and his visual portrayal) in the text itself. We threaded the needle carefully with the Belief Book and the Book of the Gods, but with this one we tackled the controversial issue head on.
For starters, Chuck’s cover has a not-so-subtle dig at the issue of censoring Muhammad’s face. Several people have noted that the cover has an outline around one character’s face, showing that he couldn’t be drawn. Here’s that image, along with the alternative art Chuck produced.
![](https://wp-media.patheos.com/blogs/sites/780/2018/12/MUHAMMAD.png)
Excerpt from the book itself:
We’ll start with the second most popular and fastest-growing religion on the planet, Islam, a close relative to Christianity and another branch of Judaism. Islam is based on the teachings of its founder, Muḥammad, who believers (called Muslims) say was sent by God to help people. Muslims believe the purpose of life is to worship God, or “Allah,” and to give to charity without other people knowing (zakat). They also have strict rules against drawing their leader. In fact, some people have been killed just for making a cartoon of Muḥammad.