...Having skipped right over two centuries of Jewish political sovereignty in favor of an anti-Zionist story line that has the Jews abandoning political life after the Babylonian exile in favor of developing exclusively as a religion, we come to the advent of Christianity.

Jesus was born into this context, and was hailed by his followers as the Messiah, Son of God.

Fair enough. Scholarly and objective. But when we come to Mohammed, scholarly objectivity disappears.

Six centuries later, the Prophet Mohammed would visit Jerusalem where he would experience his Night Flight and Ascension to heaven.

Only the pious believe that the visit and night flight are actual, historical events. Mohammed’s visit and Night Flight is a religious myth or dream, not an actual event. The Prophet never actually visited Jerusalem. The Quran speaks not of a visit to Jerusalem, but of a visit to the “farthest mosque.” Scholarly dispute over the event centers around the question of how early the Quranic reference to “the “farthest mosque” came to be interpreted as a reference to Jerusalem.

But note the wording of the plaque. Even a museum visitor who does not believe in night flights and ascensions to heaven, will read -- and quite likely accept as fact -- the notion that Mohammed’s visit to Jerusalem was an actual, historical event. After all, this is the faculty of the University of Chicago saying that he did...