RAYMOND IBRAHIM Increasing numbers of people have become wary of the dangers of Fake News. But what about the more subtle scourge of Fake History? Although far harder to expose than Fake News—requiring familiarity not merely with history, but with primary source texts—Fake History is arguably even more dangerous.
Unlike the “news,” which is ephemeral, causing its mischief in the present before quickly dissipating, the presumed lessons of history are concrete and long-lasting. People interpret current events through the prism of history; and if that history is fundamentally flawed, then everything they believe about the present will also be flawed.
As a prime example of the dangers of fake history, take the historical writings of John Esposito, an award-winning professor of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University. He is the author of more 35 books on Islam; editor-in-chief of numerous Oxford reference works, including The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World and The Oxford History of Islam; advisor to the award-winning PBS documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002); and, perhaps most notably, a go-to expert on Islam, certainly in his heyday after 9/11, when he was frequently called on to brief the State Department, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security and various branches of the military.





