F1,

the No kindle comment is an old reference that we both used as a joke when we used to get into the long drawn out discussions( as in I'll keep it short so that one doesn't need a kindle to read it, like an ebook)

I agree with your point about most people not reading Holy Books for themselves, I pointed out the violence in the OT and Revelations as examples of passages that I'd guess most Christians haven't read or are aware of to make sense of them. Sure it applies to followers of Islam. So you have devout members of faiths who are more aware of the kindler gentler aspects of their faiths.

Western education covers Europe and the Western Hemisphere, so certainly most Americans of all backgrounds wouldn't be aware of the Arab slave trade. The poor people who make decisions that land them in prison for violent offenses would be less likely to be aware of those atrocities. African American prisoners carry the last names of their former enslavers* so it's an easy sell to gloss over the Islamic slave trade and get them to buy the "blue eyed devil" speech. Malcolm X noted how easy it was for his brother to sell him that yarn as he sat in prison....in the Autobiography.

*As do those of us from other parts of the diaspora.

In both instances...slave trade and colonization was condoned by the highest religious leaders. It's documented.Sure they found bits of their Holy books to justify it. Commerce more than anything else.