Pericles wrote:

"…you and I both know that Philo is simply inventing mozzies-under-the-bed stories"

Perhaps he is and perhaps he isn't. I have no way of knowing. We shall have to see whether he is able to come up with specifics.

For what it's worth here is some personal history.

I grew up in Apartheid era South Africa. The South African "history" I learned in high school was heavily laced with Afrikaner mythology. Even as schoolchildren my contemporaries and I understood this.

Imagine my surprise when, on leaving school, I encountered university academics who actually believed the mythology! They taught Afrikaner mythology as fact.

Since then I've discovered that this sort of thing is not uncommon. People who have an ideological agenda are often INCAPABLE of separating out myth from established fact. Unfortunately such ideologues infest university Arts faculties so it would not surprise me to learn that Muslim academics were teaching Muslim mythology as fact.

And, yes, I am sure Muslims are not the only ideologues to teach their mythology as fact.