The point of his straining of gnats as you put it is to
provide a reader with a concise starting point with which to explain the Muslims hatred of Christians and Jews.
I disagree with the author and would assign the role
of father of the Muslims to be Ishmael whom it was said about would be " a donkey of a man and his hand would be against his brother" until the Lord returns. Donkey is a rather apt description of Arab males and surely their hand is aganist their fellow men. If there are any Arabs reading this I mean to offend you ,you are donkeys and you will soon feel the bite of an American bridle in your ugly face!
I certainly agree with you about Ishmael.
And I think that was a beginning point of my consternation.
But now, I've become about as . . . something . . . as the original post seemed to me.
LOL.
Blessings,