In a nation where bare-knuckled brawls have erupted over issues as innocuous as a math curriculum, it’s no surprise that efforts to teach children about Islam and the Muslim world would hit a nerve in the post-9/11 era.

A Sacramento, Calif., parent recently complained about a middle school textbook that supposedly has a “pro-Muslim bias” and indoctrinates students in Islam.

The textbook, History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond, published by Teachers’ Curriculum Institute, includes several chapters regarding the birth of Islam and its expansion across the Middle East. (The book also covers the history of Europe, Japan, Western Africa, and the Americas.)

“I am very troubled that in the name of tolerance and educating American children about the Muslim empire in history they get away with giving beginning Islamic teaching which may cause many to perhaps one day become Muslims,” an unidentified parent complained to WorldNetDaily, a conservative-leaning online news service.

Okay, in my mind, that one remark—the idea that reading about Islamic teachings could convert a child--undermines the credibility of this parent’s concern.

It also strikes me as very similar to the surprising remarks that the American Textbook Council, a New York City watchdog group, released after critics attacked its 2003 report, Islam and the Textbooks

Actually, the report offered some valid criticisms about the depiction of Islam and the Muslim world in school textbooks. But my respect for this analysis was sorely tested by a “reply to critics” paper that followed, concluding that “organized Islamists have gained control of the textbook content” and resistance to the report’s findings was the result of the “interplay of determined Islamic political activists, textbook editors, and multiculturally minded social studies curriculum planners.”

Good grief.

Let’s face it. It’s probably true that today’s textbooks offer an all-too-brief depiction of Islam and the Muslim world—and they are worded very carefully to avoid offending anyone. There is room for improvement.

A good teacher can take care of that. Sound criticism offered to the textbook industry and education community also is worthwhile.

But some critics need to hide their paranoia and xenophobia. It doesn’t help their argument.

Del Stover, Senior Editor