Since 2003, several reports have documented bias and evasions in world history textbooks. Textbooks misrepresent Islam past and present, critics agree. They contain fallacies and untruths about jihad, sharia, slavery, status of Muslim women, terrorism, and international security.

These reviews independently reach the same conclusions. Most conspicuously, history textbooks whitewash the meaning of jihad. Houghton Mifflin's seventh-grade text, Across the Centuries, has come in for singular criticism. Houghton Mifflin's books dominate the nation's largest state, but they are in no way worse on this score than competing textbooks. Textbooks make no distinction between sharia and Western law, and they pretend that women are making great strides in the Islamic world, when all evidence indicates otherwise. Social studies textbooks ignore the global ambitions of militant Islam. They fail to explain that Muslim terrorists seek to destroy the United States and Israel. They omit geopolitical goals that include theocracy and world domination by religion.

Islamic organizations led by the Council on Islamic Education act as domestic textbook "censors." Strictly speaking, since only governments censor books, the Islamists are merely agents of suppression, using educational publishers to do their bidding. Publishers ignore those who press them about motives, funding, legal status, and strong-arm tactics on the part of their Muslim "consultants."

The latest evidence of Islamist influence is California's adoption of History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond. The publisher is Teachers' Curriculum Institute, a privately held company trying to gain part of the lucrative California textbook market. Based in Palo Alto and Sacramento, TCI's greatest advantage is being local. The student edition is an ill-written product printed on the cheap. Accompanying instructional materials are simply amateurish. By comparison, the Council on Islamic Education-inspired and often criticized Houghton Mifflin textbook for seventh graders, Across the Centuries, is a solid and sometimes rich introduction to world history from Islam to the Enlightenment.

According to the History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond front matter, the chief author-advisor on Islam is Ayad Al-Qazzaz, professor of sociology at California State University, Sacramento. Al Quazzaz is a Muslim apologist, a frequent speaker in Northern California school districts promoting Islam and Arab causes. Al-Qazzaz also co-wrote AWAIR's Arab World Notebook. AWAIR stands for Arab World and Islamic Resources, an opaque, proselytizing "non-profit organization" that conducts teacher workshops and sells supplementary materials to schools.

With History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond, TCI is trying to sell a textbook to California schools that takes dictation from Islamist sources. The proximate question is whether the state's department of education and state school board will let this happen.

History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond's lessons titled "Jihad" and "Shari'ah: Islamic Law" are extracted below. These passages come from the student edition, copyright 2005, pages 101 through 103. They should put speculation to rest about what California's seventh-grade students may learn about Islam. At the very least, the passages are incomplete. More precisely, they are dishonest. Neither passage explains the essentially religious nature of the subject. It ignores any challenge to international security and western-style law. The treatment is lyrical and loaded, echoing the language recommended by Islamist consultants.

Jihad

The word jihad means "to strive." Jihad represents the human struggle to overcome difficulties and do things that would be pleasing to God. Muslims strive to respond positively to personal difficulties as well as worldly challenges. For instance, they might work to become better people, reform society, or correct injustice.

Jihad has always been an important Islamic concept. One hadith, or account of Muhammad, tells about the prophet's return from a battle. He declared that he and his men had carried out the "lesser jihad," the external struggle against oppression. The "greater jihad," he said, was the fight against evil within oneself. Examples of the greater jihad include working hard for a goal, giving up a bad habit, getting an education, or obeying your parents when you may not want to.

Another hadith says that Muslims should fulfill jihad with the heart, tongue, and hand. Muslims use the heart in their struggle to resist evil. The tongue may convince others to take up worthy causes, such as funding medical research. Hands may perform good works and correct wrongs.

Sometimes, however, jihad becomes a physical struggle. The Qur'an tells Muslims to fight to protect themselves from those who would do them harm or to right a terrible wrong. Early Muslims considered their efforts to protect their territory and extend their rule over other regions to be a form of jihad. However, the Qur'an forbade Muslims to force others to convert to Islam. So, non-Muslims who came under Muslim rule were allowed to practice their faiths.

Although the Qur'an allows war, it sets specific terms for fighting. Muhammad told his followers to honor agreements made with foes. Muslim fighters must not mutilate (remove or destroy) the dead bodies of enemies or harm women, children, old people, and civilians. Nor should they destroy property, orchards, crops, sacred objects, or houses of worship.

photo caption: Jihad is defined as a struggle within each individual to overcome difficulties and strive to please God. Sometimes it may become a physical struggle for protection against enemies.

Shari'ah: Islamic Law

The body, or collection, of Islamic law is called shari'ah, the "path to be followed." It is based on the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Shari'ah covers Muslims' duties toward God. It guides them in their personal behavior and relationships with others. Shari'ah promotes obedience to the Qur'an and respect for others.

In Madinah's Muslim community, Muhammad explained the Qur'an and served as a judge. After his death, the caliphs used the Qur'an and the Sunnah to solve problems as they arose. As the Muslim empire expanded, leaders faced new situations. Gradually, scholars developed a body of Islamic law. By the 12th century, several schools of Islamic law had emerged.

Islamic law guides Muslim life by placing actions into one of five categories: forbidden, discouraged, allowed, recommended, and obligatory (required). Sometimes, the law is quite specific. Muslims, for instance, are forbidden to eat pork, drink alcohol, or gamble. But other matters are mentioned in general terms. For example, the Qur'an tells women to "not display their beauty." For this reason, Muslim women usually wear different forms of modest dress. Most women cover their arms and legs. Many also wear scarves over the hair.

Shari'ah also covers Muslims' duties toward other people. These duties can be broadly grouped into criminal, commercial, family, and inheritance law.

In a shari'ah court, a qadi (judge) hears a case, including witnesses and evidence. Then the qadi makes a ruling. Sometimes the qadi consults a mufti, or scholar of law, for an opinion.

Islamic law helped Muslims live by the rules of the Qur'an. By the 19th century, however, many Muslim regions had come under European rule. Western codes of law soon replaced the shari'ah except in matters of family law. Today, most Muslim countries apply only some parts of Islamic law. But shari'ah continues to develop in response to modern ways of life and its challenges.

Chapter Summary

Muslims also have the duty of jihad, or striving to overcome challenges as they strive to please God. Shari'ah, or Islamic law, helps Muslims live by the teachings of the Qur'an. It includes practices of daily life as well as the duty to respect others.