By Malcolm A. Kline

What do you do when your seventh grader tells you that he has to dress up like a Bedouin nomad to get an A in his Islamic Studies class? If you are Alicia Rodriguez, you just say no.

"From the beginning, you and your classmates will become Muslims," the simulation directions that went with the course promised. "During your journey, you will travel in caravans, enact generosity and hospitality, engage in trade, dress up as a desert nomad or Bedouin, eat authentic food from the Islamic world, build Islamic structures, produce poetry, create works of art, and race to be the first caravan to reach Makkah."

Actually, this is virtually the only course required in the California public school system that uses the name of God with any degree of reverence. At the same time, it is about the only religion that the California Department of Education requires for study in public schools.

"Dressing as a Muslim and trying to be involved will increase your learning and enjoyment," Sergio's Islamic Studies curriculum read. "Finally, trying your best in all tasks will guarantee you an excellent grade and a more enjoyable time."

Rodriguez, Sergio's mother, asked school administrators whether any of the Judeo Christian faiths, including her own, were offered for study. Her questions left administrators tongue-tied. Other religions were not offered for study, at least in that local school.

Rodriguez, a devout Catholic in the San Francisco bay area, found the syllabus troubling and the accompanying recital of Muslim accomplishments bizarre. While the course discusses the charity, piety, modesty and industry that many Americans have encountered in Muslims, the syllabus goes way over the top in describing the culture that grew out of societies that claim the religion.

"It was they who introduced rhythmic music, rhyming poetry, different courses at meals, and table manners," the Islam history read.

After Ms. Rodriguez met with the principal, she sat down with Sergio to discuss the class. Shortly thereafter, in that same class, the teacher asked the students to volunteer information on what they knew about Islam.

Sergio raised his hand and ticked off what some might regard as negative aspects associated with some Muslim countries, such as the circumcision of women. The teacher told Sergio to bring in information on those issues the next day so that they could read it in class.

The teacher took Sergio's material and read to his seventh grade class the gory details of the aforementioned operation. At the close of the reading, the teacher told the class, "Now, remember, this only happens in some Muslim countries." Ms. Rodriguez was appalled. "That it happens anywhere is shocking," she said.

Wendy Kelly, the vice-principal of Northstar, chose the curriculum, designed by Interaction Publishers of Lakeside, CA. When asked why the curricula contained no mention of the slavery that continues in Muslim countries such as Sudan to this day, Ms. Kelly replied, "Unfortunately, the state tells us what to teach."

An accomplished social studies teacher, Kelly chose the curriculum to comply with a state requirement that middle schools teach Islamic Studies to seventh graders. The standards, developed by the California Department of Education, expect 7th grade students to "analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Islam in the Middle Ages."

To comply with these regulations, the State of California expects seventh graders to "discuss the expansion of Muslim rule through military conquests and treaties, emphasizing the cultural blending within Muslim civilization and the spread and acceptance of Islam and the Arabic language." The state regulations do not acknowledge that this blending could result from enslavement.

That same set of standards require California students to "study the early strengths and lasting contributions of Rome and its ultimate internal weaknesses."

The specific Roman weaknesses the CA Department of Education lists for examination include the rise of autonomous military powers within the empire, undermining of citizenship by the growth of corruption and slavery, lack of education and distribution of news." The Islamic Studies criteria contain no mention of slavery.