Weed out textbooks offensive to Muslims

Telegraph reports School textbooks should be reviewed for intolerant depictions of Islam and other faiths by experts overseen by the European Union and Islamic leaders, the European Parliament was told yesterday.

If that means eliminating offensive cartoons, then I agree. They do not belong in textbooks. But if it means removing historical accounts showing how barbaric Muslims used to be, and how many of them still are, then thanks but no thanks.

The call for a special committee to examine religious education in schools came from Hans-Gert Pöttering, the German Christian Democrat, who heads the largest group of MEPs. But the proposal was immediately condemned as "appeasement" by Charles Tannock, a British Conservative MEP.

Who was probably right.

Mr Pöttering, the head of the centre-Right, but largely federalist European People's Party, said the work of building bridges between Islam and the West had to "begin with young people".

Does this review apply to what is taught in Madrassas and other Muslim schools, or just what non-Muslim Europeans are taught?