Admittedly, I am not a history teacher (I teach chemistry) so my perspective will come from my upbringing attending history classes. Traditionally, when I teach others about the Middle Ages in more informal contexts, I tend to focus on the West removed link I generally avoid talking about Islam, except in a small section in which I may cover world history. I am starting to understand that it is quite naive to strictly separate Western and Eastern/Islamic values. In many ways, Islam incorporates Judeo-Christian values and aspects of Greek philosophies as well. The latter two items mentioned in the previous sentence are definitely seen as valuable, so we should definitely teach Islam as well. The Middle Ages of the Middle East is just as important as the Middle Ages of Western Europe. I would like to revise my curriculum to include new ideas about Islam by comparing and contrasting Islam with Christianity. I can have students share about their experiences with those religions, if I have members of those religions in my classroom.