I taught world history and world religions from time to time in my 30 years of teaching. I taught Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Confucianism, Taoism, Jainism, etc. in World Religions and also in World History when their chronological foundings made it appropriate to do so. In doing this, I touched on their basic beliefs. I was not propagating their faith in teaching about it.
To not teach other religions and their beliefs is myopic and a distortion of history. And in a world religions class it is expected. To do so does not mean that one is advocating that religion. There are other cultures and religions and we as Christians are not the only ones to inhabit this planet.
This reminds me of a supervising teacher/department chair who back in the late 1970's early 1980's was opposed to my teaching about Karl Marx, socialism, and communism. All three of these are in world history and have to be taught to understand the 20th century.
Not teaching this (or learning this) is why so many people "think" erroneously that Hitler was a communist and that all dictators are communist. They are clueless about the fascist tyrants.
And I had a principal who told me not to teach anything controversial in history. This was in reference to a student upset about the slavery issue.
My response to the above two situations: I can promise you that communists teach about Thomas Jefferson and democracy and to the principal, what do I do the second day of class, to avoid controversy?
Sherman Gibbs
LaFayette