The backslash issue was resolved in python-markdown 2.1.1, updated the dependencies and removed workaround

mdx_math.py

@@ -4,17 +4,16 @@ def makeExtension(configs=None) :
 from markdown.inlinepatterns import Pattern
 import markdown, urllib
 
-
 class MathPattern(Pattern):
     def __init__(self,md):
-        Pattern.__init__(self,"!\[math\]\((.*?)\)",md)
+        Pattern.__init__(self,"!\[math\]\((.*?)\)\[math\]",md)
     def handleMatch(self, m):
-        texcode=m.group(2).replace("\x02klzzwxh:0000\x03","\\") #silly issue
-        el = markdown.etree.Element('img')
-        el.attrib["src"]="mimetex.cgi?"+\
-            urllib.urlencode({'':texcode})[1:]
+        texcode=m.group(2)
+            
+        el = markdown.util.etree.Element('img')
+        el.attrib["src"]="tex.cgi?"+self.unescape(texcode)
         
-        el.attrib["alt"]=texcode
+        el.attrib["alt"]=self.unescape(texcode)
         return el
         
 class MathExtension(markdown.Extension):