The Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, and CAIR Action Texas, a leading Muslim political organization, today responded to the Texas State Board of Education’s approval of new high school standards that denigrate Islam and diminish how Black and Palestinian history are taught, by announcing they will spend the time before the curriculum’s 2030 implementation working to overturn it and protect teachers and students who refuse to teach it.
A majority of witnesses who testified before the board opposed the standards. A 15-year-old Muslim student told the board she felt “attacked, as if my religion doesn’t belong.” The board approved the standards anyway, despite a CAIR-led press conference earlier in the week warning them directly.
SEE: CAIR: Texas Students, Parents and Faith Leaders Call on SBOE to Remove Anti-Muslim Language from Social Studies Standards
In a joint statement, CAIR Texas and CAIR Action Texas said:
“The State Board of Education’s decision to single out and denigrate Islam, minimize the brutal realities of slavery and segregation, and entirely erase Palestinian history is an affront to our system of education and the First Amendment. No credible scholar of history validates the bigoted caricatures of Islam this curriculum teaches. Even the board’s own appointed experts warned it doesn’t hold up to historical scrutiny, yet the board voted against removing it. Texas students of every background deserve an education that tells the truth about their history and their neighbors’ history, not propaganda that teaches them to see each other as threats or erases them from the story altogether.
“The board has turned our classrooms into a place where prejudice is taught as fact and entire communities are written out of their own history. This is not only a Muslim issue, a Black issue, or a Palestinian issue — it is a Texas issue, because a board willing to do this to one community can do it to any community next. CAIR Texas and CAIR Action Texas will not stand by. We plan to work with parents, educators, and coalition partners across every community affected to reverse this decision, and we call on every Texan who believes in honest education and the First Amendment to join us.”
At least two board-appointed curriculum experts cautioned against the Islam standard. Andrea Hutchison, a Prosper ISD curriculum coordinator, said it does not “hold up to close historical scrutiny.”
The new biased curriculum would claim that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) engaged in “brutal military campaigns” and claim that Islam established the “normalization of slavery” and the “taking of female captives as harem slaves.”
The board had the opportunity to remove the word “brutal” from the standard and chose to keep it. A motion to strike it was defeated by a vote of 4-8. The other changes adopted were not neutral corrections. The board voted to replace “the Prophet Mohammed’s” with “Mohammed’s, the prophet of Islam,” after Board Member Hall argued that referring to Prophet Muhammad (peace be up on him) as “the Prophet” would be offensive to Christian and Jewish Texans. In other words, the board found time to weigh whether non-Muslim Texans might be offended by standard Islamic terminology, while voting down the one amendment that would have addressed how the standard offends and misstates history.
The board also inserted “and regulation” alongside “normalization” of slavery. This change does add a degree of historical accuracy, since Islamic law did impose specific legal limits on the practice, but it does not offset language that remains, on the whole, singularly negative and unlike the treatment given to any other faith and the issue of slavery. The core mischaracterization remains intact. In reality, traditional understandings of Islamic law banned almost all manifestations of historical slavery, never countenanced the racist form of slavery practiced in western nations, and guaranteed people who were enslaved the right to secure their freedom. The Muslim world ultimately banned slavery in all forms without ever engaging in a civil war over the issue.
This pattern of biased and ahistorical lesson curriculum extends beyond Islam. The board cut lessons on segregation and slave revolts, removed language that Africans were enslaved “because of the color of their skin,” dropped acknowledgment that the South seceded to preserve slavery, renamed the “Tulsa Race Massacre” the “Tulsa Race Riots,” and eliminated a standard on the Black Power movement.
Palestinian history is erased entirely. The standard on Israel’s 1948 founding was amended on the floor to correctly credit President Truman’s recognition rather than the United Nations, but it still describes Israel only as “the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people,” with no mention of Palestinians. No standard anywhere in the curriculum addresses Palestinian history, displacement, or perspective.
CAIR-Texas and CAIR Action Texas noted that a board willing to teach one religion through its worst moments, and erase entire communities from their own history, sets a precedent that can be turned against any group next. This shapes how a generation of Texans understands their neighbors — and what kind of state Texas becomes.
These standards aren’t implemented until after 2030, leaving time to push for change:
CAIR Texas and CAIR Action Texas will continue working with parents, educators, and coalition partners, including monitoring implementation as adoption moves forward.
CAIR Action is a 501(c)(4) organization empowering the American Muslim community through civic engagement and advocacy. CAIR Texas is the Texas chapter of CAIR, a 501(c)(3); as such, it does not endorse or oppose candidates for office.
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CONTACT: CAIR Texas Government Affairs and Legislative Manager Sameeha Rizvi, srizvi@cair.com, 512-893-1371; CAIR-Austin Director, Shaimaa Zayan, szayan@cair.com, 512-785-7105; CAIR-DFW Executive Director Mustafaa Carroll, mcarroll@cair.com, 832-549-1042; CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com
