(LifeSiteNews) — Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the Texas Board of Education approved new social studies material educating students about the attacks’ basis in radical Islamist ideology.
Among many unrelated changes, the updated social studies curriculum requires lessons on the “modern era” of history to “identify the significance of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks motivated by radical Islam, including the roles of George W. Bush, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice; the launch of the Global War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq; and the decline of civil liberties due to the PATRIOT Act.”
Early medieval history must prepare students to “explain early Islam in terms of the Prophet Mohammed’s brutal military campaigns against Jewish and Christian tribes, the normalization of slavery, and the taking of female captives as harem slaves”; as well as to “describe the teachings of jihad and how these teachings led to the expansion of Islam and the conquest of Christian lands, including Jerusalem, Syria, and Egypt.”
“Terrorism and Globalization” lessons are to cover the “rise of radical Islam, including the Muslim Brotherhood, terrorism, Al Qaeda, September 11, 2001, and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)”; plus “America’s response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Meanwhile, “Major Themes in World Geography” is to cover “central ideas of religions or philosophies, including Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Confucianism, and Daoism.”
The Houston Chronicle reports that the board voted 8–4 last Friday to adopt the revisions, which do not take effect until 2030. As expected, critics are framing them as “Islamophobic.”
“I feel attacked, as if my religion doesn’t belong,” Muslim teen Habiiba Quresh testified to the board, the Texas Tribune reports. “I shouldn’t have to defend my religion in the middle of history class because of one sentence someone on this board wrote.”
“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,” responded the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). “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.”
The national CAIR has long been linked with numerous extremist figures, such as co-founder Nihad Awad, who in 1994 declared, “I am a supporter of the Hamas movement,” and “has been designated a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates and formally designated or labeled as such in Florida and Texas.”
Board chair Aaron Kinsey, a Republican, responded that the outrage is overblown.
“There’s been a lot said out of this room, particularly to sensationalize all these topics and to make them seem more divisive than they actually are,” he said. “Fifteen people sat in the room, and we worked through, democratically, how to make those choices on behalf of our constituents. So I don’t think we shortchanged anything. I think that we did an exceptional job overall.”
There is no serious dispute that 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden and the terrorist group he formed, al-Qaeda, were driven in large part by a particularly militant type of Islam that sought to unite the world under a global Muslim caliphate. But in the decades since, debate has raged over whether that interpretation is a perversion or faithful application of the religion. By attributing 9/11 specifically to “radical” Islam, the Texas curriculum allows for the former answer while exploring the subject.
Regardless, tensions persist over the extent to which more extremist figures and ideas are accepted in Muslim cultures. New York City’s Muslim socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended Friday’s memorial event at Ground Zero, disregarding objections by victims’ families due to his history of controversial statements and associations on matters pertaining to Islamic extremism.