Curriculum frames early Islam through ‘brutal military campaigns’ and slavery
The Texas State Board of Education on Friday approved a rewrite of what Texas high schoolers learn in social studies, disregarding testimony from Muslims who said the state’s public schools should teach how people of Islamic faith positively contributed to world history.
The Republican majority on the board adopted, for example, a lesson requiring public school students to learn that “radical Islam” motivated the September 11 attacks, as opposed to more narrowly focusing on terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and extremists such as Osama bin Laden. The board did so over the objections of Muslims who had urged it to teach how people of Islamic faith positively contributed to world history.
The vote also greenlit students learning about early Islam through the lens of the Prophet Muhammad’s “brutal military campaigns against Jewish and Christian tribes, the normalization and regulation of slavery, and the taking of female captives as harem slaves.” The board approved that language as part of the curriculum standards.
“No credible Islamic scholar would find such a portrayal accurate,” the Muslim Texans argued in their testimony. They had urged the board to teach how people of Islamic faith positively contributed to world history.
A Muslim-American EMT was among those killed while attempting to save lives during the September 11 attacks.
The board’s vote finalizes the rewrite of the state’s high school social studies curriculum.
The reporting was by Jaden Edison of the Texas Tribune and distributed by the Associated Press.