Texas Board Finalizes Curriculum Changes on Islam in Social Studies

The Texas Board of Education just handed final approval to changes in the state's high school social studies curriculum, a move that will reshape how students learn about Islam and Christianity.

This updated plan covers U.S. history, government, and world geography. Dozens of voices spoke out during public testimony sessions, yet most expressed opposition to the finalized version. The board nonetheless moved forward.

Approved language now asserts that "radical Islam" drove the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks instead of narrowing the focus to the specific groups responsible for the violence. Students will also study early Islam through claims about Prophet Muhammad's "brutal military campaigns against Jewish and Christian tribes," the "normalization of slavery," and the taking of female captives as "harem slaves."

Several Democratic members pushed back hard against this wording. A Republican-majority board, however, still approved that section along with other changes on Friday. Muslim groups, students, and multiple curriculum experts voiced strong objections to these new rules.

"I feel attacked, as if my religion doesn't belong," Habiiba Quresh, a 15-year-old Muslim student, told the board according to The Texas Tribune. "I shouldn't have to defend my religion in the middle of history class because of one sentence someone on this board wrote."

At least three board-appointed curriculum experts warned against the new language too. Andrea Hutchison, a social studies curriculum coordinator for Prosper ISD, argued the material did not "hold up to close historical scrutiny," reported the outlet. Robert Koons, a philosophy professor at UT-Austin, said most nonreligious scholars find the source of these claims "not very reliable." He added he would warn against including content that is "not based on well-established secular sources."

The Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations slammed the decision as an attack on our education system and the First Amendment. They stated the board chose to "single out and denigrate Islam, minimize the brutal realities of slavery and segregation, and entirely erase Palestinian history."

"No credible scholar of history validates the bigoted caricatures of Islam this curriculum teaches," CAIR Texas and CAIR Action Texas said in a joint statement. 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."

State Board of Education Chair Aaron Kinsey pushed back on criticism of the revised standards. He claimed opponents had "sensationalize[d] all these topics and [made] them seem more divisive than they actually are." Kinsey added that board members "worked through, democratically, how to make those choices on behalf of our constituents" and said he believed they "did an exceptional job overall."

But Republican school board member Julie Pickren boasted about the material's final approval. She described the social studies law that got them there as a project she had worked on for over 10 years with the House and Senate. "This is such a huge accomplishment; this vote kind of bookends 12 years of life's work," Pickren said according to Fox 7.

The approved curriculum is expected to be phased into classrooms during the 2030-31 school year.