The 15-member Texas State Board of Education on Friday is expected to approve updated social studies and history lessons that portray Islam in a largely negative light, tying it to violence and slavery.
Members have been meeting in Austin all week working through the last high school Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills updates, having completed K-8 changes earlier this summer.
Over the course of hours public testimony, speakers praised and criticized the proposals, which also requires students to understand “that important tenets of Christianity during the time of the Roman empire influenced Western Civilization, America, and Texas.”
Speaker Chuck Allmon said he liked what the board had in mind, including references to Christianity’s role in the nation’s founding and rhetoric against Islam — among the largest faiths in the world.
“This is a godly nation, the United States,” said Allmon. “The Supreme Court, 1892, proclaimed it as such. We don't need or want Islam teaching to indoctrinate our Texas school students. All they need to know is how evil Islam is.”
Texas school lessons would mention radical Islam, not Al-Qaeda, as motivation for 9-11. They also depict Islam's founder as a warring, military and violent leader and require 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."
High school sophomore Hanifa Nayeemuddin recommended the board stop “using a broad indoctrinating term like 'radical Islam’. and explain the history without making students associate an entire religion with terrorism.”
She said students deserve to feel safe without getting the wrong idea about an entire group of people.
Speaker Bahia Amawi simply called the curriculum discriminatory, saying the lessons are “written intentionally to portray one faith in a positive light while deliberately casting another in a negative one.”
The board earlier this year removed a standard that would have taught about “Muslim contributions to algebra and astronomy.”
Friday’s vote comes after the board approved a new statewide reading list that includes numerous Bible passages, curriculum Southern Methodist University professor Marc Chancey said “privilege[s]” Christianity over other religions.
With 10 Republican members and 5 Democrats, the board is expected to pass the new social studies curriculum. The changes would go into effect in 2030.
Bill Zeeble is KERA’s education reporter. Got a tip? Email Bill at bzeeble@kera.org. You can follow him on X @bzeeble.
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