The Texas State Board of Education voted 8-4 on Friday to adopt a rewritten set of high school social studies standards that will require students to learn about Mohammed’s taking of female captives as “harem slaves,” his “brutal” military campaigns against Jewish and Christian tribes, and the normalization of slavery in early Islam, according to Breitbart News.
The changes, which are scheduled to take effect in 2030, drew objections from dozens of Muslim speakers during a week-long curriculum session in San Antonio, as well as a written rebuke from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
A curriculum shaped by months of debate
The vote followed months of argument over how the state’s social studies standards should treat early Islam. The approved rewrite will apply to four high school courses: U.S. History, World History, World Geography, and U.S. Government.
One of the more closely watched changes during Friday’s meeting was a wording shift: the standards will refer to Mohammed as the “Prophet of Islam” rather than “the Prophet Mohammed.” State Board of Education member Brandon Hall raised the objection during the meeting, telling the board that not everyone accepts Mohammed as a prophet.
Hall explained his reasoning by pointing to Mohammed’s marriage to a six-year-old girl, which he said was consummated when she was nine — a point he argued Christian Texans in particular would weigh heavily when deciding whether the label “prophet” should stand without qualification.
The curriculum rewrite also includes a new emphasis on the role of Christianity in history courses, a provision that was folded into the same package as the changes regarding early Islam.
Muslim groups push back
CAIR, which Texas Governor Greg Abbott designated alongside the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization and transnational criminal organization in 2025, issued a statement on its website after the vote. Sameeha Rizvi, the group’s Government Affairs and Legislative Coordinator, wrote that Texas classrooms should teach students to think critically about history rather than memorize what she described as a single, distorted narrative written to demonize a faith practiced by more than a billion people worldwide, including hundreds of thousands of Texans. Rizvi added that the standards do not inform students but indoctrinate them.
Rizvi’s written statement followed in-person testimony from Muslim speakers before the board during the session.
Hall frames the vote as a historic fight
Hall, who has been one of the most vocal proponents of the rewrite, compared the effort to the Battle of San Jacinto, the 1836 clash in which Texas forces defeated Mexican troops and secured independence.
In a post on X before the vote, Hall wrote that Friday represented that battle for the Texas social studies standards, describing it as the final push to roll back decades of historical revisionism and to teach American exceptionalism, the factual Christian foundations of the country, and what he called the truth about Islam. He added that Republicans must hold the line.
The 8-4 margin leaves the curriculum changes on track for implementation in 2030, meaning the first cohort of Texas high schoolers to encounter the new standards under the approved language is still several years away. Until then, the debate over exactly how the standards describe early Islam — and how much space they give to Christianity — is likely to continue in Austin and in school districts across the state.
The board’s decision also lands amid a broader national fight over social studies curricula, in which state boards have become the central battleground for disputes over religion, national identity, and whose account of history students should receive. Texas, because of its size and its outsized influence on textbook publishers, often sets the terms that other states end up following.
For Muslim communities in Texas, the vote represents a setback after a week of testimony that failed to move the board. For Hall and his allies, it is a victory in a longer campaign they describe as an effort to correct the historical record.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/09/09/texas-education-board-ignores-muslim-outcry-approves-mohammads-harem-slaves-lesson/