The Council on American-Islamic Relations included educational material blaming U.S. support for Israel among the factors behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and directing students to Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” in a back-to-school resource guide that was subsequently removed.
CAIR, one of the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy organizations, released its annual “Back to school resource guide” for K-12 students on Monday. The 16-page document contained a link to a “Muslim Studies Curriculum” presenting an account of 9/11 and its aftermath. The link disappeared from the guide the following day.
Screenshots of the material obtained by The Post show that the curriculum described the perpetrators of the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people, as a “group self-identifying as Al Quaeda hailing from the mountains of Afghanistan.”
The curriculum attributed the motivations behind the Sept. 11 attacks in part to U.S. “support of Israel,” along with American involvement in the Persian Gulf War and the “vast presence” of U.S. military forces throughout the Middle East.
The material then focused on the American response to the attacks, saying 9/11 produced an “aggressive shift in US domestic and foreign policy,” helped launch the War on Terror in the Middle East and resulted in an “erosion of civil liberties of many Americans.”
“While Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism existed long before the 9/11 attacks, this time period marked a stark shift in US policy and state sponsored Islamophobia in the US and abroad. There was immediate backlash against anyone perceived to be Muslim” wearing traditional garb, the curriculum stated.
The guide also argued that Muslims received unfair treatment in media coverage following terrorist attacks, contrasting that response with the treatment of “white supremacists” and “extreme animal rights activists” who, according to the material, had also resorted to “violence to further their cause.”
Nicholas Haros Jr., whose mother, Frances, was killed in the Sept. 11 attacks, condemned the material as “evil propaganda.” Haros has previously drawn attention for criticizing Rep. Ilhan Omar over her description of 9/11 as an occasion when “some people did something.”
“Israel had nothing to do with 9/11,” Haros said.
He warned that children growing up decades after the attacks could be influenced by an account of the events that places blame on the United States.
“The further we get from 9/11, this new generation of kids will learn to blame our country. These kids are going to be poisoned – and that’s the intent.”
The curriculum devoted considerable attention to what followed the attacks, saying the period saw “the rise in hate crimes and discrimination against American Muslim and perceived- Muslim communities.”
CAIR separately said in a press release that classroom discussions surrounding the terrorist attacks can become “a particularly dangerous time for Muslim students,” who “often experience a surge in bullying during school lessons about 9/11.” The organization has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the state governments of Texas and Florida.
Among the recommended materials included in CAIR’s student resources was bin Laden’s “Letter to America,” the manifesto in which the 9/11 mastermind sought to explain and justify his hostility toward the United States.
In that document, bin Laden wrote, “Your law is the law of the rich and wealthy people, who hold sway in their political parties, and fund their election campaigns with their gifts. Behind them stand the Jews, who control your policies, media and economy.”
The curriculum also presented background on bin Laden’s emergence during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. It portrayed him in the context of the Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion and referred to the fighters as “rebels.” Among them, the guide said, was a “man named Osama bin Laden,” who with the “people later formed the Taliban.”
Another recommended background resource was the film “V for Vendetta,” which the guide described as being about “a young woman living in a dystopian society meets a shadowy freedom fighter who is plotting to overthrow their tyrannical government.”
The guide additionally defended bringing international political issues into classrooms, arguing that doing so could “promote understanding.”
Its suggested material also addressed how educators should speak with children about Gaza and “genocide.” The Post noted that the section did not discuss the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel, in which approximately 1,200 people, including children, were killed.
When The Post contacted CAIR and asked whether the organization continued to stand behind the 9/11 material, CAIR did not deny that the hyperlink had been removed. The organization instead pointed to an attached note offering a general explanation for revisions made to an earlier version of the document.
The contents of the guide drew condemnation from Jewish community representatives, who accused CAIR of providing students with a distorted presentation of both the Sept. 11 attacks and the Israel-Hamas war.
“CAIR just nationalized a curriculum that refuses to call the 9/11 hijackers terrorists, assigns Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ as high-school reading, and coaches five-year-olds on Gaza without ever naming Hamas or October 7. That is not inclusion – it’s dangerous propaganda,” Moshe Spern, president of United Jewish Teachers, told The Post.
CAIR was established in 1993. The organization came under federal scrutiny during the prosecution of officials associated with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Texas-based charity that was shut down after five of its leaders were convicted in 2008 in a case involving more than $12 million sent to Hamas.
{Matzav.com}
