WASHINGTON — The Council on American-Islamic Relations published its annual back-to-school resource guide for K-12 students on Monday. By Tuesday, a curriculum page linked from within it had been quietly taken down.
Screenshots of the 16-page guide obtained by the New York Post show that it pointed readers to a document titled "Muslim Studies Curriculum," which characterized the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as a consequence of American foreign policy rather than as an act of Islamist terrorism.
The material attributed the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people, to a "group self-identifying as Al Quaeda hailing from the mountains of Afghanistan," and pointed to U.S. "support of Israel," American involvement in the Persian Gulf War and the "vast presence" of the U.S. military across the Middle East.
It also argued that Washington's response produced an "aggressive shift in US domestic and foreign policy," the War on Terror, and an "erosion of civil liberties of many Americans."
On the domestic aftermath, the document said that while "Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism existed long before the 9/11 attacks," the period marked a turn toward "state sponsored Islamophobia in the US and abroad," with immediate backlash against anyone perceived to be Muslim. It drew a contrast between media treatment of Muslims and of "white supremacists" or "extreme animal rights activists" who it said escaped comparable scrutiny when using violence for political ends.
The reading list
Among the recommended student resources was Osama bin Laden's "Letter to America," the al Qaeda leader's antisemitic manifesto, which asserts that American law serves the rich and that "behind them stand the Jews, who control your policies, media and economy."
The guide also described bin Laden's origins in notably softened terms, presenting him as a onetime American ally among the "rebels" who fought the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s and who "later formed the Taliban."
The film "V for Vendetta" — summarized as the story of a young woman in a dystopian society who meets a shadowy freedom fighter plotting to overthrow a tyrannical government — was included among background materials.
A separate section addressed how to discuss "genocide" and Gaza with children. It did not mention Hamas or the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel.
The guide additionally defended the practice of raising foreign policy issues in classrooms as a way to "promote understanding."
Reaction
Nicholas Haros Jr., whose mother Frances was killed on 9/11, said he was disgusted but not surprised. "Israel had nothing to do with 9/11," he said, warning that "the further we get from 9/11, this new generation of kids will learn to blame our country."
Moshe Spern, president of United Jewish Teachers, was blunter still: "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."
In its own press release, CAIR argued that classroom lessons about 9/11 can be "a particularly dangerous time for Muslim students," who it said "often experience a surge in bullying" during such lessons.
Asked whether it stood by the document, the organization did not deny removing the hyperlink and pointed to an attached note describing changes to an earlier version.
Background
Founded in 1993, CAIR is the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the United States. It has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by both Texas and Florida.
The group was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 federal prosecution of five leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a now-defunct Texas nonprofit convicted of channeling more than $12 million from the U.S. to Hamas.
This story was first reported by the New York Post. Read the original account here: https://nypost.com/2026/08/28/us-news/cair-blamed-9-11-on-us-support-for-israel-recommended-bin-ladens-writings-in-back-to-school-guide/
