New Connecticut law creates Islamic, Arab studies in schools

Connecticut public schools may soon use state-created Islamic and Arab studies lessons under a new law that adds another identity-based curriculum topic to public education.

The law took effect July 1. It directs the Connecticut State Board of Education to create Islamic and Arab studies curriculum materials for local school districts. It also tells the state board to encourage districts to teach the subject.

Districts do not have to use the lessons. But the state will create them, promote them and put them before local school boards.

Critics say it still matters because Connecticut keeps adding state-backed lessons tied to race, ethnicity, culture and world religions, while many parents struggle to see what schools already teach.

They also say Islam carries obvious political and cultural controversy in America. Muslims make up about 1% of American adults, according to the Pew Research Center, while most Americans still identify as Christian. Public debate over Islam has also intensified since the Sept. 11 attacks, the War on Terrorism, immigration fights and the Israel-Hamas war.

The federal government includes the Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury area in the New York-Newark metropolitan area, tying southwestern Connecticut to the same region hit hardest by the Sept. 11 attacks.

Critics say that makes transparency even more important. Parents should know how state officials plan to present Islam, Arab culture, terrorism, Israel, jihad, women’s rights and religious liberty before any district brings the lessons into classrooms, they argue.

The Islamic and Arab studies language came through Public Act 26-1, a large education bill that moved through the Legislature under emergency certification.

Republicans criticized the process, saying it limited public input on a measure packed with school policy changes.

Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, said the emergency process “usurps the legislative process,” according to CT Insider.

State Sen. Eric Berthel, R-Watertown, said lawmakers should not have treated the education package like an emergency.

“Parts of this bill that include the education component have been bouncing around this building for more than three years,” Berthel told the outlet.

Critics say lawmakers used a fast-track process on issues that had already sat in the Capitol for years. Supporters say the new materials will reduce stereotypes about Muslims and Arabs, most of whom oppose the extreme fringes of their faith.

Farhan Memon, executive director of CAIR-Connecticut, told CT Post current textbooks “present a highly biased view of Islam and Muslims as well.”

Memon said CAIR-Connecticut plans to work with the state Department of Education as officials develop the curriculum.

“We want to make sure that as the state fulfills its mandate to create this curriculum, that it’s done with a view that’s not only accurate, but also ensures that we’re not introducing new biases into the curriculum at the same time,” Memon said.

Thomas Van Stone Sr., chairman of the Waterbury Board of Education’s curriculum committee, said districts also need “a teacher that is able to teach it.”

The law gives little detail about what the final lessons will include. Parents will not know whether the state treats Islam mainly as history, culture, religion, politics or current events until officials finish the materials.