The Texas Board of Education is taking fire for approving new high school history lessons that describe the brand of Islam that inspired the 9/11 terror attacks as “radical” and the Islamic destruction of eastern Christian communities as “brutal.” The opponents of the curriculum want nothing more than a full rehabilitation of Islam, on par with Christianity. The Texas Board of Education is far more interested in students learning the truth.

Despite objections from several Democratic members and one Republican, the Board of Education approved the new history curriculum guidelines on Friday in an 8-4 vote. The rules take effect in the 2030-2031 school year.

Under the new guidelines, Texas U.S. History curriculum will teach high school students to “identify the significance of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks motivated by radical Islam, including the roles of George W. Bush, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice; the launch of the Global War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq; and the decline of civil liberties due to the PATRIOT Act.”

Furthermore, Texas World History curriculum will teach students to “explain the rise of radical Islam, including the Muslim Brotherhood, terrorism, Al Qaeda, September 11, 2001, and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).”

These are the only two references to “radical Islam” in the new curriculum guidelines. Both are appropriate in their context. They do not over-emphasize the phenomenon, but they do raise highly relevant historical points to the world in which today’s high schoolers will come of age.

Yet the appropriateness of the subject matter did not shield the board from criticism, as dozens of individuals lined up to oppose the wording in public testimony. “It’s very important that what we teach in our classrooms is representative of the people of Texas, which is a very diverse body,” protested Sameeha Rizvi, government affairs and legislative manager for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) has labeled a terrorist group.

“When you use such broad terms, people don’t see ‘radical.’ What they’re going to see is ‘Islam,’ and ‘Islam’ is the reason these things are happening, which is not true,” she insisted.

But a few simple questions undermine the persuasiveness of this argument. Is there such a thing as radical Islam? And should students be informed about it? If so, what is an appropriate way to do so? Unless she wishes to deny that radical Islam exists, which would open Islam up to other charges, Rizvi seems to be suggesting that there is no appropriate way to tell students about its evils, and so they should simply be left in the dark. By this logic, history classes should omit any discussion of slavery or racism; in fact, there would not be much history left to teach.

The illogic of their position did not deter opponents of the new Texas guidelines from pulling out all the rhetorical stops. They even recruited a mild-mannered high school girl as a mouthpiece for their views. “I feel attacked, as if my religion doesn’t belong,” complained 15-year-old Habiiba Quresh. “I shouldn’t have to defend my religion in the middle of history class because of one sentence someone on this board wrote.”

Replace “history” with “science,” and Christians have raised the same complaint for a century now.

What all criticisms of the “radical Islam” designation fail to mention is that Texas’s current guidelines place greater emphasis on the term. The current World History Studies guidance devotes an entire subpoint to ensuring that:

“The student understands the development and use of radical Islamic terrorism in the second half of the 20th century and the early 21st century. The student is expected to:

“(A) explain the impact of geopolitical influences on the development of radical Islamic terrorism;

“(B) explain the impact of radical Islamic terrorism on global events; and

“(C) explain the U.S. response to the events surrounding September 11, 2001, and other acts of radical Islamic terrorism.”

That is four references to “radical Islamic terrorism.” The current U.S. History guidance does not mention “radical Islam,” but it does direct students to learn about “the significance of the following years as turning points: … 2001 (terrorist attacks on World Trade Center and the Pentagon)” and “U.S. involvement in world affairs, including … the Persian Gulf War, the events surrounding September 11, 2001, and the global War on Terror.”

Media coverage of the controversy could lead readers to the erroneous conclusion that “radical Islam” was a term Texas Republicans were trying to insert into the curriculum this year. In fact, their revisions reduce the references and visibility of this term. But even that does not satisfy their critics.

Thus, it is opponents of the curriculum guidelines who have actually “sensationalize[d] all these topics and [made] them seem more divisive than they actually are,” responded State Board of Education Chair Aaron Kinsey.

A second reference to Islam in the history curriculum also drew controversy for criticizing Mohammed. The guidance described his early military campaigns as “brutal” and referenced his other wicked actions.

One Republican member of the board, Will Hickman, objected to this characterization. “I think we can all agree military battles and wars are all brutal, but we have not described any others that way,” he said.

However, the majority of the board blocked a last-minute attempt to amend that language out of the final guidance. Stripping out the language would be “whitewashing and watering down a part of history that I think is very consequential to understanding world events throughout history and understanding the context of one of the what’s considered one of the major religions of today,” argued Board member Brandon Hall, who said removing the word “brutal” would be “a grave mistake.”

The final language approved on Friday directs curriculum to teach 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.”

Students will also “describe the teachings of jihad and how these teachings led to the expansion of Islam and the conquest of Christian lands, including Jerusalem, Syria, and Egypt,” “explain the practice of slavery, the origin of the word ‘slave’ from Viking enslavement of the Slavs, and the enslavement and slave trade carried out by Viking and Muslim raiders,” and “explain the interactions of Islam with Europe in the Middle Ages, including the Battle of Tours”

These guidelines add much greater specificity to the current guidelines, which only require students to “explain the political, economic, and social impact of Islam on Europe, Asia, and Africa” and “describe the interactions among Muslim, Christian, and Jewish societies in Europe, Asia, and North Africa.”

By adding specificity, the Texas Board of Education necessarily mentioned some of Islamic history’s most noteworthy flaws, which inevitably offended groups who wish to burnish Islam’s image.

“No credible scholar of history validates the bigoted caricatures of Islam this curriculum teaches,” CAIR Texas protested. “The board has turned our classrooms into a place where prejudice is taught as fact and entire communities are written out of their own history.”

Left-leaning media outlets like the Texas Tribune were quick to point out that two members of the Texas Board of Education’s Content Advisory Committee, Andrea Hutchison and Robert Koons, concurred with the general characterization that the claims about Mohammed lacked support. However, they failed to mention that the Content Advisory Committee has nine members. Furthermore, the committee’s “Consensus Document” includes the exact language that roiled so many Islamic feelings.

“We must teach our children the truth,” insisted Texas Board of Education member Julie Pickren. “America was not founded in a vacuum. Our nation was profoundly shaped by the Bible, by Christian principles, by Western civilization, individual liberty, limited government, and the rule of law.”

As for Islam, high school history classes should teach students the truth about its past as well, even if the details sometimes make Islam’s most ardent defenders uncomfortable. The truth is more important than such feelings.