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A new report published Wednesday by the Program on Extremism at George Washington University details a years long effort by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to influence American K-12 education, including how public schools address terrorism, the October 7 Hamas attacks, antisemitism, Zionism, and Israel.
The October 21 study, titled The Long Game: CAIR’s Campaign to Influence K-12 Education, was authored by Asher Stern, a researcher at the Program on Extremism, and David Collins, a retired FBI special agent with more than 29 years of law enforcement experience, including counterterrorism investigations involving Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The researchers document how CAIR and its state chapters have developed educator guides, parent advocacy templates, curriculum resources, district outreach programs, legal advocacy initiatives, and legislative campaigns to influence school policies and instructional materials. The report identifies instances in which CAIR’s advocacy reached state education agencies and the processes used to develop official guidance.
CAIR Educator Guide Discouraged Use of “Terrorist” and “Extremist”
Among the report’s findings is a 2024 educator guide published by CAIR New Jersey, which instructs teachers to refrain from using the terms “Extremist” and “Terrorist” in classrooms. The guidance, appearing in a section addressing “Palestine”, also discourages educators from describing Israeli-Palestinian violence as “clashes” or “conflict,” instead presenting Israel’s actions as ethnic cleansing and military occupation.
The researchers also examined a September 2022 curriculum developed by CAIR New Jersey and Teaching While Muslim for classroom discussions of the September 11 terrorist attacks. According to the report, the curriculum attributed the attacks partly to U.S. foreign policy and included a link to the full text of Osama bin Laden’s Letter to America among its educational resources. CAIR New Jersey announced that it had shared resources with nearly 30 school districts encompassing more than 55 public schools, requesting that administrators circulate the material among educators.
Jewish Onliner previously identified in an August 25 investigation that CAIR’s original nationwide 2026–2027 back-to-school guide explicitly directed educators and school boards to the New Jersey 9/11 curriculum containing bin Laden’s manifesto. A subsequent September 1 investigation established that the manifesto appeared under “Background Resources” in sections spanning elementary, middle, and high school levels, rather than only high school as initially identified. The original investigation also uncovered a separate student-activism resource promoted through CAIR’s national guide that advised U.S. citizens to assume front-line protest roles to reduce noncitizens’ exposure to arrest or retaliation.
Following Jewish Onliner’s August 25 investigation, CAIR National removed its endorsement of and hyperlink to the curriculum by August 26. In a subsequent correction, the organization acknowledged that an earlier version had not undergone proper vetting and stated that certain primary-source documents associated with the September 11 perpetrators were better suited for review after K-12 education.
The GWU report also highlights CAIR’s August 2026 expansion of its Unhostile Campus Campaign from colleges and universities into K-12 schools. Its 2026–2027 Back to School Resource Guide includes suggested language for discussing Gaza with children ages five through twelve. The scripts emphasize civilian suffering and human rights without identifying Hamas, Israel, or the October 7 attacks, while other sections encourage educators to explore concepts including apartheid, genocide, and terrorism.
Washington State Revised Education Guidance Following CAIR Campaign
Washington State provides what Stern and Collins describe as the strongest evidence of CAIR gaining access to an official state education process. CAIR Washington challenged guidance issued by the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) during the 2024–2025 school year, including language characterizing the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as antisemitic.
According to CAIR’s own account, the organization spent months engaging with state education officials and exchanging revisions before OSPI published replacement guidance in June 2025. CAIR described the outcome as an example of achieving structural change through sustained engagement with policymakers. The researchers confirmed that Washington published revised guidance, although the public record does not identify which specific changes were proposed by CAIR.
The report also identifies $380,000 in Washington State appropriations for Islamophobia-related curriculum development, comprising $180,000 approved in 2024 and another $200,000 in 2025. The funding was directed through Puget Sound Educational Service District 121 to support curriculum development by qualified organizations.
CAIR Washington claimed credit for helping secure both allocations, saying it had led the coalition responsible for the funding effort. The researchers also noted that CAIR’s separate claim of $400,000 in funding exceeded the $380,000 identified in the enacted appropriations.
Campaigns Targeted School Curricula and Antisemitism Policies in Other States
The report documents additional CAIR campaigns involving public education in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. In Maryland, CAIR mobilized opposition to proposed changes to the state’s social studies framework that would have removed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a specific instructional example. Following a campaign that CAIR said generated more than 3,200 messages to education officials, Maryland restored the reference in August 2025. CAIR claimed the revision as progress, while the state attributed the changes to an internal review.
CAIR subsequently supported House Bill 1202, which would have required Palestinian culture and history to be incorporated into social studies instruction in every Maryland public school beginning in the 2027–2028 school year. The proposal failed to advance out of committee during the 2026 legislative session.
In Virginia, CAIR National urged public schools in January 2026 to reject then-Attorney General Jason Miyares’ recommendation that districts incorporate the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism into school policies. Virginia had already adopted the non-legally binding definition in 2023 as a tool for recognizing and combating antisemitic discrimination. CAIR’s statewide intervention sought to prevent schools from incorporating the definition into student conduct and discrimination policies.
In Pennsylvania, the researchers examined CAIR Philadelphia’s involvement with pro-Palestinian education advocacy groups, including its co-sponsorship of a September 2025 event titled Zionism Is Racism. The event was organized by Philadelphia Parents for Palestine, which has publicly advocated eliminating instructional materials it considers rooted in Zionist teachings. CAIR Philadelphia had also previously provided legal-rights training to Philadelphia Educators for Palestine, another organization involved in the local education advocacy network.
Researchers Cite CAIR’s Historical Connections to Hamas-Linked Networks
The authors also examine CAIR’s institutional history, particularly evidence introduced during the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing trial. Federal records cited in the study place future CAIR co-founders Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad at a 1993 meeting of the Palestine Committee, a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood structure established to support Hamas. A subsequent 1994 Palestine Committee agenda listed CAIR among its working organizations.
The report notes that the FBI restricted non-investigative contacts with CAIR in 2008, based partly on evidence introduced during the Holy Land Foundation proceedings. It also recalls the Biden administration’s December 2023 decision to remove CAIR from a list of organizations supporting its national antisemitism strategy following remarks by Awad concerning the October 7 attacks.
The researchers conclude that CAIR’s sustained relationships with parents, educators, administrators, lawmakers, and state agencies warrant greater public scrutiny. While its campaigns have produced uneven results across states, the report documents a recurring pattern of engagement with the institutions responsible for educational policy and classroom resources.
TY! Great work. The question is however, nothing is being done. Our leaders have ignored all this evidence. Perhaps that is what needs to be researched and exposed.