TEXAS — Laurie Cardoza-Moore testified before the Texas State Board of Education on Tuesday, urging the rejection of proposed revisions to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards. She said the changes were influenced by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which she described as linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Cardoza-Moore, the founder and president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, told the board, "CAIR is the US arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist anti-American organization bent on using the political system to destroy it from within." She added, "We cannot allow Texas textbooks to be written by Hamas." The proposed TEKS revisions cover elementary, middle, and high school social studies courses and impact how subjects such as world history, religion, and the Middle East are presented.

CAIR has publicly acknowledged its participation in the Texas standards process. CAIR-Texas representatives testified before the board earlier this year and called for Muslims to be "accurately represented" in history curricula. In April, CAIR also urged the Texas State Board of Education to reject proposed social studies revisions, stating that they unfairly targeted Muslims and disproportionately tied Islam and Muslim historical figures to terrorism. The group also stated that the revisions omitted Muslim contributions to world history and civilization. CAIR describes itself as a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization and denies allegations of affiliation with Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, or any foreign terrorist organization.

Federal prosecutors listed CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator in filings related to the Holy Land Foundation case, a Dallas terrorism-financing prosecution involving support for Hamas. The Holy Land Foundation and five of its leaders were convicted in 2008 of providing material support to Hamas. However, CAIR was not charged with a crime in this case. Texas Governor Greg Abbott previously designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations under Texas authority. CAIR and its legal groups subsequently sued Governor Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, calling the designation unconstitutional and defamatory in their lawsuit. CAIR maintains that it operates lawfully as an American civil rights organization.

Cardoza-Moore said, "Texas is not just making decisions for Texas." She stated, "Because Texas is one of the largest textbook markets in the nation, its curriculum standards often influence educational content adopted by more than twenty other states." She previously served on Tennessee's Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission, where she objected to content in a 2012 human geography textbook. She stated the textbook content appeared to justify the 2001 Hamas suicide bombing of the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, which killed fifteen people.