On September 12, just one day after the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will convene its annual conference, CAIRCon, in Washington, D.C. The notable timing has brought renewed attention onto CAIR itself.
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The organization has faced years of controversy over its history and affiliations, including terrorism-related designations or restrictions in Texas, Florida, and the United Arab Emirates that have raised questions about CAIR’s support for organizations such as Hamas, and its leaders’ praise for antisemitic events such as October 7.
Its continued partnership with academic figures under scrutiny for antisemitism, such as Rutgers University’s Sahar Aziz, is concerning as CAIR’s reach has extended far beyond just political advocacy, and into classrooms nationwide.
What Is CAIR?
CAIR describes itself as the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. It states that its mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, and empower American Muslims.
Its relationship with federal law enforcement has nevertheless drawn scrutiny. In 2008, the FBI restricted certain non-investigative contacts with CAIR following evidence introduced during the Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing case. The foundation and five of its leaders were later convicted of providing material support to Hamas. CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator, but was never charged in the case.
CAIR has consistently rejected claims that it supports terrorism. And yet the very material it is attempting to introduce into American classrooms includes content aiming to “nuance” conversation around terror, written by the perpetrators of that terror.
CAIR’s Reach Into K–12 Education
CAIR and its state chapters have produced classroom guides, educator resources, and policy recommendations while actively attempting to influence how Islam and the Middle East are taught in K–12 classrooms, including avoiding terms like “jihadists” when teaching the history of the September 11 terror attacks.
In 2026, a 9/11 curriculum developed by CAIR-New Jersey with Teaching While Muslim included Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” among background resources for educators. The curriculum was presented as a way to bring a more “nuanced” approach to teaching September 11 and included material for elementary, middle, and high-school classrooms.
CAIR’s push into K–12 education was cited by House Education Chair Tim Walberg as “deeply troubling given CAIR’s ties to terrorism and antisemitism.” And this reach extends even further up the academic ladder.
From K–12 Education to the University Campus
One of this year’s CAIRCon speakers (and frequent organizational collaborators) is Sahar Aziz, a Rutgers Law professor and founding director of the university’s Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR). Aziz is scheduled to lead a panel titled “The Return of Sharia Hysteria: Strategies to Expose and Overcome Manufactured Hate.” CAIR says the panel will explore the resurgence of organized anti-Muslim hate, the conspiracy theories fueling it, and strategies to expose and challenge those narratives.
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The subject closely mirrors Aziz’s work at Rutgers.
Under Aziz’s leadership, CSRR has built a substantial public platform with content and programming surrounding Islamophobia, national security, and criticizing Israel and Zionism. One such example is a July CSRR podcast episode hosted by Aziz where Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani argued that the two-state solution had given a “longer lease” to Nazism’s political agenda and that Hitler’s Third Reich had been based on American policy.
CSRR has also hosted Joseph Massad, Noura Erakat, and programs including a “Teach-In on Political Zionism,” “Antisemitism and Palestinian Genocide,” and “Gaza, Genocide and International Law.”
The center’s record has attracted congressional attention. In 2024, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee opened an inquiry into Rutgers and CSRR, citing concerns that the center had platformed individuals they characterized as terrorist sympathizers and speakers who had justified violence against Israel. Lawmakers pointed to a CSRR event held on the 20th anniversary of September 11 featuring Sami Al-Arian, who had pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad before later being deported from the United States.
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce also later included CSRR in its broader investigation into antisemitism at Rutgers.
Why September 12 Matters
CAIR’s involvement in education now stretches across multiple stages of a student’s life. Its national organization and chapters produce materials for K–12 educators, participate in curriculum disputes, and seek to shape how Islam and September 11 are discussed in schools.
At the university level, CAIRCon is elevating an academic whose Rutgers center has become a platform for contested arguments about terrorism, Islamophobia, antisemitism, Zionism, and Israel.
A generation of students entering classrooms today has no personal memory of September 11. How they understand those attacks, the ideology behind them, and the political conflicts that followed will depend heavily on the institutions and educators presenting that history.
On September 12, CAIR will gather policymakers, advocates and academics in Washington to discuss many of those same issues. Twenty-five years after 9/11, the question is no longer only how America remembers what happened. It is also who is shaping how the next generation will understand it.
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Image: CAIR logo.