As Connecticut families prepare for another school year, the Connecticut chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CT) has released its 2025-26 Back to School Resource Guide.
Framed as a helpful tool for Muslim students facing “challenges to their identity, inclusion, and religious accommodation,” the document is far more than a neutral rights pamphlet.
It is a sophisticated advocacy package that pushes special accommodations, encourages school closures for Islamic holidays, promotes a highly selective 9/11 curriculum, and injects a one-sided narrative on Palestine into classrooms—all while positioning CAIR as the indispensable intermediary between families and public schools. This is particularly relevant now that CAIR-CT has also positioned itself as a “partner” to the Connecticut State Department of Education on the development of K-12 Islamic and Arab Studies curriculum resources.
The guide opens with familiar civil-rights language: Muslim students have the right to a safe environment free from bullying, reasonable religious accommodations (prayer space, excused absences for Eid, alternatives during Ramadan fasting, modest dress including the hijab), and protection from discrimination. These are legitimate concerns under existing federal and state law. No serious observer disputes that students of any faith should be free from harassment or should receive reasonable accommodations for sincerely held beliefs.
But CAIR-CT does not stop at equal treatment.
Hellbound and Down 