The State Board of Education has approved a rewrite of the state’s social studies curriculum, requiring high schoolers to learn about the Prophet Muhammad’s “harem slaves,” the Aztecs’ use of human sacrifice and the positive influence Christianity has had on America.

Overcoming pleas from dozens of Texas Muslims who said the changes were offensive and inaccurate, the Republican-controlled board voted 8-4 on Friday to approve the conservative rewrite. The new standards take effect in 2030.

Most of the hundreds of changes to high schoolers’ history, government and geography curriculum are not controversial. Students will still be taught about slavery, the Civil Rights Movement and the contributions of Black Americans, issues that have sparked fights in other states.

But there was no resolving the debate about how to teach the world’s two largest religions, which dominated the agenda.

Students would be required to “explain early Islam in terms of Mohammed’s, the prophet of Islam, brutal military campaigns against Jewish and Christian tribes, the normalization of slavery, and the taking of female captives as harem slaves.”

In world history, they would have to describe “the teachings of jihad and how these teachings led to the expansion of Islam and the conquest of Christian lands” and how the Sept. 11 attacks were “motivated by radical Islam.” They would also have to explain the “Islamisation of Pakistan” after the partition of India.

Efforts to soften the language were voted down. Board member Will Hickman, a Republican from Houston, tried to delete “brutal,” arguing that it was “superfluous” and that other military campaigns in the curriculum are not described that way.

But it failed on an 8-4 vote after Republican board member Brandon Hall argued that it was “whitewashing history.” Hall then moved to eliminate referring to the founder of Islam as “the Prophet” Muhammad, arguing it was “offensive” to Christians and Jews.

“Texas is a majority Christian state,” said Hall, a conservative Republican from Fort Worth. “And Christians obviously do not recognize Muhammad as a prophet.”

Friday’s vote continued Texas’ aggressive efforts to require that students be taught about Christianity and its influence. Conservative Republican board member Julie Pickren of Pearland called it the culmination of a decade of work by the Legislature, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

After state lawmakers in 2023 rewrote how curriculum materials are decided, the board this summer moved to mandate that Texas’ 5.5 million schoolchildren read passages from the Bible, becoming the first state to do so. They also passed a new social studies curriculum for kids in kindergarten through eighth grade that included learning about Jesus and other major figures in Christianity.

Board members who made the changes said they were not forcing Christianity on kids but were teaching how it influenced U.S. and world history.

High school students will be required to describe the “life and teachings of Jesus,” the Bible and Christianity’s “contributions” to early America, along with how Sir William Blackstone believed that human law should conform to God’s law.

Critics took issue with other parts of the revised curriculum that they labeled offensive or politically biased.

Students will be expected to explain that a photo ID is required to vote, for example, and to describe hurricanes in the “Gulf of America,” as well as identify 1948 “as the year the modern state of Israel was established in the ancestral homeland of the Jews.” Students must also be able to describe arguments about the “negative effects from the development of the modern welfare state” from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs.

Board member Gustavo Reveles, a Democrat from El Paso, objected to requiring students to learn “key features of pre-Columbian civilizations, including Aztec tribute systems and human sacrifice.”

He said he wanted to make sure that “children of Texas are seen and not viewed in a negative light,” but he was voted down.

The changes to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills approved by the board Friday will be carried out by book publishers, including the state-created curriculum Bluebonnet. The board also approved a curriculum for a new personal financial literacy class that will be mandatory for high schoolers in order to graduate.

The Texas Freedom Network, a progressive religious liberties nonprofit, called the social studies changes “radical.”

“These standards are more about politicians hijacking our children’s public schools to push culture war agendas than it is simply teaching the truth,” the organization’s president, Felicia Martin, said in a statement.

Board chairperson Aaron Kinsey, a Republican from Midland, said the curriculum is more conservative but not radical.

“This was not an easy task,” he said. “We’re talking about social studies. These are where a lot of the controversies within our society live.”