Schools and Media Are Erasing Islamic Terrorism from 9/11 History for Political Correctness
Source: M.D. Kittle. "Schools, Corporate Media Rewrite Islamic Terrorists Out Of 9/11." September 12, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The author argues that schools and media outlets are rewriting the history of 9/11 to avoid mentioning that Islamic terrorists carried out the attacks, supposedly to avoid offending Muslims. He claims this is a dishonest and dangerous form of political correctness that disrespects victims and misleads a generation of Americans who didn't live through the event.
Conclusion
Public schools and corporate media are deliberately downplaying or erasing the role of Islamic terrorists in the 9/11 attacks, an act of historical revisionism driven by political correctness that dishonors victims and endangers historical understanding.
Premises
- Fairfax County Public Schools issued guidance instructing teachers not to associate the 9/11 attacks with Islam or Muslims, and not to 'center the extremists or the acts of the extremists.'
- The CBC's Senior Director of Journalistic Standards instructed staff to avoid calling 9/11 a terrorist attack, instead using euphemistic language like 'hijackings led to passenger jet crashes.'
- The New York Times published a piece framing Muslims as 'the real victims' of 9/11, focusing on post-9/11 discrimination rather than the terrorist attack itself.
- About one-third of Americans were born after 9/11 and many are ignorant of the events, making accurate education critical.
- Wisconsin does not require public schools to teach about 9/11, unlike a majority of other states.
- A Flight 93 victim's brother testified that omitting the terrorist narrative is educators' 'biggest fear' regarding how the tragedy is taught.
- This obscuring of facts erases the memory of 2,977 people killed and the suffering of victims' families.
Assumptions
- Accurately naming the attackers' religious/ideological motivation (Islamic terrorism) is necessary for historical accuracy and does not inherently stigmatize all Muslims.
- Institutional guidance to avoid certain language or framing is equivalent to 'erasing' history rather than being a pedagogical attempt to prevent bias/harassment.
- The motivations behind these policies (schools, CBC, NYT) are ideologically or politically driven rather than genuine concerns about discrimination or nuance.
- There is a meaningful equivalence between omitting terrorist identification and other historical revisionism examples (e.g., not naming Nazis in WWII).
- Public sentiment and policy in one school district and one media outlet are representative of a broader systemic trend across 'schools and corporate media.'