© 2018 Policy Studies Organization. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. DOI: 10.1111/dome.12151 Digest of Middle East Studies—Volume 27, Number 2—Pages 227–260 Islam and the Middle East in Texas Textbooks Tamer Balcı, PhD University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley Edinburg, Texas Abstract This article covers how the history of Islam and the Middle East is covered in the latest K-12 Texas textbooks. The study examines three world histories, four world cultures and geography and six American history textbooks published by major pub- lishers. This article demonstrates that Islamophobic attempts to present Islam as a violent religion has been successful in Texas textbooks. On the other hand, the “Islam spread by sword” narrative is contradicted by the same textbooks with a rec- ognition of non-Muslim communities that have lived in the Islamic world through- out Islamic history. The study aims to guide publishers and educators before the next cycle of textbook renewal is initiated in 2019–2010. Key words: Texas, Textbooks, History, Islam, Middle East, Islamophobia Introduction I n George Orwell’s classic book 1984, the shadowy party’s slogan was visible every- where: war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength (Orwell, 1992:17). The party declared “[w]ho controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past” (p. 32). Worldwide, every government controlling the pres- ent of their nations do their best to control their pasts and futures. From Texas to Japan, and China to Germany, almost every government treats their textbooks as tools of indoctrination and trigger ideological fights each time textbooks are due for up- date. One such fight emerged in Texas when the State Board of Education (SBOE) changed the curriculum standards in history, and social studies K-12 textbooks used in Texas in May, 2010. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) and its governing body, the SBOE is in charge of establishing policies and adapting rules and regulations for 1, 228 public school districts and charter schools for over five million students. Because of its large textbook market, SBOE carries more weight when determin- ing the contents of the textbooks than other states. In order not to lose the textbook market in Texas, textbook publishers must comply with the requirements of SBOE, which in turn may spill the ideological agenda of SBOE into other states. This con- cern has carried the textbook debate outside of the state of Texas (Erekson, 2012). The controversy around the newly adopted curriculum standards has created many