The California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today submitted a second letter to Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, the Senate Education Committee chair, reiterating its strong opposition to Assembly Bill 715 (Zbur & Addis) following the release of new, deeply troubling amendments.
In a June letter, CAIR-CA warned that AB 715 would severely chill classroom discussions about global human rights and open the door to politically motivated complaints targeting teachers who discuss Palestine. In its new letter, CAIR-CA states that the proposed amendments “amplify our concerns about legal overreach, political targeting, and pedagogical censorship.”
SEE: July 3, 2025 Letter
Among the most dangerous new provisions are:
- A redefinition of “nationality” to include “a social organization where a collective identity has emerged,” which risks expanding protected status to political or ideological groups, including illegal settlers in occupied territories—shielding them from academic critique.
- One of several vague prohibitions bans “collective blame of Jewish people for the actions of the Israeli government,” which risks conflating criticism of state policy with hate speech and silencing fact-based political discourse.
- Language in Section 60041 prohibiting instructional materials that “introduce or promote antisemitic content,” explicitly naming references to Israel as a “settler-colonial state”, despite its widespread use in international law, academic discourse, and human rights reporting.
- Prohibitions against instruction that “fails to respect the historical, cultural, or religious significance of Israel” or “denies its right to exist”—vague standards that pressure educators to self-censor.
- A complaint process allowing anonymous individuals from outside school communities to report educators directly to the State Superintendent—bypassing local review and inviting political harassment.
- A new Office of the Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator without an equivalent civil rights framework to protect Black, Arab, Muslim, Indigenous, or other historically targeted students.
- Amendments tying educator training to groups most frequently targeted in the state Attorney General’s hate crime data—a flawed measure that underrepresents Muslim communities due to chronic underreporting.
- The threat of financial penalties and even restraining orders against educators over content-based complaints.
In a statement, CAIR-CA Legislative and Government Affairs Director Oussama Mokeddem said:
“These amendments paint a deeply disturbing picture of a law that codifies censorship, empowers ideological policing, and threatens educators with retaliation and criminalization for teaching honest, nuanced, and globally informed history. The bill would have a chilling effect not only on Palestine-related content, but also on broader discussions about race, colonialism, human rights, and U.S. foreign policy.”
Flawed State Hate Crime Data Further Underscores AB 715’s Disparities
CAIR-CA also cited serious concerns about the use of California’s annual hate crime data to determine which student populations receive protection under the bill. In a press release issued Monday, CAIR-CA noted that while the state’s 2024 Hate Crime Report listed only 24 anti-Muslim incidents, CAIR-CA independently documented 154 anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Arab incidents across California last year.
This drastic undercount demonstrates how state data continues to overlook the full scope of hate faced by Muslim communities, especially those who speak out about Palestine. Yet AB 715 relies on this data to shape key provisions, further entrenching systemic disparities.
“Muslim students are being doxxed, threatened, and silenced—and this bill ignores them,” added Mokeddem. “Rather than protecting vulnerable communities, AB 715 punishes educators for teaching truthfully and allows bad-faith actors to hijack our schools.”
CAIR-CA is calling on the Senate Education Committee to vote NO on AB 715 and all amendments that promote censorship, weaken due process, and create unequal protections in the classroom.
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CONTACTS: CAIR Greater Los Angeles Area Communications Manager Enjy El-Kadi, 714.851.4851, eelkadi@cair.com; CAIR Sacramento Valley/Central California Communications Contact Tasneem Manjra, 916.441.6469, tManjra@cair.com; CAIR San Diego Executive Director Tazheen Nizam, 760.201.7626, tnizam@cair.com; CAIR-SFBA Communications Manager Lorrie Adam, 408.498.5779, ladam@cair.com