Written by Ayana Khan
As discussions around diversity and equality in schools continue nationwide, a local organization is working to ensure Muslim students in the Greater Houston area have access to fair, unbiased educational environments. MERIT, a nonprofit organization established in 2024, focuses on addressing misrepresentation of Muslims in school curricula.
President Naureen Mohammed says the mission of MERIT is clear. “We want to create safe and equitable learning environments for Muslim students in Texas schools,” she said.
The organization was formed after community members recognized a significant gap in understanding about Muslim students and the geopolitical contexts often taught in schools. Vice president Nishaat Ismail Munshi said the shift in awareness was noticeable.
“After the whole Palestinian movement was started, there were active efforts to learn about Palestine and what was actually happening,” Munshi said. “There was a huge difference once you started understanding what actually happened before October 7 and what was being told to us in the media. They were completely different things.”
Munshi explained that Muslims in Houston realized they were not sufficiently informed or networked within their own community, prompting the formation of MERIT. The organization began by supporting refugees from Gaza and addressing biased educational materials in local schools.
“There was some unfortunate information that came out in my son’s class in regards to his social studies class,” Munshi said. “The class ended up being more of a presentation about a lot of biases and stereotypes about Muslims that were just not true.”
The incident pushed the group to take a more organized approach to advocacy.
“There were other groups doing a lot of strong social work that I was part of and still am,” Munshi said. “They asked me to lead the education front, to try to help solve some of this gap in our education system, and that’s when I asked Naureen to lead the initiative.”
Naureen Mohammed, who holds a master’s in education and curriculum development, helped draft lesson plans specific to 10th grade about Israel and Palestine and global Islamic terrorism.
“The fact that the title is ‘Islamic terrorism’ is problematic because they’re equating a major peaceful world religion with the word terrorism,” Mohammed said. “It was really nice to be able to help create lesson plans that teach that same information historically more balanced and accurate.”
A big part of MERIT’s work now centers on helping parents stay involved and informed.
“We recognized there was a need to create a formal organization that can not only engage with different school districts in Houston and bring that awareness to the schools, but there also needs to be somebody who can guide parents,” Mohammed said. “If their child is experiencing this kind of negative teaching at school, there are actions you can take.”
Since its start, MERIT has widened its focus, launching new partnerships and creating resources for the community.
“Our overall mission has stayed the same, but now within that, we are focusing on things like collaboration, so working with different schools and groups that are working towards our mission,” Mohammed said. “Another goal is developing resources that then can be distributed to schools across Texas, so that teachers are more aware, and they have the right resources to draw from. They can utilize that instead of the biased resources that exist out there.”
The organization has also worked to proactively address sensitive topics such as how 9/11 is taught in classrooms.
“We regrouped with the parents who attended our general body meeting, and we asked them if they felt if there was any anti-Muslim bias or hate that was preached,” Munshi said. “MERIT is now trying to create resources in order to provide to teachers before [9/11] is taught in September going forward. We encourage parents to engage directly with teachers, guiding discussions respectfully to ensure students are not exposed to biased material.”
To support its mission, MERIT works closely with a number of local and national organizations.
“We have a really strong relationship with CAIR,” Mohammed said. “They represent everyone, you don’t have to be Muslim to be represented by CAIR, but they do take on a lot of cases that involve anti-Muslim bias and profiling.”
The organization also collaborates with the Coalition for Peace, Relief, and Equity (CPRE), and the American Muslim Women’s Circle (AMWC). With CPRE, MERIT participated in community festivals to promote cross-cultural collaboration, while with AMWC, it organized charitable projects such as a Turkey Drive to empower youth and give back to the communities in the Greater Houston area.
MERIT also works to build understanding around Ramadan and the needs of Muslim students during the month.
“During Ramadan, we did a lot of positive advocacy work in the schools to create awareness about Ramadan and Eid,” Munshi said. “Last Ramadan, Naureen created an entire toolkit on how to address concerns of Muslim students in public schools. We had parents do Ramadan awareness brunches or lunches for the staff and we had at least four principals tweet about how much they appreciated this gesture from Muslim parents.”
Despite its successes, MERIT faces challenges common to advocacy work.
“The reason we are advocating is because there are misconceptions out there or people who don’t agree with our beliefs,” Mohammed said. “We have received criticism about what our group is really trying to do. ‘Are they trying to bring Islam into our schools?’ That’s exactly why an organization like MERIT has to exist.”
MERIT holds meetings at times that fit parents’ schedules, keeping them involved in conversations about curriculum updates, advocacy efforts and volunteer work.
“Our daytime meetings introduce any topics that parents need to be aware of,” Munshi said. “We talk about anything that MERIT has been working on in the past month – for example any collaborations, volunteer efforts and advocacy efforts that we’re working on – so we can create that empowerment with the parents to be involved in education, to ensure that we’re making the right impact for the next generation.”
Since becoming an official organization in 2024, MERIT has become a trusted resource for families and educators across Houston. The group continues working to close gaps between schools and the communities it serves, making sure Muslim students can learn in safe, fair and supportive environments.For more information on MERIT and its initiatives, visit https://merit-tx.org.
About the Author
Ayana Khan is a junior at Bellaire High school and one of the editors for the Three Penny Press. She aspires to work in the medical field and pursue studies in psychology. In her free time, she enjoys hobbies like crocheting, experimenting with new baking recipes and going on runs.