{"id":193173,"date":"2026-03-06T11:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/193173\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T11:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:12:18","slug":"ramadan-display-removed-from-texas-school-after-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/193173\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramadan display removed from Texas school after backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chron.com\/news\/houston-texas\/article\/houston-ramadan-suhoor-festival-21945309.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Ramadan display<\/a> at a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chron.com\/news\/houston-texas\/article\/report-houston-area-isd-cut-librarian-positions-18687957.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Spring Branch ISD<\/a> elementary school has sparked controversy after a conservative parent group said it violated a policy on political and religious neutrality.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Harris County chapter of Moms for Liberty first shared photos of the Ramadan display on Instagram, questioning why the decorations at Bunker Hill Elementary School\u00a0were approved. The three-slide post showed the school\u2019s lobby decorated with signage that said &#8220;Ramadan Mubarak,&#8221; (which translates to &#8220;blessed Ramadan&#8221; and is said to other Muslims during the holy month) \u00a0along with crescent moons and stars, which are widely-recognized \u00a0Islamic symbols.<\/p>\n<p>Although the display was relatively modest, the group criticized what it described as a policy violation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is in a school district that does NOT allow (per board policy) religious symbols to be displayed, yet somehow these decorations were approved,&#8221; the post&#8217;s caption read. &#8220;Parents are often invited to come to the school to watch their kids participate in square dancing and line dancing. \u00a0Imagine walking into the school for &#8216;Go Texan Day,&#8217; and this is the decor that greets you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A district spokesperson confirmed to the Houston Chronicle that a parent complaint was received. Because the display was religious in nature, campus leaders were instructed to remove it.\u00a0Chron has reached out to Moms 4 Liberty and Spring Branch ISD for comment, but has not heard back yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, on social media, \u00a0people have called out the district&#8217;s move for apparent double standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But the 10 commandments must be posted. Clear first amendment violation,&#8221; another user said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You have 10 commandments displayed, you had Easter decorations and Hanukkah decorations,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/houstonchronicle\/posts\/my-kid-felt-seen-thats-all-it-was-supposed-to-be-for-every-kid-to-feel-seen-said\/1353597873451014\/\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">one person commented on Facebook<\/a>. &#8220;We live in a community. Most reasonable people enjoy learning what their classmates celebrate, enjoy the food and customs. Pretending that they don&#8217;t exist and making a sterile class environment is French secularism, and not American.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The scrutiny comes amid heightened islamophobia in Texas\u2014particularly in North\u00a0Texas. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chron.com\/news\/houston-texas\/article\/abbott-cair-muslim-brotherhood-terrorists-21194803.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Last year<\/a>, Governor Greg Abbott designated civil rights organization Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Muslim Brotherhood as &#8220;foreign terrorist organizations&#8221; \u2014a move CAIR sharply dismissed as baseless. Months before his proclamation, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chron.com\/culture\/religion\/article\/epic-city-north-texas-investigation-20395449.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">the U.S. Justice Department quietly dropped its investigation<\/a> into a proposed community development project around one of Texas&#8217; largest mosques outside of Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chron.com\/news\/article\/brandon-gill-pakistan-dallas-mall-21342980.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">last month, Congressman Brandon Gill of Dallas <\/a>claimed parts of Texas were being overtaken by Muslim communities. A week after his comments, a man was filmed harassing a group of Muslim students at a Plano park while they were praying.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, \u00a0some Texas cities have publicly celebrated religious diversity. Houston recently opened its doors to a five-story, 11-acre religious center for Ismaili Muslims (a branch of Shia Islam) after nearly two decades in the making. In fact, the moment was celebrated, which prompted several <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/opinion\/editorials\/article\/texas-politicians-islamophobia-sharia-ismaili-21210337.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">responses from the Houston Chronicle&#8217;s Editorial Board <\/a>to call out the &#8220;bizarre hatred toward Islam [as] a social media conspiracy utterly detached from reality on the ground.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Ramadan display at a Spring Branch ISD elementary school has sparked controversy after a conservative parent group&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2466,1836,2581,1704,56,58,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-193173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-chronculture","9":"tag-chronnews","10":"tag-chronreligion","11":"tag-chronstaff","12":"tag-houston","13":"tag-houston-headlines","14":"tag-houston-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}