Syria’s New School Curriculum Glorifies Jihad, Terrorists, and Martyrdom While Promoting Antisemitism, Report Finds

A new school curriculum in Syria glorifies violence, jihad, martyrdom and terrorists, while promoting sharia law and antisemitism, a new in-depth report has found. The report, conducted by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) says the new curriculum under Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa is teaching kids that jihad, martyrdom, and self-sacrifice in battle are legitimate anf often “desirable, ideals.”Historical figures who carried out terrorist attacks are glorified, including ‘Izz al-Din al-Qassam and Dalal al-Mughrabi. The latter took part in a massacre in Israel in 1978 where 38 civilians were killed including 13 children.The report states that in a lesson from the Grade 5 Arabic language textbook, “students are instructed to conduct a discussion based on a poem dedicated to al-Mughrabi by the prominent Syrian poet Sulaiman al-Issa, in which he described her through a variety of literary images taken from the semantic worlds of Palestinian nationalism, resistance and violence, such as: The one who ‘raised the banner of liberation’ in the heart of the occupied land, ‘the voice of a raging earthquake,’ a sword, and a flame.”‘Izz al-Din al-Qassam was a Syrian born Muslim preacher who moved to Palestine in the 1920s where he formed a militant group known as the Black Hand that carried out attacks against British forces and Jewish civilians. Hamas later named their military wing after ‘Izz al-Din al-Qassam. The report cites examples from a grade 8 Arabic language textbook which includes a short text saying: “The heroes asked Allah for martyrdom … They gave their souls, watered its soil with pure blood” while a grade 4 Islamic Education textbook includes a lesson which teaches “the believer draws closer to God Almighty through righteous deeds, foremost among them jihad and resistance.” Students in 8th grade are encouraged to take up the fight against Israel for the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 war and later annexed in 1981, while literary analysis, grammar exercises, and reading comprehension activities, expose them to ”themes of bloodshed, martyrdom, steadfastness, and heroic struggle in ways that normalize and glorify violence.The report describes an Islamization of non-religious subjects whereby topics like the Big Bang, evolution, biological development, and the origin and evolution of life are “removed or substantially reduced.”As for minorities, Christians are the most “visible” in the curriculum while Jews are recognized as a religious category, but Syrian Jewish history and local communal belonging “are completely absent.” “Islamic Education repeatedly presents Jews through theological error, hostility to Muslims and Islam, betrayal as an inherent collective trait, broken agreements, financial immorality, and divine punishment. Overtly antisemitic collective stereotyping appears in several textbooks, including the attribution of treason, backstabbing, and broken promises to Jews as a collective,” the report finds. The new curriculum also describes women through the lens of Islam, marking a departure from previous schoolbooks where they were seen as equal citizens. Explicit teaching on constitutional equality between men and women “is removed” and women are increasingly presented through “family status, modesty, conditional public participation, institutionalized gender inequality, and differentiated gender roles rather than through equal civic belonging.”Women’s and girls’ visual presence in the textbooks is also “systematically reduced, replaced, or Islamized while images of women in public, civic, historical, educational, and social settings “are deleted, replaced, or graphically altered.”Uncovered female hair is “repeatedly covered with hijab or stricter Islamic dress. In early-grade material, girls are in some cases removed from mixed or independent scenes of learning, cooperation, environmental care, and social interaction, or replaced by boys.” Women’s rights are generally confined within Islamic law where employment is permitted under “restrictive conditions, subordinated both to men’s employment and to women’s primary responsibilities as mothers and care-takers of the family.”IMPACT-se CEO, Marcus Sheff said: “The post-Assad era presents Syria with a rare opportunity to create an education system and consequently a society based on inclusion, tolerance and a shared civic identity. Instead, these textbooks show a very concerning shift from one damaging ideological framework to another.”“The marginalization of minorities and women and the glorification of religiously framed violence risk shaping a generation even further away from a future of tolerance and peaceful coexistence. This report should raise serious concerns among international leaders who hope to see Syria emerge as a partner in building a peaceful and prosperous Middle East,” he added. Mr. Al-Sharaa’s forces toppled former dictator Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 through a blitz offensive. Since then a number of Western countries have lifted their sanctions against Syria, including the U.S., to allow the war-torn country to rebuild its economy and attract foreign investment. President Trump has also taken a liking to Mr. Al-Sharaa, calling him a “tough” leader and saying Syria is doing a “very good job.”

Syria’s New School Curriculum Glorifies Jihad, Terrorists, and Martyrdom While Promoting Antisemitism, Report Finds

Syria’s New School Curriculum Glorifies Jihad, Terrorists, and Martyrdom While Promoting Antisemitism, Report Finds

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