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Syria’s new de facto al-Qaeda leadership has introduced strict religious doctrine into the once “famously secular” Syrian Arab Republic school curriculum, including censorship of major scientific subjects and elimination of references to the vast catalogue of ancient civilizations that once called Syria home.
The changes have also introduced a variety of mandated speech and definition changes to match the strict Islamic fundamentalism similar to those imposed under the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan that have attracted so much criticism.
Despite these changes, there has been no comment, statement, or briefing from the State Department, whose spokesmen have repeatedly stated that they will judge the new emirs in Damascus by their actions and not their words.
Tim Anderson, author and academic, published a list of several noteworthy changes to the school curriculum.
Other important details were reported by The Cradle, and include the removal of any reference to Ottoman imperial control of Syria.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, previously called Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, was a footsoldier for al-Qaeda in Iraq, before eventually moving into Syria, joining ISIS, and then merging al-Qaeda in Syria with other groups to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, (HTS) the current iteration of the same Wahabi terrorist types that destroyed so much of Syria’s ancient archaeological past including the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Palmyra, and several cities of the ancient Assyrian empire.
The curriculum changes involve the removal of Palmyra’s Queen Zenobia and other Syrian queens from history, the removal of the Code of Hammurabi, and the removal of references to any pagan gods of past Syrian civilizations. Evolution and neurology are both scuppered entirely from classrooms.
HTS rapidly took power in Syria during November and December of 2024, during which period WaL referenced past reporting on HTS’ behavior as rulers of the Idlib province where they maintained a draconian form of Sharia law where ethnic cleansing practices of Syrian Christian and minority Druze were rampant. These were killed, expelled, had their property seized, and were sometimes forced to convert to Islam at the point of a gun.
The new school curriculum replaces the Qoranic phrase “those who have incurred wrath, and those who have gone astray” with “Jews and Christians who deviated from the path of goodness,” a worrying degree of specificity coming from a group accused of crimes against humanity.
In December, WaL reported on how the establishment of Sharia law in Afghanistan was foreseen and forewarned by Western foreign policymakers, while the same in Syria has at times been viewed as a favorable alternative to the secular Assad regime. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: Abu-Mohammad al-Jolani, leader of HTS and de facto leader of Syria.
