Syria's new textbooks still crazy after all these centuries

Note the arm gesture

Let us cast an unflinching eye upon the new schoolbooks emerging from Syria, shall we? There is something deeply troubling afoot. "In the new schoolbooks, the role of women in Arab history is being deliberately downplayed; Islam relegates women to a lower rank than men." 

So it is written, and so it appears to be. 

Figures such as Nazik al-Abid—once hailed as the “Joan of Arc of the Arabs” for her courageous stand for women’s rights—are now scrubbed from the pages. Queen Zenobia, that towering figure of the 3rd century, is dismissed as a relic of the Jahaliyya, the Time of Ignorance, unworthy of emulation. And Khawla bint al-Azwar, the fierce warrior of the Rashidun era who dared to believe Ali was the first rightful caliph, finds no favor in the uber-Sunni sanctum of Damascus. A Shia in all but name, she is cast out of this new pedagogical pantheon.

The excision does not stop there. 

The Assad dynasty, both father and son, has been predictably erased from any hint of praise, direct or oblique. Yet when it comes to Israel and the Jews, the venom remains untouched. 

"Multiple maps in a geography textbook for 14 – 15-year-olds present all of Israel’s internationally recognized territory as Palestine." The Golan Heights, firmly under Israeli control, are brazenly claimed as Syrian, while the cover flaunts an image of the Sea of Galilee—nestled within Israel’s borders—as though to whisper that it, too, might belong to Syria. 

Does Israel exist within its 1949 armistice lines in these texts, or has it been obliterated entirely? The answer is murky, but what is crystal clear is this: the Israel of today finds no reflection in these maps.

And then there is the matter of science—or its absence. 

"An entire chapter in a biology textbook for 13 – 14-year-olds on evolution has been removed." Why? Because evolution, we are told, is merely a “theory,” one that clashes with the immutable truths of Islamic doctrine. Best to shield the young minds from its seductive heresies until they can be sufficiently armored with faith. Secularism, it seems, is an unwelcome guest in this new scholastic order.

But it is in the reframing of “martyrdom” that the shift becomes most chilling. 

"‘Martyrdom’ will be reframed in the new textbooks from a national to a religious perspective." Out goes the notion of “a person giving away his soul to defend his homeland”; in its place, 10 grade pupils will now be taught of “a person giving away his soul for the sake of Allah.” The homeland of Syria fades into irrelevance; the call is now to martyrdom for Islam itself—to expand the umma, to strike down the infidels. 

Take Dalia al-Mughrabi, for instance, enshrined in these pages as a paragon of virtue. She, who in 1978 helped slaughter 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children, in the Coastal Road Massacre, is held aloft as a model to emulate. 

If this is the education of the young, what future can we expect?

Behind this lurks the shadow of Turkey, Erdogan’s hand guiding the rise of HTS and its leader, al-Jolani, in their war against Assad. Ankara remains the principal foreign patron of this new Damascus regime—though one wonders how long that alliance will hold if Turkey insists on lingering in northern Syria to keep the Kurds in check. 

For now, the Ottoman legacy is gently rebranded: what was once an “occupation” in Assad’s textbooks is now a neutral “regime,” a semantic sleight of hand to appease a friend. Syria itself, as a nation, recedes from view; the spotlight falls instead on Islam and the global umma. The old hatreds endure—Jews and Western powers, those “warmongers and exploiters who suck the ‘blood of the innocents,’” remain the perennial enemies.

Al-Jolani may speak soothing words, pledging to disarm militias and forge a national army, disavowing any intent to challenge Israel’s recent gains on the Syrian Golan. And yet here are these textbooks, freshly minted, steeped ever deeper in an Islamic fervor that will shape the next generation. "Statements against Jews remain, as do those against all the Western powers." Many of these children, fed this diet of piety and prejudice, will surely emerge as jihadis—foot soldiers in a war without end.

The Israelis, wisely, keep their distance, unmoved by al-Jolani’s supposed overtures. They are right to hesitate. 

If you seek the reason, look no further than these schoolbooks. Impact-se has laid it bare: what has been kept, what has been altered, and what has worsened. This is not a curriculum of peace; it is a blueprint for something far darker. We would do well to take note and stay strong.

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