Syria’s new Islamic government creates controversy with education overhaul
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A planned overhaul of Syria’s education curriculum is spurring concerns about the new government’s assurances that it will rebuild an inclusive society, and leading some to question whether it will seek to impose a conservative Islamic worldview. The changes, listed in a series of documents released this week by the education ministry, include everything from dropping all references to former dictator Bashar al-Assad to changing religious references and removing the theory of evolution from school textbooks.
The changes would apply to all students between the ages of 6 and 18. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Sunni Islamist group that led the assault that toppled the Assad regime, has said it would treat all Syrians equally—be they women or the country’s many religious and ethnic minorities. A string of diplomats from the U.S.
and Europe have visited Damascus in recent weeks, including the foreign ministers of Germany and France on Friday, all trying to assess whether they can trust the transitional government’s promises. Western powers remain wary of HTS, which began as an offshoot of al Qaeda. The group publicly cut ties with al Qaeda years ago and has sought to cast itself as more moderate.
On Thursday, Syria’s education minister, Nazir al-Qadri, sought to play down the changes, saying they were meant only to remove glorifying references to the Assad era and inaccuracies in the Islamic education curriculum. He said only some of the changes would be implemented. “The curricula in all Syrian schools will remain as is until specialized committees are formed to review" them, he said, without elaborating.
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