While stacking its leadership with jihadists and threatening minorities, the new regime in Syria is also seeking to radically revise its educational curriculum for children aged 6 to 18. While some of the reforms to de-Ba’athify are welcome, others are causing concern about the future of Syria post-Assad. These include:
1. Eradication of Syria’s pre-Islamic past.
References to Syria’s pre-Islamic religions and gods are slated to be removed. The new curriculum plans to remove references to Queen Zenobia of the Palmyrene Empire, who briefly took territory from the Roman Empire in Arabia, Egypt, and Asia Minor.
The erasure of Zenobia is reminiscent of ISIS’s hatred for all things pre-Islamic, as evidenced in their beheading of archaeologist Dr. Khaled al-As’ad, who refused to give ISIS the location of ancient artifacts, and their destruction of countless key pre-Islamic treasures like the Temple of Baal Shamim,…
