Report: Islamism has displaced secular approaches in Syrian textbooks — Jerusalem Post
In Syria, an analysis of 130 school textbooks for the 2025–2026 academic year revealed a significant shift in educational content: Baathist, pan-Arab and secular models of governance have, according to researchers, been replaced by an emphasis on Sunni Muslim identity and political Islam. This is stated in a report by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, IMPACT-se, the Jerusalem Post reports.
Textbook analysis
The report’s authors, Matan Perchik, Itam Shalev and Yonatan Negev, analyzed thousands of pages of textbooks for grades 1–12. They compared new editions with versions from 2017–2018 or 2011–2012, using content and discourse analysis in line with UNESCO standards on peace and tolerance.
According to the researchers, Syrian national identity in the materials is subordinated to the broader Muslim community, while the emphasis on Arab nationalism is replaced with a focus on Islamic civilization. In particular, the Great Arab Revolt of 1916–1918, the report claims, is no longer presented as a liberation movement against Ottoman occupation, but is described as an uprising aimed at separating from the Ottoman state.
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Science, minorities and gender roles
The report also refers to substantial editing or removal of topics related to evolution, the Big Bang and biological development. As an example, the authors cited primary-school science textbooks in which the wording “gift of nature” is replaced with “gift of Allah.”
According to the study, educational materials romanticize armed struggle, Palestinian armed resistance, rocket attacks and self-sacrifice. Representatives of Kurdish, Turkmen and Druze communities are barely mentioned, according to IMPACT-se’s assessment, while the centuries-long history of Syrian Jews has been removed from educational materials. Israel is called a “Zionist entity” or an “enemy” in the textbooks and is not marked on regional maps.
The authors also recorded the removal of references to legal guarantees of gender equality. Women are predominantly portrayed in family roles in the texts, while illustrations, according to the study, were altered by adding hijabs to female characters. Materials related to Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad and their family were also removed from the textbooks.
