The militant-held Iraqi city of Mosul is ushering in a new school year with a curriculum that has “permanently annulled” lessons in history, literature, art, music and Christianity.
The Islamic State group, which has taken over large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria for its self-declared “caliphate,” has also banned patriotic songs in Mosul and ordered that certain pictures be torn out of textbooks, The Associated Press reported. In Raqqa, Syria, militants are scrubbing textbooks of philosophy and chemistry — fine-tuning the sciences to fit with their ideology.
AP reports that many residents have not been complying with the Islamic State group’s demands and that students have uniformly not shown up to school, despite classes beginning on Sept. 9, according to residents who spoke anonymously due to safety concerns.
They said families were keeping their children home out of mixed feelings of fear, resistance and uncertainty, AP reported.
“What’s important to us now is that the children continue receiving knowledge correctly, even if they lose a whole academic year and an official certification,” a Mosul resident said.
It was unclear whether teachers and school administrators have also stayed home.
Schools in Mosul were presented with the new set of rules on Sept. 5. The statement cheered “good news of the establishment of the Islamic State Education Diwan by the caliph who seeks to eliminate ignorance, to spread religious sciences and to fight the decayed curriculum,” AP reported.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group’s reclusive leader, allegedly issued the curriculum, which calls upon professionals in Iraq and abroad “to teach and serve the Muslims in order to improve the people of the Islamic state in the fields of all religious and other sciences,” AP reported.
“This announcement is binding,” the statement ominously concludes. “Anyone who acts against it will face punishment.”
The Education Ministry in Baghdad says it has virtually no contact with Mosul.
“The situation in Mosul is so difficult because it is far too dangerous for us to know exactly what is happening,” said Salama al-Hassan, a spokeswoman for ministry.
“All of this has a serious impact on the psychology of the students,” she added, AP reported. “We want to approach this subject in a way that boosts the confidence and spirit of the students and helps them to understand what is happening in the country without instilling them with fear.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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