Global Outlook

  The recent modifications made to the Syrian curriculum in the past three years raised a lot of high stakes and concerns among the schools’ stakeholders and the global society. The current HTS which now runs the providence has made several changes that many regard as other extreme policies being rolled in to change the youth. These reforms of textbooks to the first primary to the third secondary grades have given a different view on the future of Syrian education and their corresponding consequence on the society. It is pertinent to note that the last regimes song and dance, including but not limited to, the anthem have been wiped clean of existence. Such kind of detachment of education from the Assad era may look like a desire to remain neutral, however, the content substitution points to the contrary. The old concept of ‘defending the homeland ’Has thus been replaced by the new concept of ‘for the sake of God’ indicating a shift from nationalist, to religious motivation. This al...

  The current emergence of Islamist groups in Syria most especially Hayat Tahir al-Sham has raised damaging discourses concerning their goals as well as the future of Syria. One of them is their operational topping in the seizing of state institutions, which if achieved, will really alter the socio-political landscape of the Syria in a big way. New policies as the reform of the education system show how HTS tries to exercise control over institutions. The changes in curriculum proposed are eradicating all references to Assad’s regime, changing the religious material, and erasing concepts like evolution. Opponents state that these changes insert an Islamists’ attributes, which might completely eliminate Syrian secular learning legacy and make the divides in society wider. The Islamists continue with the appointment of people with extremists linkages to other strategic governmental positions, the above strategies confirm. For example, the appointment of Shadi al-Waisi, who used to be...

  After the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad the politics of Syria has shifted drastically. Leading this charge is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham [formerly known as Al-Nusra front], an organisation that was originally affiliated with al-Qaeda seeking to implement its form shariah over the battered Syrian state. The current leader of HTS which is Ahmed al-Sharaa, alias Abu Mohammed al-Golani has stated publicly that he has laid down his plans of forming a government that will respect the ethnic and religious composition in Syria. However, because the group has links with jihadist ideology, the public has questioned the true mission of the group. An important characteristic of HTS’s operations is gradual seizure of state structures. They want to make sure they have loyalists in positions where they can make official decisions to make formalists accept them as the rightful rulers of Syria. This is reminiscent of strategies and policies used by Assad regime by appointment of loyalists to impo...