The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has not only been promoting ideas of religious hatred and violence globally by the use of online platforms for their propaganda, the group has also exploited the education systems that it has taken control of in Iraq and Syria to institutionalise its brainwashing efforts.

Clearly, the revamp is aimed at nurturing future generations of jihadists and violent militants. In June 2014, just before ISIS’ declaration of a self-styled Caliphate, it announced that it was restructuring the education system in areas it controlled in Iraq and Syria.

Since then, it has revamped the syllabus and content of the subjects in schools with the help of about 400 individuals. In February, the group was reported to have a list of subjects that they retained and removed. The subjects kept were monotheism, mathematics, physics, chemistry, natural sciences, and Arabic and English languages, with geography recently re-added to this list. The subjects removed were music and the arts, national education, social studies, history, fine arts, sports (physical education), philosophy and psychological studies.

… Syed Huzaifah Bin Othman Alkaff is a Senior Analyst with the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR), a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.