Jordan has introduced
reforms to school curricula with the aim of combatting radical Islamic influence in society, Al-Monitor reported on 21 September 2016. Adjustments have been made in schoolbooks for the three elementary grades and cover such topics as Islam, Arabic, history and civic education. For example in the area of civil education "reference is made to acknowledge Christians as a demographic component of the population with pictures of churches as well as mosques. In religion, entire texts from the Quran and sayings of the Islamic prophet Mohammad are left out and in Arabic literature a picture of a veiled woman is replaced by one of an unveiled woman." This step has met a lot of resistance, especially from conservative Muslims, including the Muslim Brotherhood"s Islamic Action Front (IAF).
Henriette Kats, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, comments: "The Jordanian Ministry of Education has made a bold and important move by recognizing Christians as an intrinsic part of Jordanian society. In many countries of the Middle East, the region"s Christian community is not even mentioned in school books, leading to the impression that Christians are a non-indigenous, foreign group. The question is to what extent the ministry will be able to hold on to this decision in the face of so much opposition from conservative Islamic elements in society."
