Iranian school textbooks, such as The Qur’an and Life (Grade 12, p. 125) prepare Iranian children for the Ayatollahs’ sublime goal: the apocalyptic, horrifying, millenarian, military battle against the USA and other “arrogant oppressors of the world,” which are ostensibly led by “idolatrous devils.” While the “savior” – the infallible, immortal, divinely ordained and eventual global leader, the Mahdi – has not surfaced yet, Iranian children are taught that the battle is already raging throughout the world, awaiting their sacrifice.
School textbooks of Western democracies are the most authentic reflection of peoples’ values and worldview. School textbooks of tyrannies are the most authentic reflection of the nature and mission of the regimes.
Iranian school textbooks reflect the strategy and tactics of the Ayatollahs, much more authentically than speeches, interviews, diplomatic statements and conversations conducted by President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif. The latter have mastered the art of Quran-sanctioned Taqiyya – doubletalk and deception-based agreements, aimed at shielding the “believers” from the “disbelievers,” to be abrogated once conditions are ripe.
School textbooks are considered, by the Ayatollahs, a critical means to mobilize the youth, charting the roadmap to the final military victory over the infidel USA and the West. Hence, the crucial relevance of school textbooks to the Congressional debate on “the framework agreement with Iran” and on the clear and present threat of a nuclear threshold Iran to vital US interests.
Therefore, it behooves the US Senate and House of Representatives – the coequal and codetermining branch of government in the area of national security policy – to conduct a series of hearings and colloquy on the significance of Iran’s school textbooks, on the nature of Iran’s conventional and nuclear threats to US interests, and on the role played by the non-war US military threat/stick, as an effective option to prevent a nuclear war. Holding these hearings and colloquy – before an agreement is reached in Lausanne – would constitute a vitamin – not a poison pill – to a constructive agreement, sparing the world a calamitous nuclear war.
Prof. Eldad Pardo, of the Hebrew University, who has researched Iran’s school textbooks of the last 10 years, published a May, 2015 report for the Institute of Monitoring Peace and Tolerance in School Education. According to Prof. Pardo, “Iran had created a war curriculum to prepare an entire generation for global war, based on Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s vision of collective martyrdom…. The battle between the new Islamic (Iranian) civilization and the evil Western civilization is seen as one between good and evil, and is being waged on a global scale…. The school textbooks prepare the Iranian people for a constant state of emergency, requiring Iranians to foment revolutions throughout the world….”
Pardo documents the apocalyptic theme in Iran’s school textbooks, as underlined by Defense Readiness (Grade 11, p. 11), praising more than 500,000 school children, who were sent to the front, during the 1980-88 war against Iraq. According to Robin Wright (Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001, p. 37), “they led the way, running over minefields to clear the ground for the Iranian ground assault. Wearing white headbands to signify the embracing of death and shouting: “Shaheed, Shaheed” [Martyr, martyr], they literally blew their way into heaven….”
Apocalyptic regimes are induced – not deterred – by Mutual Assured Destruction.
Iranian children are prodded to martyrdom, in defiance of their parents: “The defense of Islam and Muslims is a duty, and does not require parents’ approval (Religious Rulings, Grade 11, p.14)….” Prof. Pardo established that “education to child martyrdom continues during first-twelve grades, with a new emphasis on girl martyrs (Defense Readiness, Grade 11, pp. 35 and 62 and Sociology 1, Grade 11, pp. 112, 114).”