Saudi Media Campaign Against Syria’s New Leadership: A Double Standard Exposed
While Saudi Arabia criticizes Syria's educational reforms, it overlooks similar changes in its own curricula, revealing a deeper political agenda
Watan-In a controversial move, Saudi media, led by Al Arabiya TV, has mobilized itself to demonize the new Syrian administration headed by Ahmad al-Sharaa, by criticizing the changes made by the Syrian Ministry of Education to school curricula following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The changes, which included the removal of glorification of the Assad regime and the correction of some misinterpretations of Quranic verses, were not well-received by the media of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who attempted to exploit the situation to attack Syrian Minister of Education Nazir al-Qadri during an interview on Al Arabiya. However, Qadri silenced the presenter with a clear response that exposed the malicious nature of the questions and the channel’s attempt to embarrass the new administration.
Interestingly, the Saudi media, which involved itself in the issue of Syrian curricula, did not show the same enthusiasm when Mohammed bin Salman himself removed Quranic verses and hadiths from the school curricula in Saudi Arabia two years ago, under the pretext of modernization and combating extremism.
Bin Salman’s deletions included verses that described Jews as monkeys and pigs, along with the removal of texts denying any rights to Jews in Palestine. This was welcomed by Israeli media, which saw it as an important step in the context of Saudi-Israeli normalization.
This stark contradiction reveals the duplicity of Saudi media. While it demonizes changes to the Syrian curricula, it turns a blind eye to the manipulations carried out by Bin Salman in Saudi curricula, in service of the Zionist project and paving the way for normalization, according to analysts.
Observers believe that the Saudi media campaign against the new administration in Syria reflects Riyadh’s concerns about the rise of new leadership in Damascus that is not under its influence, especially since Bin Salman was one of the main supporters of Assad in his final years, specifically before his downfall.
This campaign proves that Saudi policies towards Syria are not governed by fixed principles, but rather are driven by the Crown Prince’s agendas, who seeks to use all available means to undermine any Islamic or democratic project in the Arab world, especially in a country where Iranian dominance was broken after decades of Assad’s rule.
