Azerbaijan’s education system leads a makeover: a new report published by the Institute of Monitoring and Cultural Destination in Education (Impact-Seam) reveals that the Muslim majority state has become a world-wide pioneer in the fight against anti-Semitism through the education system.
The study, which was conducted in collaboration with the Roderman family Foundation, indicates a dramatic change in the Azerbaijan textbooks. For the first time in the Muslim world, the textbooks include a formal definition of anti -Semitism, recognition of the Holocaust as a murder of six million Jews by the Nazis, and the presentation of Israel as a legitimate Jewish state in the geography books.
“Azerbaijan textbooks reflect a clear rejection of extreme ideologies such as Iran’s promoted,” explains Marcus Chef, CEO of IMPACT-SE.
The educational change joins three decades between Israel and Azerbaijan, which includes security, energy and intelligence. Recently, a significant energy deal was also signed between the Azerbaijan Government Oil Company (Socar) and Israel.
In the past month, leading media outlets in the US, including Forbes and Atlantic Council, the need for Azerbaijan’s breakdown to Abraham’s agreements as a signal of its unquestionable alliance with Israel.
At the same time, Begin-Sadat published strategic research that emphasizes Azerbaijan’s critical role in the renewed Middle East and the security of Israel.
“In Azerbaijan there is no suspicion of local Jews,” testified Rabbi Zamir Isayev, Rabbi of the Spanish community in Baku, in a special forum held in the American Congress last week. “The government sees every threat to Jews – a threat to the stability of the entire state. Jews wearing domes can walk around the streets without fear.” He emphasized that Azerbaijan’s revolutionary educational move places a new and hopeful model in the Middle East, and the combination of Muslim identity and openness and tolerance may inspire other countries in the area, especially in light of the expansive agreements between Israel and Arab countries.