Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

The extremist-held Iraqi city of Mosul is set to usher in a new school year. But unlike years past, there will be no art or music. Classes about history, literature and Christianity have been “permanently annulled.”

The Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham has declared patriotic songs blasphemous and ordered some pictures be torn out of textbooks.

But instead of compliance, residents in Iraq’s second-largest city have so far responded to the demands with silence.

What’s important to us now is that the children continue receiving knowledge correctly, even if they lose a whole academic year and an official certification

Although the extremists stipulated the school year would begin Sept. 9, few students showed up. Residents said families were keeping their children home out of mixed feelings of fear, resistance and uncertainty.

“What’s important to us now is that the children continue receiving knowledge correctly, even if they lose a whole academic year and an official certification,” said one man, who identified himself as Abu Hassan. He and his wife have opted for home schooling.

Part of ISIS’s core strategy is to establish administration over lands it controls to project an image as a ruler, not just a fighting force. In parts of Syria it controls, it administers courts, fixes roads and polices traffic. It recently imposed a curriculum in schools in its stronghold, Raqqa, scrapping subjects such as philosophy and chemistry, and fine-tuning the sciences to fit its ideology.

In Mosul, schools have been presented with a new set of rules, advertised in a two-page bulletin posted on mosques, in markets and on electricity poles. The new curriculum, allegedly issued by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, ISIS’s leader, stresses any reference to the republics of Iraq or Syria must be replaced with “Islamic State.”

Pictures that violate its ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam will be ripped out of books. Anthems and lyrics that encourage love of country are a show of “polytheism and blasphemy” and banned.

Residents acknowledge the risks of keeping children at home, but say protecting their minds is equally important. “They will brainwash them and contaminate their thoughts,” Abu Hassan said.

This past weekend, some families said a new ISIS statement appeared, demanding students show up for class Tuesday. Others said they never received the notice.

It was unclear whether teachers and administrators have stayed home rather than go to work.

The education statement ends with a chilling reminder of ISIS’s willingness to use brutal force.

“This announcement is binding,” it concludes. “Anyone who acts against it will face punishment.”