BEIRUT: Kindergarten teacher Zeinab Asfur stands in front of her class in the southern suburbs of Beirut. “Who are your heroes?” she asks. “The men of the resistance!” the children shout back in unison.

As early as four years old, pupils across the suburbs are taught about the “heroic resistance” of the militant group Hezbollah in Israel's summer war which devastated large parts of the area.

Their return to school this year has been overshadowed by the deaths of more than 1,200 people -- one third of them children -- during the 34-day Israeli onslaught which also destroyed roads, homes and schools.

Dozens of schools were flattened in the predominantly Shia suburbs of the capital and in the south of the country, where Hezbollah guerrillas fought against Israeli troops during the conflict. Private schools run by Hezbollah or other pro-Iranian groups in Beirut's suburbs or across eastern and southern Lebanon offer Islamic studies to their pupils, and this year they are marked by more militant teachings.

As public schools across the country provide general courses about religion, many private schools -- whether run by Christian or by Muslim institutions -- offer more enforced religious studies in their curriculum.

During her Islamic class at the private al-Mujtaba school in the teeming slums of Hay al-Sullom, Asfur teaches her kindergarten children about the holy Quran, Islam and the anti-Israeli resistance.

She belongs to the Al-Quran al-Karim Association, which supplies instructors to teach the holy book in schools.

“Teaching small kids is part of the al-Hajja Umm Muslim programme for children aged between four and five to learn the holy Quran and stories of Islam,” Asfer said.

“I teach them every Monday for 20 minutes, and then their teachers will follow up during the week. The aim is to raise the children with a solid Islamic background based on the holy Quran,” she added.

In a nearby classroom, Ramzia is teaching students the art of reciting verses from the holy Quran.

On the walls are pinned colourful cardboard cards bearing the words “martyrs,” “resistance” and “the evils of Israeli racism and terrorism” in French -- the remnants of a previous language lesson in the classroom.

In addition to Arabic, Islamic studies and the other usual subjects, the 1,200 students at al-Mujtaba school, run by the al-Mabarat Charity Association of Shia Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, also learn French and English.

Al-Mabarat runs many schools and orphanages across Lebanon, many of which were destroyed or partly damaged by Israeli raids during the war.

At al-Imam al-Riza school, a portrait of bearded Hezbollah chief Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah hangs above the door of a third-grade classroom.

“The Islamic Resistance is as proud as Lebanon's mountains,” says a slogan on a poster at the entrance to another classroom, also boasting of Hezbollah's “divine victory” against Israel in the summer war.

Haitham Amhaz, principal of al-Imam al-Riza school, said that teaching the holy Quran to the pupils has been welcomed by “all families, even those who do not abide by the rules of Islam”.

“For many families, Islamic studies are the best protection for their children in a society full of temptation,” he added.

Hajj Abdel al-Khalil, a senior official of the Al-Quran al-Karim Association, said “teaching Islam and the Quran is the only guarantee to protect our society”.

Khalil complained about “bad influences” being spread through the Internet and on satellite television channels, mostly from the West, and denounced “a campaign to distort the image of Islam by portraying Muslims as terrorists”.

“Islam is a religion of tolerance and forgiveness,” he said. “Many people commit acts in the name of Islam and this is wrong.” Khalil said that his institution also sends teachers to non-Islamic schools where they have been allowed to teach the Quran to Muslim students.

“We have teachers in many non-Islamic schools in Lebanon, such as the Saint Antonios, the Frere and the Lycee De La Finnesse. We simply asked them if we could teach the Quran in their classes and they agreed,” he said.—AFP