Hezbollah and Iran took advantage of a gap in Lebanon’s education system to create schools that can indoctrinate the next generation of martyrs and elite in their cause, according to a new report by Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah published in the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.
Although Shiite religious leaders and political figures launched several initiatives to address the educational disadvantages experienced by Lebanon’s Shiite community during the Ottoman and French Mandate periods, significant changes in Shiite education accelerated during the second half of the 20th century.
Earlier efforts included the establishment of modern religious and social institutions, as well as the spread of secular ideologies such as Marxism among segments of the community. However, many Shiite communities, particularly in rural areas, continued to rely on traditional religious scholarship, where basic literacy and Islamic studies remained central.
The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran ultimately shaped Shiite educational networks in Lebanon into pro-Hezbollah and pro-Iran institutions of radicalization.
Hezbollah and Iran’s investment in education began early in the movement’s history.
Islamic Republic contributed funds towards construction of schools, institutions
Former Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyid Abbas al-Musawi, before the terror group was founded, established the Imam al-Muntazar Hawza for Islamic Studies in Baalbek in 1979, with direct support from Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr in Iraq and the Islamic Republic.
The opening ceremony was attended by the Iranian ambassador in Damascus, and it was announced that the Islamic Republic contributed $35,000 and 10,000 Syrian liras toward the construction of the hawza.
Schools for the Shiite community operating outside of the state system began opening more rapidly in Lebanon’s South after the fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty and the 1982 Lebanon War, which largely disrupted the secular left, the report noted. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards were quick to take advantage of the situation.
Throughout the 1980s, Iranian funding was channeled to Shiite religious schools, alongside rhetoric surrounding “Hezbollah’s students” and “Educational Mobilization.” By 1987, there were 198 schools benefiting from Iranian funds in West Beirut and the suburbs.
Mobilization schools were specifically created to prepare the ground for a coup against the Lebanese state, according to the report, and students were prepared both with the skills needed for the modern economy and the ideology to further Hezbollah’s interests.
The Al-Mahdi and Al-Mustafa schools were later credited by the now-assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah for shaping the next generation of terrorists.
“We will continue expanding and developing these schools horizontally, vertically, and geographically, as they are deeply tied to our faith and jihadist mission,” he said during an address commemorating the anniversary of the opening of the Al-Mahdi schools.
Sheikh Naim Qassem, the current secretary-general of Hezbollah, was notably one of the founders of the Al-Mustafa school network. He has written that the school’s educational objective is to “create an identity linking knowledge, jihad, education, and faith in service of the resistance, the homeland, and the nation, as preparation for the Imam Mahdi state.”
The Hezbollah-affiliated “Schools of the Islamic Foundation for Education and the Islamic Religious Education Association” adapted programs that promoted images of Ayatollah Ruhollah Mostafavi Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as role models. The schools also ensured that lessons were taught to raise a generation of Hezbollah loyalists.
Even as of 2026, the report noted that Hezbollah is estimated to oversee at least 22 schools and 47,000 students, with far more under affiliated networks.
The Al-Mustafa schools are specifically designed to target the Shiite middle and upper-middle class, as well as the children of senior party officials, to produce the next generation of the group’s elite to represent Hezbollah in the professional sphere, the report claimed. Directed by the Islamic Religious Education Association, the schools aim to compete with the state curriculum while offering an “Islamic alternative” under the direct supervision of Hezbollah leaders such as Sheikh Naim Qassem.
Al-Mahdi network consists of 17 schools, generates Hezbollah adherents
The Al-Mahdi network, which operates under Hezbollah’s Executive Council’s education unit, is made up of at least 17 schools, including both elementary and high schools. These schools focus on mobilizing the next generation of Hezbollah, emphasizing the ideas of self-sacrifice and martyrdom, according to the report.
“These institutions are designed to transform the Shiite community into a disciplined, ideologically uniform base, ensuring that the party’s survival is anchored in the minds of the next generation,” Neriah assessed. “Hezbollah views education not merely as a social service or an academic pursuit, but as a primary pillar of societal engineering and the building of what they term a resistance society (mujtama’ al-muqawama).”
Both Al-Mahdi and Al-Mustafa schools are heavily subsidized, allowing them to meet the legal requirements of the state while maintaining their “parallel curriculum” designed for ideological and religious indoctrination, the report continued. This allows students to be taught the concept of Wilayat al-Faqih (Guardianship of the Jurist), which gives the Islamic regime ultimate authority.
From as young as five, children’s physical activities in the schools mimic military training and operations. The report insisted that while standard schools shield children from violence, Hezbollah’s network actively seeks to normalize it.
Hezbollah’s Imam al-Mahdi Scouts are also used to bolster the idea of jihad, making the transition from school to the terror field more practical, the report continued. The estimated 100,000 children in the club wear Hezbollah military uniforms, and successful scouts are recruited into Hezbollah’s actual military at as young as 16.
In these schools, the report noted that textbooks and classroom activities normalize and glorify martyrdom, “resistance,” and hatred toward Israel and the West. The Mahdi Magazine, given to children aged 4-17, further strengthens these lessons taught in class with comics featuring stories of armed struggle.
The Lebanese national anthem is rarely heard, with the song “Salam Ya Mahdi” taking its place, a hymn that pledges allegiance to the Shiite Iranian cause. Sung daily, Neriah assessed that this was done to further separate children from their Lebanese identity.
