In pro-Western Jordan, a leader in the fight against ISIS militants, school books warn students they risk "God's torture" if they don't embrace Islam. They portray "holy war" as a religious obligation if Islamic lands are attacked and suggest it is justified to kill captured enemies. Christians, largest religious minority of the country, are largely absent from the texts.The government says it's tackling the contradiction between official anti-extremist policy and what is taught in schools and mosques by rewriting school books and retraining thousands of teachers and preachers. Critics say the reforms are superficial, fail to challenge hardline traditions, and that the first revised textbooks for elementary-school children still present Islam as the only true religion. "ISIS ideology is there, in our textbooks," said Zogan Obiedat, a former Education Ministry official who published a recent analysis of the texts. If Jordan were to be overrun by the militants, a large majority "will join IS because they learned in school that this is Islam," he said. Government officials insist they are serious about reform. The rewritten books will teach "how to be a moderate Muslim, how to respect others, how to live in an environment that has many nationalities and different ethnic groups," said Education Minister Mohammed Thnaibat. Thnaibat refused to discuss hardline passages in the unrevised books, but said there are limits to reform. Jordan is an Islamic country, he said, and "you cannot go against the culture of the society."Success or failure of the effort matters in a region engaged in what Jordan's King Abdullah II has framed as an existential battle with ISIS militants who control large areas in Syria and Iraq. Abdullah has emerged as one of the most outspoken Arab leaders urging Muslims to reclaim their religion from extremists. Reform efforts target both schools and mosques. All school books are to be rewritten over the next two years, said Thnaibat. Lesson plans will shift from rote learning to critical thinking, and tens of thousands of teachers will be retrained. Revised books for grades 1-3 are already in use, and 11,000 teachers were given month-long courses to deliver the new curriculum. Among preachers, the government hopes to promote a "moderate Islamic ideology that is in line with our national principles," said the religious affairs minister, Haeli Abdul Hafeez Daoud.As part of the campaign, the ministry suspended several dozen imams because of the content of their sermons. The country has only 4,500 preachers for its 6,300 mosques, including many who are not properly trained, creating a vacuum that has enabled extremist lay preachers to step in, Daoud said. Yet a program to retrain thousands has enrolled only about 100 preachers in a three-semester course for which 340 were approached. The spread of extremist ideas has been a growing concern in Jordan since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings and subsequent conflicts involving militants, including in Syria and Iraq. Experts say about 10,000 Jordanians, including hundreds fighting in Syria and Iraq, adhere to Salafism, the ideology that underpins the al-Qaida terror network and ISIS group, its increasingly more influential rival. Daoud said that at one point, such ideas had a "huge and dangerous" impact in Jordan, but that appeal of ISIS has waned since the extremists immolated a captured Jordanian fighter pilot earlier this year. Some argue militancy grows from poverty and unemployment, and that the government has done little to address the root causes. "Extremism does not appear because preachers call for it," said Mohammed Abu Rumman, an expert on Islamic militants. "It appears because we have young people who search for identity and revolt against the situation." For now, the anti-extremism campaign is being led by the security forces. Some 300 people are currently in custody in Jordan for alleged ISIS sympathies, including 130 who have been sentenced, defense lawyer Moussa al-Abdalat said. About half are in detention for expressing support for ISIS ideas on social media, he said. Those convicted of "electronic terrorism" are sent to prison for five to seven years.