Editing Ba'ath Party (section)

====Stance on religion====
[[State atheism|Militant secularism]] was emphasized in the "''Declaration of Principles''" manifesto published by the Ba'ath party in 1960; which declared that the party's "educational policy" was to build a "new generation of Arabs that believe in the unity of the nation and the eternity of its mission".<ref>{{cite web|title=Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview|url=http://www.herzliyaconference.org/_Uploads/2590Bashars.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723214138/http://www.herzliyaconference.org/_Uploads/2590Bashars.pdf|archive-date=23 July 2011|accessdate=8 March 2013|pages=364–365}}</ref> The manifesto also stated that this envisaged Ba'athist generation would be "committed to [[Science|scientific thought]] freed from the shackles of superstition and backward customs" and replace religion with [[Arab nationalism]] as their belief system.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rubin|first=Barry|title=The Truth About Syria|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2007|isbn=978-1-4039-8273-5|location=New York, NY|pages=38|chapter=2: The World's Most Unstable Country, 1946-1970}}</ref>