KUFR NAMEH, West Bank — During a year in power, the Islamic Hamas movement has begun taking control of Palestinian schools and is making changes.

Hamas leaders insist they are not trying to indoctrinate children, but moderate Palestinians say Hamas’ goal is nothing less than shaping the political views of future generations.

Eight of 14 West Bank school districts are now controlled by Hamas, from none a year ago, and the new religion requirement meant hiring some 300 graduates of Islamic teachers’ colleges that are Hamas strongholds, Fatah educators said.

“You are seeing the gradual transformation of a largely secular national … education system and curriculum into a more ideological, closed system,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a secular former minister of higher education.

Ashrawi, now an independent legislator, said she has asked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate who heads Fatah, to hand control of the curriculum to an independent commission of experts, but has gotten no commitment.

“We are not making education more Islamic,” Education Minister Nasser Shaer said before he was arrested by Israel in an anti-Hamas sweep last month. However, Shaer is under pressure within his movement to apply a clearly Islamic, non-Western curriculum. For example, Hamas firebrands want to eliminate U.S. history from a textbook.

“As a mother, I am very afraid for my children,” said computer teacher Riham Diek, whose 14-year-old daughter Naheel is being hounded by pro-Hamas teachers in her West Bank village of Kufr Nameh to trade her jeans and denim jacket for a head scarf and robe. “We want a generation that is able to deal with the rules of freedom and democracy.”