References to ousted President Bashar al-Assad and his father, who ruled Syria before him, have been removed, as have images of pre-Islamic gods. The definition of martyr has been changed and now means someone who died for God and not for his country. A queen from the Roman era has been dropped from some textbooks.

Just a few weeks after the rebel coalition brought down the Assad regimethe interim government they installed in Damascus moved quickly to order a series of changes to the country’s school curriculum. The changes cover subjects from English and history to science and Islamic studies.

The move was criticized by teachers and other Syrians who oppose not only the nature of some of the changes but also the fact that decisions about them were made so quickly, without transparency and guidance from teachers and the general public.

Critics say the changes and the unilateral way they were ordered are worrying signs of how Syria’s new government plans to govern the diverse country.

Some of the changes, which were detailed in nine pages published by the Ministry of Education on social media last week, have been widely welcomed, such as removing glorification of the Assad regime from textbooks.

But some Syrians question why other changes were prioritized, given the pressing issues the country still faces, such as insecurity, sectarian tensions and the economic crisis.

“Changes should only be limited to things that involved the previous regime,” said Rose Maya, 45, a high school French teacher, at a small protest against the changes outside the Education Ministry on Sunday. “But there’s no need for all the other changes.”

Mrs. Maya was joined by about two dozen other people – among them professors, students, doctors and artists – who held signs with various objections to the changes. Next to her was another teacher, Muayid Muflih, with a sign that read: “Power belongs to the people, not over the people.”

Mr Muflih said he had until recently lectured on nationalism, a subject widely seen as serving on the Assad regime’s agenda. It has now been completely eliminated from the curriculum.

Ms. Maya, referring to Nazir Mohammad al-Qadri, the minister of education, said that “as an interim minister, he should not make changes.” She added that there should be transparency regarding the commissions that the ministry claimed to have established to review textbooks and propose changes. “Teachers should be involved,” she said.

The ministry defended the changes and rejected suggestions that the changes were Islamist, or a nod to Salafism, the conservative branch of Sunni Islam to which many of the country’s new leaders belong.

“The modifications were necessary after the liberation of Syria,” Mr. al-Qadri said in an interview on Sunday. “These changes were not changes to the curriculum, but changes to some slogans and symbols that glorified the previous regime.”

Mr al-Qadri was part of the education ministry in Idlib, a province in northwest Syria that is governed by the Islamist rebel group that now leads the interim government, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

Specialized committees that also include members of the Idlib provincial government led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and members of the Assad-era education ministry reviewed the textbooks and proposed changes, he said.

Mutasem Syoufi, executive director of the non-profit group Day After, said the interim government is trying to impose its vision not only on Syria’s political system, but also on its public life. The Day After was founded in 2012 by members of the Syrian opposition to plan the transition phase in Syria after the final fall of the Assad regime.

“The changes are a clear reflection of a very narrow interpretation of Islam and remind us again of the background of the group that is in charge of Syria today,” he said. “There is no such thing as an inclusive point of view.”

The speed with which the curriculum changes were made suggests they were prepared before the interim government took power, Mr. Syoufi.

Throughout Syria, even as people celebrate the overthrow of a brutal and autocratic regime, there is some anxiety about the country’s future under a government led by Islamist rebels.

Syria’s de facto new leader, Ahmed al-Sharahe recently said it could take two to three years to draft a new constitution and up to four years to hold elections, upsetting some Syrians who expressed fears they had replaced one authoritarian leader with another.

Several people at the protest wondered why removing the Roman-era queen was such a priority for Syria’s new leadership, which is already overwhelmed by suddenly running the entire country, and restoration of the state.

On page 19 of the third-grade Islamic studies textbook, a reference to Zenobia, a queen in the Roman colony of Palmyra, in present-day central Syria, was removed. The ambiguous entry in the ministry’s list of changes was interpreted by many as evidence that it perceives her as a fictional person.

Mr al-Qadri said it had not been removed from history textbooks. He said that she was deleted from the textbooks of Islamic sciences because she lived and ruled in the pre-Islamic period.

“We do not deny that Zenobia was present in history,” he said. But, he said, “we object to its inclusion in this book.”

The deletion of the leader from the textbooks, however, worried some Syrians, who see it as an attack on the legendary history of Syria.

“If we’re teaching this generation that she was a fictional character, then we’re losing touch with the past,” Ms Maya said. “That means we don’t have a past. And those who don’t have a past don’t have a future either.”

Such changes, say some Syrians, should wait for the writing of the constitution and the elections. They should also be part of a wider dialogue between different parts of Syrian society, made up of different religions, sects and ethnic groups, they said.

“Their focus at the moment should only be to enforce security and clarify how they came to power and what their plans are,” said Malak Muhammad Suleiman, a dentist.

Another of the curriculum changes that worried Syrians concerns the translation of verses from the Qur’an. The last verse in the first chapter of the Muslim holy book refers to “those who have gone astray.”

In a previous first-grade Islamic textbook, the term was defined as “those who deviated from the right path”. Under the new government’s changes, the term is now defined as “Christians and Jews”.

Manwella al-Hakim, a 60-year-old abstract painter and devout Muslim who wears a hijab, held a sign at the protest opposing this new interpretation.

“We don’t want things that will divide us,” she said. “Syria has always had all religions and all beliefs.”

Near her, Ziyad al-Khoury, a 61-year-old retired journalist, held two signs, one of which read: “I am a Christian and I have not gone astray.”

Mr al-Khoury said he was shocked when he first heard of the change.

“It seemed like a message from the new government that we are not part of this country,” he said.