In the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2000, debate about Arab education as the new apparatus for religious fanaticism used by Arab extremist groups to entice hate and violence against the West took prominence in Western discourse. Considerable ink was spilled confusing hostile narratives in Arab curricula and the metaphors of identity building with the vilification of Western cultures in Arab textbooks. Western critics and Pentagon scholars produced an extensive body of literature connecting violence to a flawed Arab intellect. Under staggering Western political pressure, Arab states had to rely on Western counsel and implement rapid reforms along the lines of Western methods in order to "polish" Western representation in Arab schools and distance their schools from any allegations of teaching hate. This study places the claim of this debate and current Arab educational reforms within the larger context of neoliberal politics and its neocolonial agenda. Moving between political discourses, major school reforms of the last decade, ambiguous teaching material, and new courses added to Arab curricula, the study engages the dialectic of hegemony and counter-hegemony of education not only as a colonial construct but as a renewed venue to recolonization. To this end, this study argues that these reforms did not help improve Western representation but rather disconnected education from reality and made it a mobilizing tactic that aims to teach Arab youth to accept the terms of the neocolonial project. (Contains 4 footnotes.)