Education key to foster religious tolerance: Expert
Education key to foster religious tolerance: Expert
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The close alignment between religion and politics has resulted in
a decline in tolerance among the adherents of different religious
over the past few years, aggravating the problems facing the
country.
Franz Magnis Suseno, a professor of political ethics at the
Driyarkara School of Philosophy, said on Thursday there had been
a trend of turning religious teachings into rigid ideologies that
deprived religions of their humanistic values.
"Among the indications of the ideologization of religion is
the rise of fundamentalist groups ... which hold the view that
minority groups have to bow down to the majority. The ability of
people of different religious persuasions to live side by side
has gone up in the air," Magnis told a seminar organized by
Atmajaya Catholic University here.
The German-born scholar said that such notions were used to
justify the use of extreme measures.
He said a dialog with the fundamentalists looked almost
impossible due to their stubbornness in interpreting religious
teachings.
"They (the fundamentalists) even close their doors to
differences within their own groups," Magnis said.
Magnis said that this worrying tendency had disrupted the
peaceful coexistence among religions that had been a feature of
this country for centuries.
"Islam, for example, when it first arrived here blended nicely
with local traditions. During the course of history, normal
features of religion here have been tolerance and humanism. We
can still see this legacy in Muslim organizations like Nahdlatul
Ulama (NU)," he said.
Magnis said that intolerance was one of five problems that had
aggravated the problems facing the country, besides violence,
lack of discipline, mysticism and what he termed "instant"
culture.
He said that amid the current dismal state of interfaith
relations, education was the key to sowing the seeds of tolerance
from the earliest stages.
"Education has to be developed so as to enable students to
live in a pluralist society," he said.
Following the collapse of former president Soeharto's New
Order regime, the country has witnessed a series of bloody
clashes involving Christians and Muslims in Maluku and Poso in
Central Sulawesi. Thousands of people were killed and hundreds of
thousands of others displaced in the conflicts.
The religious and sectarian conflicts have given rise to
antagonism and growing prejudice among people of different
religious beliefs.
Muslim scholar Qomari Anwar, rector of the Jakarta-based Hamka
University, said intolerance was a product of the narrow
interpretation of religious creeds.
"There are people who only emphasize the ritual and
formalistic aspects of religious teachings, overlooking the true
substance that lies behind them," he said.
He said that the formalistic approach to religion resulted in
low levels of social responsibility and the ignoring of others.
"They are only interested in personal piety and individual
salvation. A person can pray five times a day, but can still have
a black heart," he said.