Muhammadiyah still lags behind in global education development

Muhamad Ali

The congress of the second largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, in the East Java town of Malang from July 3 to July 8, has a strategic role to play.

Nationally and internationally recognized as a moderate organization, Muhammadiyah has the noble task of promoting dialogue and cooperation to overcome religious and cultural boundaries. The central theme of the congress, "Approaching one century of Muhammadiyah, reforming the movement to enlighten civilization", is relevant in promoting cross-cultural, global education within all its education and social networks throughout the country.

Why is it necessary for Muhammadiyah to promote global education? It is true that the organization has not paid much attention yet to global education. It has subscribed to puritanism in relation to bid'ah, khurafat, takhayyul (un-Islamic practices) and Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaah (conservatism in relation to theology).

Yet Amar maruf nahi munkar (moralism in relation to social and political wrongdoings) and khalifah Allah fil ardh (the concept of human beings as vicegerents of God on earth) could serve as justifications for the development of cross-cultural, global education.

Muhammadiyah as an organization committed to reform has taken on the responsibility of disseminating knowledge on global issues.

Muhammadiyah was founded in 1912 partly to confront what was seen as Christianization. As Harry Benda, Alwi Shihab and other scholars maintained, Muhammadiyah felt the need to strengthen Islamization efforts at the time of Christianization and colonialism. Such a sense of "anti-Christianization" remains an obstacle among Muhammadiyah members today to adopting tolerant attitudes toward Christians and others.

It is thus imperative to make contact and pursue dialogs with Christians in coping with perceptions and misperceptions of Christianization and Islamization now, and in the past. More importantly, Muhammadiyah needs to be engaged in a more strategic endeavor through a learning system.

Muhammadiyah's roles in the nationalist movement have been recognized. However, its role as an international movement has only begun, particularly in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. Amien Rais, M.Syafii Ma'arif, and Dien Syamsuddin have sought to promote mutual understanding in international forums. The time is ripe to develop this activism at the top level into a more integrated education endeavor through global education.

Muhammadiyah needs to face the historical and contemporary fact that every community has to live in a multi-religious, multi-cultural, and multi-civilizational environment. A moderate movement such as Muhammadiyah should not accordingly regard this milieu as negative and destructive to Muslim lives. Global problems such as violence, terrorism, human trafficking, illegal migration, drug abuse, environmental destruction, human rights violations, and so forth can affect any community. At the same time, global problems require global cooperation.

Muhammadiyah has so far been the only organization in Indonesia that has modern education resources. Apart from hospitals, orphanages and companies, it has modern schools, colleges, and universities throughout the country.

These institutions' resources and curricula, however, do not stray from Islamic teachings, and the modern sciences are not yet taught from a cross-cultural perspective.

But plans to incorporate ethnic, religious, and civilizational diversity in the curricula have been made as tolerance can only be learned through the understanding of other cultures and religions.

How can Muhammadiyah implement such a global education system? First, as a Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah must regard the Koran and the Prophet's teachings as the main sources of how Islam perceives diversity in ethnicity, culture, civilization, and religion. It must conduct studies and research on the crucial problem of allowing diversity under Islam.

The main challenge in dealing with pluralism is the matter of aqidah (faith), which is the shared belief that Islam is the one true path to salvation and true civilization stems only from Islam. Nevertheless, there are examples in the Koran and the Prophet's teachings, in which diversity is recognized, that have not been explored and emphasized.

The problem is how to reconcile such seemingly contradictory teachings. Can one be a Muslim, cross-culturalist and global- minded at the same time?

Muhammadiyah needs to determine students' and members' understanding of global issues. Students must be aware that global issues are interrelated, complex and challenging and have a direct impact on their lives.

They need to learn the skills to investigate a topic, solve problems, analyze issues, interpret information and make a case for a point of view through reasoned persuasion. They can develop a sense of civic responsibility by identifying specific ways of contributing to the resolution of a global issue.

In addition, cross-cultural and global perspective should be included in curricular and extracurricular activities.

Muhammadiyah's school and university communities are ethnically diverse, but this has not been realized and integrated into a learning process. Ethnic and religious diversity should be reflected in a school's curriculum.

Learning world languages is also an important part of global learning. In addition, the opportunity must be there for students to participate in international exchange programs. Such programs would promote contact with other religions, cultures and nations. Textbooks and materials, libraries, and internet facilities would support such assignments.

As a result, millions of members of Muhammadiyah would develop an understanding that the peoples of the world view things differently, though some universals serve as cultural links. Humans may identify with more than one culture and thus have multiple loyalties. They can therefore tolerate cultural diversity and can communicate and cooperate with people from other cultures and religions in order to live in peace and harmony in today's global village.

The writer is a PhD candidate in history and a lecturer at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, Jakarta. He can be reached at muhali74@hotmail.com