Muslims need to implement Islamic education system

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The chairman of the Muhammadiyah Muslim Organization, Ahmad Syafii Maarif, said here on Saturday Muslims had yet to succeed in implementing an Islamic education based on the Koran.

Speaking at the Second International Conference on Islamic Education and Economic Institutions, held at the Natour Garuda Hotel in Yogyakarta, he said Muslims around the world had not yet been able to devise an education system that could produce human resources as required by the Koran.

"The philosophy of the current education system looks as if it is based on the Koran, but in actuality it is not," he said.

Inferior education among Muslims around the world has resulted in inferior human resources, he said. "The Muslim population in the world, about some 1.2 billion, is just big in the quantity, not quality."

The most effective way to resolve this problem, he said, was through education based on religion. "That way we could avoid losing our originality (by using the Koran as the basis)," he said.

Syafii also said Muslim intellectuals were badly needed to deal with the challenges of the future.

He expressed his concern that Indonesia, with the largest Muslim population in the world, had been too pliant in the face of Western pressure. "Iraq, for example, with a much smaller population, was able to say no to them (Western countries) although they had to face an economic embargo because of it."

The conference opened on Saturday evening, attended by some 300 participants from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Saudi Arabia.

The event ended on Sunday with a call for all Islamic universities and institutions across Indonesia to help establish more professional syariah banks in the country.

Participating delegations also recommended that Islamic education and economic institutions strengthen cooperation and network among themselves in developing an educational system which is based on Islamic principles. (swa/edt)