'Pesantren' against terrorism

A. Chaedar Alwasilah Lecturer Indonesian University of Education (UPI) Bandung, West Java

In Indonesian history, Islamic boarding schools, known as pesantren, surau, dayah or pondok, have played a significant role not only in education but also in preparing the social and political leaders of this country.

The institutions function as a bastion for Muslim forces, a center for Islamic studies and propagation and a center for the development of Muslim society. During colonial times, they functioned as a headquarters for mobilizing the people against the Dutch and Japanese forces.

Since the deadly bomb blast in Bali on Oct. 12, which killed over 190 people and injured more than 300 others, many foreign analysts have been misled into believing that the schools are a harbor for terrorists. The issue of terrorism is quite a recent phenomenon, while pesantren are as old as the history of Islam in Indonesia.

The pesantren are unique in many ways that are oftentimes overlooked by educational and political observers with no firsthand experience. As a former pesantren student, I want to share my experience.

Indeed, the pesantren remain traditional. What I experienced in the 1970s is similar to what my father experienced in the 1940s, which still holds true now in most of these schools. In general, the pesantren have five components: The cleric, the students or santri, the mosque, a boardinghouse and the classic books, called kitab kuning, which literally means yellow books, as the paper of most of the books are yellowed from age.

The kyai, or cleric, is charismatic and modest and is thus the model to emulate in terms of knowledge, behavior and leadership. The cleric-student relationship is close, informal, egalitarian, and consultative.

Hence, the students grow to become the cleric's loyal and faithful followers. Through continued silaturahmi, or communication for brotherhood and common humanity, networking is established between the cleric and his disciples, and among the disciples.

Living on the same campus, the cleric oversees almost all of the activities of the students. The students are taught to help each other, to live modest and decent lives and more importantly to live independently. While public schools and colleges are continuously blamed for mass-producing unemployable graduates, such blame is inappropriate for the pesantren.

All graduates have been taught literacy, honesty, devotion, brotherhood, independence, mutual help and networking, all of which are vital for any kind of employment.

The mosque is where communal prayers, classical learning, tutoring and meetings are held. Clearly, the mosque on campus symbolizes devotion to Allah the Almighty, commitment to learning and responsibility for social harmony. It is the theological laboratory where Islamic teachings are critically examined and empirically put into practice.

Unique to the pesantren is reciprocal tutoring. Younger students learn from the students in the class above them, who learn from the class above them -- all the way up to the cleric. This promotes reciprocal learning and teaching. It also maintains a loose, informal and collegial management of learning and brotherhood.

Depending on its size, a pesantren may have more than one cleric, usually from the same family. The clerics teach the students according to their areas of expertise, which mostly comprise the recital of the Koran, Arabic syntax, morphology, semantics, theology, jurisprudence, tafsir (interpretation of the Koran), hadits (study of the Prophet Muhammad's sayings and actions) and usul fiqh (methodology of Islamic jurisprudence).

Obviously, there is no specialization in politics, economics, history and literature, let alone technology.

In 1988/1989 there were about 6,631 pesantren across the archipelago, teaching 958,670 male and female students. Over the years these numbers have increased considerably. Many parents see the pesantren as a promising alternative for educating their children. There are never any news reports about student brawls, robberies, sex, homicide, suicide and drug abuse at pesantren.

Our national education system has produced intellectuals, engineers, diplomats, lawyers, businesspeople, bankers, politicians and legislators. However, it has failed to provide many of them with a sense of honesty, integrity, morality, devotion, brotherhood, independence, mutual help, virtue and leadership.

To rectify this situation, the Ministry of National Education could learn from the pesantren, including their features as boarding schools. By preserving their traditions, Islamic boarding schools have survived and succeeded in educating the people.

It would be shamefully erroneous to conclude that the issue of terrorism has tarnished the magnificent picture of such schools. Some elements of extremist movements may wage holy war or jihad, namely readiness to die for virtue and God, but that is totally uncharacteristic of Muslims in Indonesia, famed for being moderate and antiviolence. Until recently, we have never heard of terrorism being connected to the pesantren here. Islam does not condone terrorism.

A series of robberies reportedly committed by terrorists to get funds for killing innocent people is un-Islamic, and therefore contradicts the virtues, traditions and beliefs long established, well propagated and highly regarded in the pesantren. An evil-doer will use any means to justify his or her ends, including the misuse of a linkage with any institution, including the pesantren.