Religious education in Indonesia is a failure

Religious education in Indonesia is a failure

Religious-related conflicts have torn apart many areas in the
country with no institution, including the government, having an
appropriate solution for them. Many are worried that fresh
interreligious conflicts could erupt due to the authorities'
failure in handling previous clashes. Lecturer Haidar Bagir, who
is also the CEO of PT Mizan Publika, an Islamic-oriented
publisher based in Bandung, spoke to The Jakarta Post's Soeryo
Winoto after an international seminar on Globalization, Religion
and the Media on Saturday.

Question: Do you think the country still has potential for
religious-related conflicts in the future?

Answer: I have to say yes. It will take more time for the
followers of the certain religions here to accept the fact that
the existence of other religions is actually a normal thing which
is assured by the differences of culture and history and other
factors.

I feel, we (Indonesians) are in a state where many religious
groups think to have the right to claim that their religions are
the best. And if you ask me when the situation will end, I would
say after we can develop an educational system which teaches
citizens that life is complex. That life is built on a long
history of differences in thinking and culture, and therefore,
people should be able to see the reality that differences,
including religions, are all around us.

Are there any internal factors (from the religious teaching
itself) that have played roles or encouraged their followers to
commit violence against others?

If people learn and understand the teaching of their religions
properly, I believe there would never have been conflicts caused
by religions. Such conflicts have emerged due to external
stimuli, like economics, political or ethnic background.

My academic field is the philosophy of Islam. The more I study
Islam, the more similarities I find with other beliefs. There are
many fundamental similarities and also thoughts among the
religions. These need to be understood by followers to make them
aware that they must not claim that their vision of their
religion is the best.

What should the religious followers at the grassroots level do
to restrain themselves from violence? At the top level, religious
leaders are able to be tolerant, but they obviously fail to
inform their members of what they have discussed. What do you
think?

I am not that sure that our religious elites have adequate
awareness of tolerance and plurality with regard to other
religions.

They still need work to improve their acceptance of diversity
and differences. After that, the problem is education. We will
need much more time to develop a superior quality education
system to make religious followers more aware of similarities and
universal resources, including religions. It's time consuming.

What about the roles of the media in curtailing religious-
related violence, as the media has no definitive policy regarding
their handling of such conflicts?

I think the media should become a sort of teaching
institution. The media needs to be proactive to promote ideas on
pluralism among society. However, the media needs sufficient and
appropriate training and education. Let me say that our media is
still lacking professionalism. If our media was more
professional, meaning that journalists and editors possess a
broader horizon of thinking and are better educated (not only on
journalistic techniques) the media -- I believe -- would be able
to play a significant role in teaching the people how to respect
the similarities of their religious roots.

Do you think that the religions in the country, especially
Islam and Christianity, have become too politicized?

I would stick to my argument that education is a much more
serious problem than politics with regard to religion. It is
undisputable that the religions have been politicized, by both
domestic and international political entities. But I believe that
if the followers of the religions were more educated, more
tolerant and more familiar with the opinions voiced by other
parties, frankly speaking, political influence -- no matter how
strong -- would not be able to provoke people to fight each
other.

You mean that education and openness could bring about a
built-in resilience among individual of each religion?

Exactly. I see that politics have been disturbing the
relations between religions so far because the seeds of openness
among religions are still very few.

Do you think that we have adequate religious leaders who are
able to promote tolerance among their followers and provide the
followers with comfort so as to prevent them from being provoked
to fight?

I'm sorry to say that the number of qualified religious
leaders is very small. Honestly, I daresay that the religious
education in this country has been a failure. Religion is
supposed to be taught to promote high morality, including
tolerance and understanding of others, and to be self-critical,
right? Unfortunately, I see the core of religious teaching has
sunk into political, legal or ritual controversies.

I do hope that in the future we will have more religious
leaders with broader horizons and an ability to lead their
followers to have better understanding among them.