The root of Islamic radicalism

The root of Islamic radicalism

Leonard C. Sebastian, The Strait Times, Asia News Network, Singapore

Now that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)- United States joint declaration to combat international terrorism signed in Brunei last week is formalized, the spotlight will once again focus on Indonesia's position in the war on terror.

Indonesia's neighbors will no doubt watch events unfold there closely and hope that Jakarta placates their anxiety over the presence of terrorist cells in the sprawling archipelago.

The arrest of two terrorist suspects and the revelation on July 17 by Police General Da'i Bachtiar that a terrorist network, identified as Nusantara, had been located are encouraging signs.

Since these allegations surfaced, Muslim leaders have reacted defensively by reiterating the message that Indonesia's mainstream moderate Muslim community is not interested, nor likely to be interested, in anything remotely connected with terrorism.

Stressing that tolerance and freedom of expression are the offshoots of the reformasi experience, they point out that unorthodox Islam should not be equated automatically with terrorism. However, the empirical evidence pointing to the rise of Islamic radicalism is troubling.

What explains the rise of formalistic Islamic groups in Indonesia? Is it purely a phenomenon brought about by the opening up of a society constrained and ossified for decades under the grip of New Order authoritarianism?

Perhaps the best place to start is an assessment of the Islamic education system. There are two broad groups of madrasahs (Islamic schools) in Indonesia where students are trained to live according to the strictures of Islam.

There are the madrasahs run by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which adopt a liberal education curriculum, and the private madrasahs under the tutelage of tolerant Islamic leaders.

Then, there is a second type of madrasah, privately run, that adopts a more radical agenda propagated by Islamic clerics with radical inclinations.

In the case of Indonesia, there are more private madrasahs than state-supported institutions. Data from the Ministry of Religious Affairs' Office of Education Management Information System (Emis) support this evidence.

According to Emis data, there are 37,362 madrasahs in Indonesia, of which only 3,226 (8.6 percent) are run by the state. Private organizations control the remaining 34,136 (91.4 percent).

Interestingly, statistics highlight that for the academic year 2001-2002, there are 5.6 million students studying in madrasahs, of which one million (19 percent) are enrolled in madrasahs controlled by the state, while the remaining 4.6 million are enrolled in private madrasahs.

The significance of such statistics should not be underestimated, particularly when the educational agendas of the private madrasahs vary according to the agenda of individual clerics. Religious education in a madrasah is of the utmost importance. Emphasis is placed on the afterlife, not life in a "perverse and decadent world".

Science and technology education is alien to the traditional madrasah curriculum as conservative clerics feel that science will reduce the students' belief in God and the religious norms governing their lives.

While attempts have been made to rectify this situation, such efforts have been partially successful in madrasahs run by the state and by liberal-minded clerics.

Doctrinal opposition notwithstanding, the reality is that many madrasahs are hampered by the lack of qualified teachers in English, mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology, leaving many students disadvantaged.

Students remain unbalanced in their attitude towards life. To their detriment, many remain illiterate or semi-literate in matters pertaining to science and technology. Without a balanced curriculum, the Indonesian madrasah becomes an environment where implanting beliefs is more important than the instilling of factual knowledge, and where deductive thinking is nurtured to the detriment of inductive thinking.

Inadvertently, such a condition leaves students studying in Indonesian madrasahs vulnerable to religious conservatism and fanaticism.

From this type of mindset, the leap to radicalism is but a small step. Yet, the process is not inevitable. It requires further factors for radical -- or worse, militant -- movements to become attractive to these students.

These include economic hardship and the sense of being politically oppressed -- factors that are being manipulated by conservative clerics and religious movements that breed on economic discontent.

One such group is the Hizbut Tahrir with its plans to push for the implementation of Islamic law in 21 cities across the country.

Ascribing to utopian sentiments, the leaders of Hizbut Tahrir feel that Islamic law alone offers a solution to Indonesia's multi-dimensional crisis.

Many madrasah students are also attracted to the Partai Keadilan (PK) whose support generally comes from devout urban Muslims. In one of its strongholds in the Bangka area of South Jakarta, almost every female from toddling age to the elderly wear the jilbab, or Islamic headscarf. PK is now attempting to extend its reach to the rural heartland of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in East Java.

In rural West Java, villages in areas such as Garut were the strongholds of the Darul Islam (the movement that fought for an Islamic state in the 1950s) and now have become important recruiting grounds for the Laskar Jihad.

A recent edition of Tempo magazine investigated the Al-Zaytun madrasah at Indramayu and alleged that it had links to the Indonesian Islamic State, Regional Command 9.

Tempo went on to add that this secret movement involves people from all walks of life who are initiated into the group on the understanding that they will take part in Koran recitations, accept the idea of an Islamic state and disavow the Republic of Indonesia.

Many former madrasah students have also joined the Wahabi- inspired Tarbiyah movement, which has also attracted a following among students in several prestigious state universities, such as the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). Their goal is also to establish an Islamic state.

The rise in Islamic radicalism and militancy in Indonesia is worrying. The appeal of such "back to basics" Islamic groupings may suggest that within the Indonesian Islamic community exists grave doubts about the value of existing organizations and movements.