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.