How to Reject Radicalism and Terrorism?

M. Zainuddin

Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teacher Training, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang Indonesia

Keywords: Terrorism-Radicalism, Religious Education.

Abstract: There are three major State enemies, namely corruption, drugs and terrorism. Terrorism has been a big issue

in Indonesia for years. This is due to the trivial and rigid understanding of religion that leads the birth of the

violent and radical doctrines. The politicization of religion is done by a certain group that claims to have

most complete understanding of religion, but in the end wants to build a new dominance in the name of

religion. Such politicization has made the Religion lose its essential soul as an inclusive religion and turned

into an exclusive, intolerant, extreme and inhumane. In this case, Indonesia became a fertile ground to the

interests of particular groups due to weak law enforcement, while religious education in schools does not

fully promote the values and moral behavior. Therefore, religious education in Indonesia needs to be re-

reviewed, especially in the development of noble values. Education practitioners willing to build this nation

free of radicalism and terrorism should seriously attend religious education materials in schools.

1 INTRODUCTION

Gradually, the terrorists in Indonesia have been

shot to death, ranging from Azhari, Amrozi, Imam

Samudra, Noordin M. Top, up to Dul Matin

considered as the most wanted terrorists in

Indonesia. This raises a question: whether terrorism

has ended in Indonesia?

Indeed, the Indonesian terrorist-leaders had been

caught, but not with "terrorism". This means that the

terror bombings in the country have not ended, or

even probably will continue, along with the increase

of the “Islam” hardline members organized within

an international network. In other words, terrorists in

Indonesia has become latent danger that much

resembles with PKI’s threat in the New Order era.

Therefore, we must be wary of and anticipate its

very existence. Because no one with common sense

and religion will justify any acts of terror and

bombing, except for the bombers and terrorists

themselves.

2 DISCUSSION

2.1 The Doctrines of

Fundamentalism-Radicalism

The actions by suicide bombers cannot be separated

from the doctrine they believe in; as what they do is

an obligation, regardless the death sentence that

might face them. Also, it is a belief that (one of) God

commands that must be implemented. For hard-line

religious groups (fundamentalist-radical), violence

and even bombings to others regarded as a struggle

(jihad) which is very noble deed and strongly

prescribed by God. This is the doctrine that they

build and develop to its members. The risk of death

sentence is not a barrier since there is an expected

reward of entering into heaven in the hereafter. This

is the power of "jihad" that never seems to

extinguish. The strength of this doctrine is difficult

to be challenged by anyone and with any resistance.

Therefore, Amrozi and friends in Indonesia or their

groups outside the country may be dead, but not

with their doctrine and ideology.

Fundamentalism or radicalism is a religious

phenomenon that can arise from all religions,

anywhere and anytime. Therefore, there are some

renowned technical terms, such as Islamic

fundamentalism, Hindu fundamentalism, Christian

fundamentalism, and so forth. The term

Zainuddin, M.

How to Reject Radicalism and Terrorism?.

DOI: 10.5220/0009927013111316

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Recent Innovations (ICRI 2018), pages 1311-1316

ISBN: 978-989-758-458-9

1311

fundamentalist here refers to a group of people who

tend to oppose religion and political reform.

The fundamentalists are always against

secularism. Ironically, said E. Marty, when they

achieve this purpose, they cannot break away from

the secularism itself. It can be seen in Iran and Sri

Lanka where fundamentalists cannot be separated

from the benefits of secularization, even in Sri

Lanka, Afghanistan and Iran's leaders

fundamentalist groups have been familiar with the

products of secular and Marxist doctrine. In Israel,

the fundamentalist group Gush Emunies also

implements Marxist ideology although they do not

belong to it (Sayyed, 1979).

In the religious discourse, fundamentalism is

understood as a struggle to re-establish norms and

traditional religious beliefs to deal with secularism.

In Christianity, fundamentalism emerges to confront

the danger of modernism that is deemed to have

stained the sanctity of religion and that it wants to go

back to the Holy Scripture (the Bible). Meanwhile in

Islam, fundamentalism is defined as maintaining the

basic teachings of Islam, away from all forms of

tahayyul, bid’ah (heresy), and khurafat (superstition)

as demonstrated by Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Ibn

Taymiyya. Those basic teachings are usually in

contradictions with local cultures. In this believe,

rituals of Islam that emerge with local culture is

cleansed (Alwi, 2014) or there are no negotiations or

the identity that is formed and communicated by its

meaning with local cultures (Chua, 2013). It is

called the Islamic Purification Movement

(Berzonsky, 2014), in which ideology and identity

kept away from social tradition.

Further development of fundamentalist groups

above have a very pejorative and minor connotation

and, even regarded as hardliners who often act

irrationally and have always been associated with

movements and revolutions, such as the Wahhabi

movement in Saudi Arabia, Khomeini in Iran, Hasan

al-Banna Sayid Qutub in Egypt and etc.. Most

experts also consider that fundamentalism as group

of people who oppose the existing political order.

Therefore, Islamic opposition groups are often

regarded as fundamentalists even considered

subversive (Bruinessen, 1992).

Islamic fundamentalism is popular among

Western scholars after the Iranian revolution in

1979. There are two principles of fundamentalism:

resistance and rejection. Resistence (opposition) or

fighting against all ideologies considered to

endanger the existence of religion, whether in the

form of modernism, secularism and Westernism.

Another one is the rejection of hermeneutics

(Marty, 1991). The fundamentalists reject a critical

attitude towards the text and its interpretation.

According to this group, the text must be understood

as such because our reasonings deemed unable to

give proper interpretation of the text. Therefore, this

group also called textual-scripturalist.

Islamic fundamentalists assume that their

identity is in danger and eroded by cultural and

religious hybridity (Hassan & Watt, 2006). They

maintain sacred interpretation, doctrine, beliefs, and

practices of the past. For them, modernity and

globalization that characterize the today’s world is a

serious threat for the traditional worldview. The

underlying reason of the rise of Islamic

fundamentalism is the Muslims’ feelings, including

the intellectuals, that they are under the threat of

losing their Islamic identity eroded by the West.

Fundamentalist Muslims also feel that the social

awakening induced by the influence of the West will

make the Islamic community worse than the others.

The modern Islamic fundamentalism is a collective

response to the emotional and intellectual crisis,

because its promise is return to "the true Islam",

which can solve all problems.

Fundamentalist groups assert that, in a Muslim

country, the non-Muslims’ status should be lower

than Muslims. For example, the non-Muslims have

to wear special badges in order that they are easily

identifiable. Furthermore, the non-Muslims are not

allowed to build a church or synagogue higher than

the mosque, and they should not be prioritized like

Muslims in all daily social activities, including that

Muslims are not allowed to initiate the greeting

salam to non-Muslims. The premise that motivates

them is that "Islam must dominate". Consequently,

the non-Muslims living in Muslim areas should be

made to feel inferior so they do not put up with their

status. This might be the entry point for them to see

the truth and then convert to Islam. This way, in

other words, they can leave their low status through

conversion to Islam.

The fundamentalist strongly fight for their

theology known as al-wala 'wa al-Barra' (the

doctrine of loyalty and separation), based some

classical jurists’ work. This doctrine states that

Muslims are only obliged to care, interact, and make

friendship with fellow Muslims. Muslims are

allowed to ask for the help of non-Muslims only if

they are weak and needy, but while Muslims are

able to gain strength, they must win this ‘superiority’

status. Muslims should not be friends with non-

Muslims, or allow themselves to care or love the

non-Muslims (Hassan, 2006:115).

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2.2 The Relation between

Fundamentalism and Terrorism

What is the relationship between Islamic

fundamentalism and terrorism? Some Muslim

authors demonstrate critical views towards Islamic

fundamentalism. Islam as a religion is not a threat,

but the idea that Islamic fundamentalism as a threat

is true and becomes a political challenge (Tibi,

1998).

In the context of confrontation with Western

civilization, Muslims would make Islam as an

identity. One of the biggest theoretical problems in

the Islamic world is that people better understand

Islam as an identity than as a truth (Soroush, 2002).

Furthermore, it shows the truth that Muslims do

have their identity and civilization, but they should

not use Islam for the sake of identity and civilization

(e.g., the politicization of religion or political Islam).

Islamic identity must submit to Islam as the truth,

because the truth of Islam can co-exist with the other

truths, whereas the Islamic identity tends to be

hostile. Islam as identity, Soroush added, may breed

the seed of war rather than peace.

The abovementioned issues (and Islamic

fundamentalism) are inseparable from the classic

debate about "whether Islam as a doctrine in the

Qur'an or is it also ideological/political affairs (al-

Islam din wa Daulah)". On the one hand, some

Muslims understand that Islam cannot be separated

from political affairs—in which Islam understood as

both a religion and politics at the same time. While

on the other hand, some groups understand Islam as

just a religion, which is isolated from the political

realm. Groups of political Islam (al-Islam al-siyasy),

for example, is represented by the Ayatollah

Khomeini and his colleagues with their

revolutionary thought through their popular

groundbreaking work, Kasyf al-Gayb. While a

political Islam (al-assiyasy) represented by Ali Abd.

Al-Raziq and colleagues with much renowned work,

such as al-Islam wa Usul al-Hukm (Esposito,1996).

In this context, Islamic fundamentalism is one of

the global phenomena in the world politics.

Fundamentalism is also an ideological symptom of

the "clash of civilizations". It is not only a cause of

the crisis of our today’s world, but it also serves as

an expression and the response to it (Tibi, 1998).

Additionally, agitative fundamentalism is not a

solution, yet it may lead to chaos because it

constantly causes the conflict and sharpens the

cultural fragmentation. In this respect, it rejects the

politicization of religion that is carried out by

fundamentalist groups (Tibi, 1998). The reason that

Islamic fundamentalism is a political ideology of the

purely religious phenomenon lends evidence from

the fact that it does not incorporate any special

theological debate.

2.3 The Deradicalization of Religion

We may question on what should be done to

anticipate and protect us from the danger of

radicalism and terrorism in Indonesia? There are at

least two things to do: first is creating strong law

enforcement; and secondly is to reorient our

understanding of religion and review the curriculum

in educational institutions.

Further, there should be joint commitment

between the government and community on the law

enforcement to erode the latent danger of terrorism.

The government can no longer be permissible to

some foreign groups that enter Indonesia's territory

easily, nor even to the neighboring countries in the

region. Besides, the government should also uphold

justice and democratization for the sake of pressing

social jealousy among the people in the country,

especially in the making of regulations across

religion, because the injustice, among other things,

may lead to the inter-religious conflict and the

emergence of terrorism. In educational institutions,

should be implanted to impart religious education

religious doctrine moderate (alhanifiyyah al-

Samhah), peaceful religion (din mercy) is not a

religion of violence and fundamentalism.

Then, how should we formulate our education? I

personally see that there needs to be concrete efforts

towards the improvement of education, particularly

on reorienting the religious education in schools.

The orientation of religious education is not only on

external matters, such as ceremonies, rites, symbols,

and on a series of other formalistic ritual piety. In

other words, religious education cannot be equated

with those formal aspects, though they are also

important parts in the religion.

How should we stipulate the basic direction of

Islamic religious education in schools, especially at

primary and secondary level? Is religious education

simply aimed at making learners religious? How

effective is the current religious education for our

students? How is the quality of religious education

contained in the textbook? If religious education is

not merely a transfer of knowledge by teachers in

schools— rather planting religious values and

forming characters that starts from the childhood

within family— then what should we define the

religious education in schools?

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2.4 Reorienting the Religious

Education

The materials of religious education should convey

the messages that Islam is tolerant, inclusive,

humanist, and pluralist. Religious education is an

effort to prepare students to believe, understand,

appreciate and practice their religion through

sustainable guidance and teaching activities.

Therefore, both teachers and textbooks as an

element of the learning process must be taken into

account at the same time (Gorton, 1876). In fact, as

theorized by Gorton, attention has been less paid to

the textbook materials used in schools.

Indeed, thus far, the materials contained in the

new textbook touch on formal aspects, while the

spirit or soul of the religion (e.g., good deeds

(charity) has not been included. In other words,

religious education has been stuck in an effort to

make people embrace religion, but not lead them to

do good deeds. In fact, religiosity is the basic

attitude that makes people do good deeds, become

loving, tender-hearted, forgiving as well as have

universal humanity and solidarity. This is the core of

religion that should become an ultimate focus of

religious education in schools.

Further, the observations made by PPIM (Islam

and Society Research Center) UIN Syarif

Hidayatullah Jakarta have revealed the same results.

The religious behavior of some big cities in

Indonesia mainly focuses on the dimensions of

individual piety. Along with that, the phenomena of

corruption, intolerance, violence, exploitation,

hegemony also become rife and common practices.

In fact, such a phenomenon would easily be settled

through approaches of religious education that

concerns on both social and individual insight

simultaneously (Zainuddin, 2007).

Therefore, the role of education in creating the

social awareness is very urgent. Through this study,

we may understand the advantages and

disadvantages of religious education model designed

by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. This area really

needs further research, particularly, on the messages

contained in the textbooks. This issue must

immediately find a solution in order that religious

doctrines play increasingly significant role in the

creation of a harmonious life in the country.

In other words, the emphasis is not just a

religious symbol, but more than that is the spirit of

religion itself, namely faith and good deeds. With

this model of education, it is expected that students

will become individuals who have the ideal

personality, spirit solidarity, honest, fair, and much

far from the violence and terror, that threaten the

people of the nation. Such orientation of education

will also be very useful when faced with the

complexity and plurality of religions.

Here, the plurality of religions should be a

constructive-transformative force in developing

potential and our educational model. This force will

develop if the respective religious communities

understand and uphold the values of tolerance and

harmony through religious education and exemplary

attitude from teachers. It is also necessary to define

the cultural and anthropological context of the term

“spirituality” in religion of which it should be a

process of understanding one’s life purposes and of

obtaining senses (Abrahamov & Kornev, 2007).

Reorientation of religious education may start by

reviewing the curriculum that is less qualified and

does not reflect human values and peaceful religion

from kindergarten to college level. Peaceful religion

is a religion that promotes peace and tranquility. The

verses of peace (salam) are the ones that not only

emphasize the need of religious tolerance, but also

uphold virtue on earth. Those verses demonstrate

that, in dealing with groups of enemies, Muslims

should try to remind them of their moral obligations

to God, but if they reject the truth, Muslims should

leave them in peace.

In such dynamics, on the one hand, Muslims

should ascertain their "enemies" that the differences

between them are not personal matters, and should

not show any resentment or hatred against their

enemies on the other hand. To the extent that when

the enemy rejects Islamic teachings, Al-qur’an

guides Muslims that the only appropriate response to

this rejection is a pray; may peace be granted upon

them. Particularly important to bear in mind that

Indonesia is not a state of war (dar alharb),

therefore there is no Islamic juridical reason (hujjah

fiqhiyyah) to declare the war against other religions.

However, the truth is the opposite, which is the fight

against terrorist and terrorism— the common enemy

of all religions.

2.5 Terrorism and Media

Today the role of media in the society is crucial and

growing from time to time. Media is significantly

affecting public definition and perception of a

certain event whether it is political or social.

Therefore there are questions about the media itself.

One of them is about the standard of the media, the

man who designed and shaped a certain news

publication, so that we can assure the media is free

of political justification and also terrorism. Without

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educational control of the society from media, the

terrorist, even a small group of terrorist can be a

powerful group with the help of media blasting

effect in reporting the group. Recognized or not,

media is a powerful instrument serving the needs of

terrorist group.

Some terrorist organization realized the potential

of spreading terror by using the media in order to

attract massive attention from the people. Without a

good journalist justification, the news will not

educate the society. It is demanded that the journalist

to be fair and open. Though the term fair and open is

also too wide-ranging, the journalist can start by

giving balance to the news by showing many points

of views which provides clarity and clearness to the

news. Therefore the media will not illustrate the

publication as a media of fear by the society

(Altheide, 2004).

Without an educative way in giving information

about terrorism, it become an orientation in our

society for commercial purpose. It is a new

perspective embedded in our everyday routine in

form of news and advertisement. Many commercial

advertisement and news contributes to the increase

of income for the business world. They sell slogans

and advertisement on patriotism, consumption and

victimization (Altheide, 2007). The discourse on

terrorism may be a moral support to the viewers but

also sometimes it has become an artful contract for

news and commercial.

In Indonesia, the political change from the new

order period to reformation era exhibited the rise of

nationality and terrorism. There were various

bombing happened simultaneously in mosques,

night clubs, hotels, churches, and other public areas.

In 1997 to 2002 there were ninety bombings that

injured and kills hundreds of people (Pusponegoro,

2014). Moreover it continues to other series of

bombing until year 2018 responding to the anti-

terrorism undertaking by the government. In the

recent bombing in Surabaya in 2018, terrorists have

shown themselves to public with family suicide

bombing (father, mother and children) in open

places and government areas.

This pattern, shows us that the bombing now

involves the use of media to balance the issues on

the media about anti-terrorism in Indonesia.

Therefore to make a more dramatic scene and people

interest, they make their family, even their own

children to join them. In reverse to that, media can

be a tools to overpower the terrorism in

deradicalizing the effects. Thus, educating people

mind through the media to stand for terrorism is

essential.

Educating and countering terrorism needs time

and efforts. The ideology that is inside someone’s

heart and mind leads to way of life. Though some of

the terrorists and Islamic militancy including Emir

Jamaah Islamiah, Abu Bakar Ba’asyir and Nordin

M. Top has been arrested and shot to death, their

followers are still there making an underground

movement. This is because the ideology still lives,

and it makes them as dangerous as their leader.

Even, some of them are trained in Pakistan (Feillard

& Madinier, 2011).

Looking back at Indonesia traditions which are

vary created three Muslim classification according

to social cultures in Indonesia. They are abangan,

priyayi and santri (Geerts, 1981). Abangan is the

muslim people who lives in urban areas who

syncretize old Javanese tradition and Islam; santri is

muslim who practice Islam in conservative way in

Pondok Pesantren; while priyayi is the aristocratic

class who is muslim and make syncretism with

Javanese tradition. Today, Islam in Indonesia is not

divided by the social culture places but accordingly

to their religious orientation and their political

affiliation. In this sense Islam in Indonesia is

recognized as a different form of Islam compared to

Middle-Eastern Islam.

Islamic organizations which are considered big

in Indonesia are Muhammadiyah and Nahdatul

Ulama (NU). Those two are the biggest muslim

organization in Indonesia whose Islam Ideology are

accepted widely in Indonesia and are considered as

moderate groups. While terrorists in Indonesia are

countering Islam that blends with tradition. For

instance the Wahabism movement in west Sumatera

by Padri movement that tried to expose the literal

understanding of Islam, but they failed.

Studying the History of Islam in Indonesia, we

can learn that exposing raw understanding of Islam

in Media will not be suitable for the goodness of

Islam development in Indonesia. Therefore

preserving Islam and Culture who has been done by

NU and Muhammadiyah for example, should be

preserved. Because none of these ideologies produce

terrorists. The role of Media in the exposure of

Islamic activity should be more emphasized on these

kind of organizations rather than exposing terrorism.

By doing so, the society will be educated and

naturally countering the terrorism in Indonesia.

3 CONCLUSION

Terrorism in Indonesia will never stop if the

"Islamic" hardliners still thrive in Indonesia. The

How to Reject Radicalism and Terrorism?

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hard-line Islamic group-radical fundamentalists feel

justified in performing violence in the name of jihad

to re-establish the norms of the sacred religion, freed

from the influence of secularism, modernism and

globalization.

Radicalism and terrorism in Indonesia can be

anticipated and prevented through three steps, first,

upholding the rule of law seriously; secondly,

reorienting the understanding of religion in

educational institutions; and third by using the social

media to promote counter terrorism. Upholding the

rule of law can be taken through controlling the

mobility of foreign groups into Indonesia, creating

social justice and democratization in the country. In

education, religious doctrines such as being

moderate, inclusive, tolerant, and peace loving

should be imposed. And also through media can be a

tools to overpower the terrorism.

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