Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri has ordered a review of the teaching of religion in Indonesian schools, saying the current methods encouraged rising radicalism in the country.
In a statement criticised by Indonesia's highest Islamic body, the President said on Monday that religious teaching that produced militant students could threaten national unity.
She urged the ministry in charge of religion to consider improving the curriculum in public and religious schools.
"We have seen how religious teachings have nurtured fanaticism – although not all – and hostility towards those who do not share the same beliefs," she said at the opening of a national meeting of ministry officials. "This kind of militancy encouraged the idea of eliminating those with different beliefs," she said.
Ms Megawati did not go into details or identify the schools she found advocating this kind of teaching, but several convicted terrorists graduated from Islamic boarding schools or pesantrens.
One of these schools is in Ngruki in Central Java. The Al-Mukmin Pesantren was founded by detained militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who is accused of heading the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network.
Mainstream Muslim leaders have jointly campaigned for moderate religious teachings. But some fringe groups including Bashir's Majelis Mujahiddin Indonesia are pushing for the adoption of Islamic laws and staging protests against the United States.
Many Muslim scholars and leaders, however, have dismissed previous assertions that pesantrens are breeding militant students.
The thousands of pesantrens in East Java and other provinces in Indonesia have been around for decades. They produce students with religious understandings that are generally tolerant and inclusive, the scholars and leaders said.
Commenting on the President's latest remarks, Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agil Al-Munawar said radical Muslim groups were a recent phenomena created by 'external influences'.
"Fanaticism and militancy were not the result of religious classes but come from outside influences," he told reporters, adding that the curriculum established by the ministry did not teach students to become militants.
"Interpretation of religious teachings that come from outside influence led to beliefs that people could kill or wage war on others in order to defend their religion," he said without elaborating.
Religious teaching is compulsory in public and private secular schools in Indonesia. Most madrasahs or Islamic schools are privately owned and have their own syllabuses.
Indonesia's governing religious body, the Council of Indonesia Ulema (MUI), yesterday criticised the President's statement as baseless. MUI chairman Amidhan said there was no need to revise the curriculum on religious teachings because it had not encouraged militancy.
"The President should be able to differentiate between fanaticism and radicalism," he said. "Every religion teaches that it is the most righteous faith. In Islam we are taught that so that our faith intensifies."