Jakarta – Religious radicalism in schools lives, despite efforts by the government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to reverse the trend.
Researcher and women's activist Ciciek Farha said many public school teachers preach radicalism – with or without the knowledge of their superiors.
Ciciek and other activists conducted a study of state high schools in seven cities from 2007 to 2008: Jakarta, Padang, Cianjur, Cilacap, Pandeglang, Yogyakarta and Jember.
They discovered that radical religious ideas that spread during extra-curricular religious activities had influenced young people's behavior.
For example, certain girls refused physical contact with family members whom they considered unclean and insulted their mothers for not wearing jilbab, or Islamic headscarves.
"A mother told me that her daughter had forced and terrorized her into wearing a jilbab," Ciciek said, adding that some of girls she spoke to performed wudhu, or ablution, to "cleanse" themselves after coming into physical contact with their families.
Extra-curricular religious activities have become a strategic tool for national and transnational radical and conservative groups mentors from outside the school system can use the activities to incorporate their ideas into student materials, she added.
The findings showed there were extra-curricular paramilitary trainings in schools in West Java and other provinces, where students recited an oath similar to the one used by Egyptian jihadist group Muslim Brotherhood, sometimes with the knowledge of school officials.
"These intensive, systematic and organized movements hinder efforts to bring about gender equality and open-mindedness in Indonesia," she said.
She added that concerned NGOs, with support from the government, have taken steps to curb growing radicalism in schools. "The process of advocacy has been carried out," she said. "Many elements in the society view this as a problem."
The activists said they have discussed tolerance with key figures, including Islamic preachers, teachers and civil organizations. "We call them intermediary groups because they have people to whom they can spread their message," she told The Jakarta Post.
Religious Affairs Ministry official Imam Tholkhah said the ministry had created programs to instill multiculturalism and tolerance in teachers.
"We have organized seminars and workshops since 2007 to build multicultural understanding," he said, adding that teachers could use the ideas in their lessons.
Tholkhah, who is the ministry's director for Islamic education in schools, added that the ministry had distributed multiculturalism handbooks to Islamic studies teachers and would launch a moderate Islamic reference book with anti-violent messages that emphasized respecting people from different cultures. "The teachers will design their own modules based on this reference book," he told the Post.
The challenge in fighting radicalism is the mixed qualifications of the state's 180,000 Islamic religious studies teachers, he said.
Only 50 percent met requirements, Tholkhah said, adding that ideally, the government should provide college degrees to 100,000 of its teachers to improve quality. (gzl)