Ace Hasan Syadzily: Education to Determine Religious Moderation

PPIM.UINJKT.AC.ID – Tb. Ace Hasan Syadzily, Deputy Chairman of House Representatives Commission VIII, said that the issue of religious moderation in the education sector should be a concern to discuss, because education was the root of it.

“It is an appropriate and relevant issue to discuss. This is also related to the education process at schools and within the family,” Ace said on Friday (25/9) in a virtual seminar series of #ModerasiBeragama (Religious Moderation) themed “Religious Moderation and Islamic Education”.

The seminar was organized by the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta through Convey Indonesia program.

The Golkar Party politician who also graduated from UIN Jakarta mentioned the factors that caused problems in religious life.

“Although Indonesia adopts pluralism, there are always some problems that distract religious harmony. Those problems can be resolved, but can suddenly appear [again]. Several factors that can be the root causes included sectarian religious views; the rise of politicization towards religions for certain political interests; the establishment of places of worship that often triggers conflicts; and religious populism related to political interest,” Ace said.

In the context of education, Ace cited a 2018 survey by PPIM showing that in opinion level, around 58% students surveyed apparently had radical and intolerant views. Teachers, from kindergarten to high school levels, also had a high tendency to radical and intolerant opinions. The survey showed that 56% of the teachers had intolerant views, while 46.09% tended to think radical.

In the practices, Ace said that the ideology spread by the Islamic State (ISIS) militants had changed the concept of jihad to be a private issue. He cited a report by Sidney Jones, which showed that around 40 women and 100 children under 15 years old were currently in Syria. Most of them felt trapped by the doctrine of jihad, while some others joined the criminal group with their consciousness.

Ace said that mainstreaming the religious moderation and religious harmony was one of the solutions that could be taken to fight against intolerant and radical views, particularly in education.

“[We should] solve the problems from the upstream level, which is education [process]. Then we can enter the downstream level, which is the outputs [of the education],” he said.

He elaborated the right steps to be taken in spreading religious moderation in education. First, teachers should assert inclusive education, from primary to higher levels. Second, teachers could use social media to spread the ideas of religious moderation. Third, religious moderation became important in the era of “disruption”, proven by the emergence of politicization towards religions for certain political agendas. 

“Strengthening religious moderation should start from the teachers, particularly teachers of religious education, at all schools, regardless to the levels and whether they are public or private. Why? Because students are the easiest groups to be indoctrinated by intolerant ideology. That is because they haven’t had fundamental basic religious understandings. Therefore, it is important for us to ensure the competence of the religious education teachers,” Ace said.

He also suggested that schools hold more discussion forums for teachers to talk about religious moderation, inviting figures from various religious backgrounds. Parents of the students should also be given some deep understandings about religious moderation and how to tackle radicalism. Teachers should also be open if the parents needed help.

“The practices of religious moderation should not only be implemented at schools but also in the family,” Ace said.

The virtual seminar on Religious Moderation is held every Friday via “Convey Indonesia” and “PPIM UIN Jakarta” official Youtube channels. Besides Ace, the discussion that was moderated by Convey Indonesian Team Leader Jamhari Makruf also presented other education practitioners as speakers, including Mahnan Marbawi (Chairman of Indonesia Islamic Education Teachers Association) and Dyah Salsabil (an Islamic education teacher from West Bandung Religious Affairs Office).