Six out of ten Muslim teachers are ‘intolerant’; pluralism must be subject to accreditation assessment

BBC.COM – About 10 or 20 years ago, public schools in Indonesia were identical with heterogeneous students. But now the conditions are more homogeneous.

That is the condition found by Henny Supolo Sitepu, an educational observer and chairman of the Cahaya Guru Foundation, a foundation that often provides training for teachers in remote areas of Indonesia.

He also found that problems related to diversity in Indonesian educational institutions had occurred since 2007.

“So the approach needs to be more strategic. “For the future, you have no other choice because your children will cooperate with various backgrounds, if you are not accustomed to working together from childhood then your children will be left behind”, “suggested Henny in response to this condition.

He also proposed to include the values of human rights, religion, democracy, and national diversity – which are contained in Article 4 of the National Education System Law No. 20 of 2003– into school accreditation and teacher assessment.

“Six out of ten intolerant Muslim teachers”

Teacher intolerance was also found in a survey conducted by the Center for Islamic and Community Studies (PPIM) Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University to 2,237 Muslim teachers in 34 provinces.

The survey found that six out of ten Muslim teachers have intolerant opinions towards people of other religions.

“This uses an implicit measure, in which the teacher does not realize that intolerance is being seen. Meanwhile, using an explicit questionnaire. There is a shift in the percentage but not too big, to 56.90%, ”said Yunita Faela, the PPIM survey coordinator.

Hak atas fotoED WRAY/GETTY IMAGES

Apart from intolerance, the survey also looked at the tendency of radicalism and found that nearly half of Muslim teachers hold radical opinions.

“An example of his statement is to encourage others to fight in realizing an Islamic state. Another example is (agreeing or disagreeing) attacking the police who arrest people who are struggling to establish an Islamic state, ”said Yunita, who is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology at Syarif Hidayatullah UNI.

In addition, PPIM also looked at the Islamist views of the teachers and found that “40.36% of teachers agree that all knowledge is already in the Koran so that Muslims do not need to not need to learn science that comes from the West.”

These findings are consistent with the results of research by the Alvara Research Center in November last year which found that Indonesian students are increasingly intolerant, and teachers play a major role in fostering this intolerance – as well as the role of scholars and social media.

Both Yunita and Henny argue that teacher intolerance is caused by the homogeneity of the teachers’ environment. Therefore they should be allowed to meet different groups.

Islamist views of teachers in Indonesia based on the PPIM survey:

1. 40.36% of teachers agree that all knowledge is already in the Koran so that Muslims do not need to learn science that comes from the West.
2. 82.77% of teachers agree that Islam is the only solution to solve all society’s problems.
3. 62.22% of teachers agree that only a government system based on Islamic law is the best for the country.
4. 75.98% of teachers agree that the government should implement Islamic law for its adherents.
5. 79.72% of teachers agree that in choosing a leader (president, governor, regent/mayor), Muslims are obliged to choose a leader candidate who fights for the application of Islamic law.
6. 23.42% of teachers agree that the Indonesian government based on Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution is taghut because it has taken the right of Allah as a lawmaker.
7. 64.23% of Teachers agree that non-Muslims are not allowed to become President in Indonesia.