Beware, Young People Today Look At Radicalism

In general, the attitudes and behavior of Muslim youth today can be categorized as moderate. But at the same time, the trend of conservatism with scriptural plus communal characteristics also strengthened.

The last trend has created its own challenges for the emergence of intolerant attitudes and behaviors, as well as the strengthening of support for radicalism and extremism among Muslim youth today.

This was revealed in the socialization of the research results “Direction and Patterns of Religious Youth of Muslims: Conservatism, Identity Hybridization, and the Challenge of Radicalism,” last Friday (23/2) in Central Jakarta.

This research was conducted by the Research Program Management Team of the Research on Muslim Youths Center for the Study of Religion and Culture (CSRC) UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, in collaboration with the Center for Islamic and Community Studies (PPIM) UIN Syarif Hidayatullah, Convey Indonesia and the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) and was carried out in 18 districts / cities throughout Indonesia.

According to the Director of CSRC, Irfan Abubakar, this research is to determine in depth the basic structure of attitudes and behavior of millennial generation Muslim youth (15-24 years) regarding violence and extremism.

Among the interesting findings, he said, regarding human rights issues, their response was still relatively strong with elements of conservatism, communalism, and scripturalism. Against this theme, there were three viewpoints.

First, there was a view that agrees with individual freedom and human rights, but that freedom must be limited by local religious and cultural values. The communal aspect was still quite strong in this first dimension. This view was supported by Muslim youth who was mostly active in ROHIS, LDK, OSIS, BEM and to a certain degree youth OKP such as IMM and KAMMI.

Second, there was a view that completely rejected individual freedom and human rights. They argued, Human Rights came from the West, not from Islam. In fact, human rights were introduced to Muslims in order to destroy Muslims by creating unlimited individual freedom.

“In general, this view was supported by young Muslims who were active in groups of Islamic organizations that aspired to the caliphate, such as HTI, and the like. For this group, individual freedom and human rights must be evaluated with Islamic parameters,” said Irfan.

Third, there was a view that believed that Islam and human rights went hand in hand. Those who were active in PMII, HMI, IPPNU, KNPI, Pemuda Pancasila, and progressive Islamic organizations supported the view that individual freedom and human rights did not conflict with Islamic values.

However, almost all of them disagreed with the Civil Society Organization (Ormas) Law and the dissolution of HTI from the three tendencies of view above, said Irfan.

“Young Muslims in almost all circles, from ROHIS to nationalist leanings, did not agree with the dissolution of HTI, except for those who were mostly from NU backgrounds, both among PMII and IPPNU activists. For the young NU activists, the dissolution of HTI was appropriate because HTI itself was campaigning for an ideology that is against Pancasila, ” he concluded.

Among the conclusions and recommendations of this study, Research Coordinator Chaider S Bamualim revealed that in general the attitudes and behavior of millennial Muslim youth towards radicalism did not show a steady trend.

However, at the same time, they generally exhibit conservative religious attitudes and behaviors, with communal, scriptural, and puritanic features. “However, they are open to the values of moderation and nonviolence, with a fairly good respect for individual freedom and human rights, even though they are limited by religious and cultural norms,” he explained.