Santri as Pioneers for Religious Moderation

Jakarta, PPIM – Founder of Santri Mengglobal Nusantara movement, Dito Alif Pratama, emphasized that santri (students of Islamic boarding schools) could play parts in the frontline in promoting tolerance and religious moderation in Indonesia.

He was speaking on Friday (23/10) in a virtual seminar series of #ModerasiBeragama (Religious Moderation) themed “Santri as Pioneers of Religious Moderation”, which 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.

According to him, extremism thinking could appear when people were eager to learn a religion without putting deep knowledge in the learning process, which then led to fanaticism towards certain groups. Santri, he said, could adopt a religious moderation mindset in the process to understand and implement religious teachings in balanced and fair ways.

“That can happen because in teaching Islam, pesantren focused on a balanced approach between texts, contexts and logic, so that they can avoid extremism thinking. Therefore, implementing religious moderation can start from spreading the values taught in pesantren,” Dito said.

He went on to say that the key in applying religious moderation was by building communication not only with Muslims but also with non-Muslim people.

Santri Mengglobal Nusantara movement that he established was also closely related with religious moderation and tolerance issues. He intended to invite santri from all over the world to learn more, both formally and informally, gain knowledge and build networking so that they could accept differences.

“Santri must keep learning for their whole life, whenever and wherever, and they should remain adaptable. Lazy people who do not learn, will not move forward,” Dito said.

The virtual seminar on Religious Moderation is held every Friday via “Convey Indonesia” and “PPIM UIN Jakarta” official Youtube channels. The discussion, moderated by Convey Indonesian Team Leader Jamhari Makruf, also presented other speakers, such as Oman Fathurahman, a Special Staff of Religious Affairs Minister, and Kamilia Hamidah, a researcher of “the Resilience of Pesantren Against Radicalism” from Convey Indonesia.

Writer: Aptiani Nur Jannah
Editor: M. Nida Fadlan