Are Indonesian madrasah (Islamic schools) a hotbed for Islamic fundamentalism? And are they a breeding ground for terrorism?
The answer may range, in my opinion, from “No” to “Maybe”. Basically, Indonesian madrasah are a place where students are trained to live according to the commands and prohibitions of Islam. But in some madrasah students are meticulously prepared to believe that there is just no human justice possible in a country so heavily influenced by a Western culture that is dominated by Christians and Jews; and that in this country justice will be achieved only if the people return to the pure teachings of Islam and reinstate the practices of governance exemplified by Prophet Mohammad.
The first and relatively liberal educational agenda is generally practiced by madrasah run by the Religious Affairs Ministry, and by private madrasah led or supervised by tolerant Islamic leaders. The second, more radical agenda, is usually implemented in private madrasah led by Islamic clerics with radical leanings.
The unfortunate situation in this regard is that there are more private madrasah than state-run ones. According to data provided by the office of Education Management Information System (EMIS) within the Religious Affairs Ministry there are throughout the country 37,362 madrasah, of which only 3,226 (8.63%) are run by the State, while the remaining 34,136 (91.34%) are run and controlled by private organizations.
During the 2001-02 academic year there are 5,698,193 students studying in madrasah, of which 1,080,888 (18.97%) are enrolled in madrasah controlled by the state, while the remaining 4,617,255 students are enrolled in private madrasah.
The meaning of this statistic will become apparent if we relate it to variations among the educational agendas of these madrasah.
Education in the madrasah is very much oriented toward religious life. The philosophy followed by madrasah is that life in the hereafter is much more important than life in this profane world. Hence the tradition among madrasah that religious education is of the utmost importance. In the past, education purporting to impart understanding of the physical world and the laws that govern life in this world was considered of little value or no value at all. Science education is alien to traditional madrasah.
This situation has grave consequences. Graduates of madrasah are not sufficiently equipped to take an active role in the modern sector of life in the country. They cannot be employed in the modern economy, and they have to make their living in the traditional sector of the economy. They are very disadvantaged when they have to compete against graduates of non-religious schools.
To remedy this situation, attempts have been made to introduce science education into the madrasah. It is believed that science education will create a more balanced view of life among students, and this will subsequently lead them to a more balanced attitude toward life. It is very important to guide madrasah students to the realization that it is possible to have a worldly success without neglecting religious duties. In the end, it should be recognized that knowledge about the world in which we live is the main instrument to achieve this balanced way of life.
In addition to the above argument, it is also reasoned that through science education young Indonesian Muslims will become familiar with the facts and basic tenets of science and technology, a culture that is so important in today’s world. No Indonesian Muslim should be allowed to become illiterate scientifically and technologically.
This effort, however, has been only partially successful in madrasah run by the state and in private madrasah under the leadership of liberal-minded clerics. In madrasah run by orthodox clerics this effort has met with strong resistance. The argument given to justify this stance is that science education will reduce the iman of the students, i.e. their belief in Allah, and in all the divine rules concerning life.
Against this backdrop I would say that the Indonesian madrasah is a place where students’ minds are shaped for an unbalanced way of life. It is a place where implanting beliefs is considered much more important than instilling factual knowledge. It is a place where deductive thinking is carefully honed and inductive thinking is neglected. The final result is that the Indonesian madrasah has inadvertently become a breeding ground for religious conservatism and fanaticism, in addition to scientific illiteracy.
From this kind of mindset the leap to fundamentalism is but a small step. But generally speaking, two extra factors are needed to make fundamentalists and terrorists out of these people. These are economic hardship and the feeling of being politically suppressed. And these are the very things that have been manipulated by conservative clerics.
There is still another reason why this effort has only been partially successful. This is the scarcity of teachers in “modern subjects” such as English, mathematics and natural sciences within the madrasah. At the Aliyah level (i.e. the senior high school level) there are throughout the country 661,104 students, of which 286,308 (43.31%) students are enrolled in State-run madrasah. The remaining 374,796 (56.70%) students are enrolled in private ones.
To serve this number of Aliyah students there are only 831 teachers for English, 852 teachers for mathematics, 731 teachers for physics, 425 teachers for chemistry, and 480 teachers for biology. This means that, taken as a whole, the teacher–student ratio is very bad. Every teacher has to serve 795 students in English; 776 students in mathematics; 914 students in physics; 1,555 students in mathematics; and 1,377 students in biology.
Those are just the statistics. The reality is that many madrasah have no qualified teachers in English, mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology. With this kind of condition, how can madrasah students possibly be given decent instruction in these subjects, and brought to a view of life that is healthily balanced between understanding the demands of life in this world and those of life in the hereafter?
All these facts and figures boil down to one thing, viz that by and large madrasah students remain unbalanced in their education; they remain unbalanced in their attitude toward life; and they remain illiterate or semi-literate in matters related to science and technology. Whether this kind of condition will lead them to a radical fundamentalism depends on the circumstances that exist in their educational environment.
This is a serious handicap for a country that still has to attract foreign direct investment. It is a real obstacle for a country that has to adjust its economy to the demands of the global market. This will make it very difficult for the country to shift from an economy based on agriculture and a weak industrial sector to an information economy that needs a strong army of knowledge workers familiar with science and technology.
*Professor Mochtar Buchori, a thinker
and a man of principles, is a member of parliament with the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).1