Jakarta Globe, Yuli Krisna, Mar 31, 2015
Teachers in Bandung say a book distributed by the Ministry of Education and Culture to schools across West Java since August promotes religions extremism. (AFP Photo/Aman Rochman) |
Bandung.
Teachers in Bandung, West Java, have raised concerns over the distribution of
thousands of school books, which they say teach religious intolerance and
radicalism.
Iwan
Hermawan, vice principal of the State Senior High School 9, said his school
received 440 books on Islamic teachings, which contain a chapter titled “Rise
Up All Islamic Fighters” and details the teachings of Muhammad Abd Wahhab, the
founder of the Wahhabi Muslim movement.
Wahhabism
is known for its ultraconservative, literal interpretation of Islam.
One part of
the book reads: “Those who worship other than Allah are infidels and must be
killed.”
Iwan said
the books have been distributed by the Ministry of Education and Culture to
schools across West Java since August.
“This can
spark intolerance and frictions with other religious groups,” Iwan said.
The book is
officially printed and distributed by the Ministry of Education and even
contains a prologue by then-minister Mohammad Nuh.
“This means
the book is compiled, studied and examined by various people under the minister
M. Nuh,” Iwan said.
The book
was printed as part of the controversial 2013 curriculum.
The book
listed the names Mustahdi and Mustakim as authors and Yusuf A Hasan and
Muhammad Saerozi as reviewers.
Iwan, who
is also the secretary general of the Indonesian Independent Teachers Federation
(FGII), said the same book was found in dozens of high schools and vocational
schools across Bandung.
“I am
concerned that students will interpret [the book] the wrong way. I am also
fearful that teachers with the same [radical] perspective will teach students
intolerance and radicalism,” Iwan said.
“[The
teachers] will think it is alright to teach radicalism, because this is a book
sanctioned by the education ministry.”
The FGII on
Tuesday officially requested for the book to be recalled. The book’s presence
sheds new light on how extremism and intolerance flourishes and spreads in
Indonesia, particularly among school students.
A recent
survey by the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, involving nearly 700
students from 76 high schools in Jakarta and 38 in Bandung, showed that 7
percent of the respondents agreed with the Islamic State movement’s aims.
“That means
one in every 14 students agrees with ISIS,” Bonar Tigor Naipospos, deputy
chairman of the non-governmental group, said in Jakarta on Monday, referring to
the extremist group’s old acronym.
He added
that 75 percent of students have heard of IS, mostly from social media and the
Internet. Most have a negative view of the radical movement, saying that they
recognize that IS is a sadistic group intent on spreading terror and using
violence in the name of religion.
But those
who sympathize with IS do so because they believe the terror group has
established an Islamic caliphate.
They said
they agreed with the view that Indonesia’s five founding principles of
Pancasila should be replaced with Islamic ideology.
Setara
researcher Muhamad Syauqi said some of the students who sympathize with IS
contributed to the so-called “jihadist selfie” phenomenon, where they spread
pictures through social media of youths in uniform — presumably IS members in
Syria or Iraq — who take photos of themselves in front of army tanks or while
holding rocket launchers.
“That makes
them [those spreading the selfies] feel
‘cool,’ ” Syauqi said.
The book
also confirms suspicion among some human rights and religious tolerance
advocates that the government — or at least some elements of it — is to some
degree involved in the spread of intolerance and radicalism despite pledging
otherwise.
Communications
and Information Technology Minister Rudiantara said last week that the
government recently begun working with information technology firms such as
Google to block websites containing pro-terrorism content.
Indonesians
were recently shocked by a video that appeared to show Indonesian-speaking
children training with assault rifles in front of an IS flag. The video has
since been removed from most websites, including Google-owned YouTube.
Rudiantara
said the partnerships had enabled the government to remove 78 Indonesian sites
with pro-terrorism content.
National
Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Marciano Norman said his office was also
joining forces with the communications ministry to curb pro-IS propaganda on
the Internet.
But the
House of Representatives’ Commission I, which oversees defense, intelligence,
foreign affairs, communication and information, responded by summoning Minister
Rudiantara to explain the government’s decision to block access to 19 websites
believed to have spread radical Islamic ideology.
“We will
invite the communications minister immediately to give an explanation,” Hanafi
Rais, deputy chairman of Commission I, said on Tuesday.
The
ministry said the sites were blocked after it received a request from the
National Counterterrorism Agency, which included them in a list of 22 media
sources allegedly spreading radical ideology.
Hanafi
attacked the government’s “rash” decision to block access to the websites.
“The
government’s decision to block the media could create the impression that the
government under President Joko Widodo is developing Islamophobia,” he said.
Meanwhile,
police are investigating what appears to be a failed bomb attack on the Kompas
TV office in Makassar, South Sulawesi, by alleged sympathizers of the IS.
“We are
still investigating the case,” Sr. Comr. Endi Sutendi, a spokesman for the
South and West Sulawesi Police, told Tempo.co on Tuesday.
“We can’t
immediately draw a conclusion,” he added.
The bomb
was found around 9 p.m. on Monday, in a plastic bag placed some 20 meters from
the office in Panakkukang subdistrict.
“I didn’t
open the package and told Panakukkang Police about it,” said the head of
security of the Kompas TV office, Gassang Daeng Kulle.
The bomb
package had a statement written on it that said “To Kompas sampah [trash] dari
[from] Islamic State,” and came with a handwritten letter threatening “infidel”
Indonesian media. It was signed “Anshor Daulah Makassar,” an alleged IS
sympathizer group.
A police
bomb squad arrived at the office in time to defuse the bomb.
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