April 05, 2023

Educating Indonesia’s youth against radicalisation

topic:	Xenophobia
located:	Indonesia
editor:	Leo Galuh

As the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, Indonesia faces an imminent threat towards the democratic integrity of the upcoming 2024 presidential elections. The country’s future culture of peacefulness, respect for diversity and tolerance rests in the hands of its young generation, and must be fostered and ingrained through education.

The 2024 election will be dominated by young people between the ages of 17 and 40, accounting for nearly 107 million eligible voters. The Indonesian General Election Commission (KPU) believes this group will be critical for defining the orientation of the country’s future. However, this orientation is susceptible to influence by the rising militant-extremist groups that are actively recruiting young people.

Muh Taufiqurrohman, a senior researcher at the Center for Radicalism and Deradicalization Studies in Jakarta, has warned that former and current Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) members, which is linked with the Islamic State (IS), could attempt to establish a radicalised international group in order to carry out terrorist attacks in 2024. 

This group is closely affiliated with IS and its supporters are widely active on social media, where it recruits young people by diffusing propaganda and teaching them to construct explosives.  

Meanwhile, according to a research study by the Wahid Foundation conducted on high school Islamic spiritual organisations, 60 percent of respondents were eager to carry out Jihadist calls against religiously conflicted nations while 41 percent of respondents believed that Muslim nations should be merged into one single caliphate. 

Additionally, in 2017 the Jakarta Islamic State University’s Center for the Study of Islam and Society discovered that high school and college students were routinely exposed to radicalism. Of the students surveyed, 58 percent held extremist views, 51.1 percent held intolerant views, and 34.4 percent held intolerant views against non-Indonesian Muslims.

In light of the country’s battle against extremism, the primary goal of education must turn to impeding the spread of radicalism, which threatens the country's peace and security. 

Education of tolerance, cultural diversity and peace are critical to preventing susceptibility to hateful rhetoric and radicalism. One local NGO, Peace Generation Indonesia, in Bandung, West Java province, has made some strides in combating this issue. Understanding that many violent conflicts begin with a lack of understanding of other people, this NGO focuses on promoting peace and bridging the gap between diverse communities through meaningful connections among the younger generation.

Organisations like Peace Generation Indonesia, in collaboration with teachers and students, continue to work towards building bridges between people through education of peace and tolerance. This will be critical to equip young people with the knowledge they need to prevent religious extremism from dividing society in the upcoming 2024 election.

Image by Syahrul Alamsyah Wahid

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