Islamic teachers ‘lack pluralistic perspectives’

Jakarta, NU Online
Holiyah, an Islamic studies teacher at a state Islamic high school in South Jakarta, considers teaching pluralism and inter-religious tolerance to be “minor subjects”.

“We emphasize more morality, fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and regular definitive rituals in Islam because they are what they need,” she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.<>

“The kids should learn about pluralism so that they know about it better, but I think they can delve into religious comparative studies only after they enter college.”

She also said she agreed with the implementation of sharia law, including obliging Muslim women to wear headscarves and cutting a thief’s hand off as punishment, given that it was the “right of Muslims to perform fully their Islamic teachings”.

“The enforcement of sharia law does not mean we are allowed to force non-Muslims to do what is obliged for Muslims because there is no coercion in religion,” Holiyah was quoted by The Jakarta Post as saying.

She said she would prefer a Muslim president over a non-Muslim one, although she said she did not mind having non-Muslim leaders in other non-religious positions of authority, such as in trade or businesses.

Holiyah’s views reflected the findings of a survey released Tuesday by the Center for Islamic and Society Studies (PPIM) at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) in Jakarta.

It surveyed 500 Islamic studies teachers in public and private schools throughout Java.

The survey shows that most of the respondents oppose pluralism and tend toward radicalism and conservatism.

Some 68.6 percent of the teachers are opposed to non-Muslims becoming their school principals and 33.8 percent are opposed to having non-Muslims as teachers at their schools.

Some 85.6 percent of the respondents forbid their students from celebrating big events perceived as Western traditions, while 87 percent ask their students not to learn about other religions.

More than a half of the teachers support rajam (stoning) as a punishment for certain crimes and 47.5 said the punishment for theft should be having one hand cut off, while 21.3 percent back the death penalty for Muslim apostates.

Commenting on the survey, noted Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra said the surveyed Islamic studies teachers had probably never been exposed to pluralistic views.

He said the Religious Affairs Ministry had probably encouraged them to become Islamic studies teachers, but had failed to “refresh” their outdated views on Islam.

“It is actually the ministry’s responsibility to counter such (anti-pluralistic) views. It has to organize regular trainings for these teachers to instill wider and more comprehensive perspectives into their minds,” said Azyumardi, who is a former UIN rector.

He said the survey finding was “discouraging”, but he ruled out using it as the basis for declaring there was a national tendency for radicalism and terrorism.

Al Muzammil Yusuf, a legislator of the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), denied the survey showed anti-pluralistic views among Indonesian Islamic teachers.

He said it was likely the questions posed in the survey had not provided the respondents with enough choices, but rather had used a yes/no format. (dar)