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Religious education in the country a failure
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The
Jakarta Post
October
07, 2002
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Religious education in the country
a failure
Religious-related conflicts have
torn apart many areas in the country with no institution,
including the government, having an appropriate solution for them.
Many are worried that fresh interreligious conflicts could erupt
due to the authorities' failure in handling previous clashes.
Lecturer Haidar Bagir, who is also the CEO of PT Mizan Publika, an
Islamic-oriented publisher based in Bandung, spoke to The Jakarta
Post's Soeryo Winoto after an international seminar on
Globalization, Religion and the Media on Saturday.
Question: Do you think the country still has potential for
religious-related conflicts in the future?
Answer: I have to say yes. It will take more time for the
followers of the certain religions here to accept the fact that
the existence of other religions is actually a normal thing which
is assured by the differences of culture and history and other
factors.
I feel, we (Indonesians) are in a state where many religious
groups think to have the right to claim that their religions are
the best. And if you ask me when the situation will end, I would
say after we can develop an educational system which teaches
citizens that life is complex. That life is built on a long
history of differences in thinking and culture, and therefore,
people should be able to see the reality that differences,
including religions, are all around us.
Are there any internal factors (from the religious teaching
itself) that have played roles or encouraged their followers to
commit violence against others?
If people learn and understand the teaching of their religions
properly, I believe there would never have been conflicts caused
by religions. Such conflicts have emerged due to external stimuli,
like economics, political or ethnic background.
My academic field is the philosophy of Islam. The more I study
Islam, the more similarities I find with other beliefs. There are
many fundamental similarities and also thoughts among the
religions. These need to be understood by followers to make them
aware that they must not claim that their vision of their religion
is the best.
What should the religious followers at the grassroots level do
to restrain themselves from violence? At the top level, religious
leaders are able to be tolerant, but they obviously fail to inform
their members of what they have discussed. What do you think?
I am not that sure that our religious elites have adequate
awareness of tolerance and plurality with regard to other
religions.
They still need work to improve their acceptance of diversity and
differences. After that, the problem is education. We will need
much more time to develop a superior quality education system to
make religious followers more aware of similarities and universal
resources, including religions. It's time consuming.
What about the roles of the media in curtailing
religious-related violence, as the media has no definitive policy
regarding their handling of such conflicts?
I think the media should become a sort of teaching institution.
The media needs to be proactive to promote ideas on pluralism
among society. However, the media needs sufficient and appropriate
training and education. Let me say that our media is still lacking
professionalism. If our media was more professional, meaning that
journalists and editors possess a broader horizon of thinking and
are better educated (not only on journalistic techniques) the
media -- I believe -- would be able to play a significant role in
teaching the people how to respect the similarities of their
religious roots.
Do you think that the religions in the country, especially
Islam and Christianity, have become too politicized?
I would stick to my argument that education is a much more serious
problem than politics with regard to religion. It is undisputable
that the religions have been politicized, by both domestic and
international political entities. But I believe that if the
followers of the religions were more educated, more tolerant and
more familiar with the opinions voiced by other parties, frankly
speaking, political influence -- no matter how strong -- would not
be able to provoke people to fight each other.
You mean that education and openness could bring about a
built-in resilience among individual of each religion?
Exactly. I see that politics have been disturbing the relations
between religions so far because the seeds of openness among
religions are still very few.
Do you think that we have adequate religious leaders who are
able to promote tolerance among their followers and provide the
followers with comfort so as to prevent them from being provoked
to fight?
I'm sorry to say that the number of qualified religious leaders is
very small. Honestly, I daresay that the religious education in
this country has been a failure. Religion is supposed to be taught
to promote high morality, including tolerance and understanding of
others, and to be self-critical, right? Unfortunately, I see the
core of religious teaching has sunk into political, legal or
ritual controversies.
I do hope that in the future we will have more religious leaders
with broader horizons and an ability to lead their followers to
have better understanding among them.
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