Religious Affairs Ministry Prepares Anti-radicalism Textbook
11 January 2018 21:28 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government is preparing the literature of Islamic religious textbooks for public schools and madrasah (Islamic school). The Director-General of Islamic Education at the Religious Affairs Ministry, Kamaruddin Amin, ensured that the literature is free from radicalism content.
"The religious books in schools and madrasahs will be written by the Ministry of Religious Affairs," he told Tempo yesterday, Jan. 10.
Kamaruddin said, since the enactment of Law No. 3 of 2017 on Bookkeeping System on May 24, his office has the authority to compile religious textbooks. The writing team of Islamic textbooks will soon be formed. The team will coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Culture to develop teaching materials. He said that the content of the literature will be tailored to the needs of the current generation.
"We have to read all of the interest and the needs, so it will be dynamic," said Kamaruddin.
The government's move is done to anticipate the students to not reading books that lead to radicalism. The research of the Professor of contemporary Islamic politics at Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, Noorhaidi Hasan, reveals that Islamic literature that contains jihad and radicalism is still consumed by some of the young generations.
A research conducted on July-December 2017, recorded that about 5 percent of students and college students from 16 cities read the literature of jihad. "The government needs to compensate with the strong literature and curriculum," he said.
Yesterday, Noorhaidi held the dissemination of his research results. He said that out of 288 informants and 32 discussions involving 320 students and college students, there are five types of Islamic literature that are still in demand of millennial generation. All five are the literature of jihad, tahriri, salafi, tarbawi, and popular Islamism.
DANANG FIRMANTO