Islamic orthodoxy-based character education: creating moderate muslim in a modern pesantren in Indonesia

Pesantren (Islamic boarding school) has been contributing to build moderate character for Muslims in Indonesia towards globalization. However, amid peaceful Islam disseminated in the country, nowadays, radical Muslim movement challenges this character. This study aims to describe the construction of turats (traditional Muslim virtues), which has been taught in pesantren as an orthodox teachings legacy, to create young Muslim with moderate attitude through character education. It will also highlight about how and why character education with Islamic orthodoxy content is necessary to be inculcated in pesantren to produce moderate Muslim. Qualitative research was employed in this study, with a case study approach. In doing so, data collection was carried out through interviews, observation, and documents analysis techniques. The results demonstrated that the moderate character building based on the modernization of turats is derived from the renowned dogma of the ushul fiqh (traditional Islamic Jurisprudence); al muhafadhatu 'ala al-qadim as-sholih wal akhdu bi al-jadid al-ashlah (maintaining good tradition and employing the new-better one). It also revealed that within 24 hours pesantren learning activities, this jargon is disseminated to the students through the concept of Islamic guidance. In this concept, moderate character values infused to the student’s activities are rooted to the Qur'an (Muslim holy book) and Hadits (Prophet’s wisdom) as the religious foundation, the founding fathers’ vision (historical foundation), the pesantren mission (institutional foundation), and the contextual experience (empirical foundation) as well as the dynamic challenges of the globalization. The entire character education process paves a pivotal way to the moderate Muslim generation creation.

Keeping the Middle Path: Mainstreaming Religious Moderation through Islamic Higher Education Institutions in Indonesia

The Ministry of Religious Affairs of Indonesia continues to voice religious moderation to mainstream a peaceful Islamic discourse. This article aimed at looking at religious moderation values from several Islamic higher education institutions in Indonesia. The focus of article aims to find a pattern of the implementation of moderation in Islam in Islamic universities. This article discusses to what extent Islamic higher education institutions internalize religious moderation values to students. By conducting qualitative research, this article explores 3 Islamic higher education institutions in Indonesia: Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim, Universitas Darussalam Gontor Ponorogo, and Ma’had Aly As'adiyah. The result shows that higher education institutions play a critical role in inculcating religious moderation values through pesantren institutions. The Pesantren universities have a role in transmitting moderate Islamic values through their curriculum and various religious activities. This research reveals that religious moderation is implicated in these 3 Islamic universities. The curriculum is eclectic and reflects moderation values, such as national commitment, tolerance, non-violence, and local culture accommodation. This study concludes that the three pesantrenuniversities in Indonesia have a distinctive pattern of emphasizing moderation in the three areas: theoretical, practical, and ideological aspect.

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Divorce Rates among Indonesian Muslim Societies

This study aims to look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on divorce rates in Indonesia. Few months after the outbreak, the media reported the increasing rate of divorce. Some authorities and researchers have taken this information for granted; therefore, their responses can be misleading. This socio-legal study confronts the media reports with the statistical data on divorce case numbers received by the Religious (Islamic) Courts and the Religious Courts judges’ explanation about the issue. This study finds out that the one-year period (2020) of the COVID-19 pandemic has not influenced the rates of divorce cases submitted to the court. Social mobility restrictions and the inadequate use of the E-Court facility to enhance courts’ performance are among the causes of the crowding of divorce applicants. This implies that the current COVID-19 pandemic has little impact on divorce dynamics despite its significant influence on households’ economic instability and the increasing of domestic violence cases. With a more careful response to the media report, the authorities will be able to address the real issues faced by many households and the judiciary.

Contribution of Education, Employment, and Ethnicity Level to The Integration of Islam and Christian Religions in Central Lampung Regency

The study explores data on the contribution of education, employment, and ethnicity to the integration of Muslims and Christians in Central Lampung Regency by looking at the sociological dynamics of integration between Muslims and Christians. The integration group is divided into two, majority-minority and balanced group, based on religious affiliation. Data is collected using observation, interviews, and questionnaires consisting of favorable and unfavorable. The data collected is analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative analysis is carried out using one-way analysis of variance using the SPSS computer program while qualitative analysis is carried out using logical thinking including induction, deduction, analogy and comparison. The results of the study indicate that there are differences in integration between villages with a majority-minority and balanced religious composition, that the majority-minority community group has a higher quality of integration than the balanced group. The education variable shows that the level of education has a positive relationship with the level of integration. The higher the education is, the higher the quality of integration is. The job variable has no significant effect, but the overall mean is above the hypothetical mean. Ethnicity variables indicate variations in the quality of integration, in which the Batak and Javanese ethnicities have high integration quality, Palembang ethnicity is moderate, and Lampung ethnicity has low integration quality.

Interation of The Quran and The Culture of Tepo Seliro : Implementation In Muslim and Non Muslim In Indonesia

This study aims to demonstrate the integration of Al-Qur'an and the Javanese culture of Tepo Seliro and how the implementation in Muslim and non-Muslim relations to realize the people's peace and harmony lives in diversity in Indonesia. The method used in this research is to analyze the content of the relationship between two sources, Al-Qur'an and the Javanese culture contained in the culture of Tepo Seliro. Opinions, views, and insights obtained from interviews with figures from various religions are the main ingredients in analyzing the implementation of Islamic teachings in the verses of the Al-Qur'an into the Javanese culture of Tepo Seliro. The results of this study indicate a strong relationship, there is even integration of the Al-Qur'an and the Javanese culture of Tepo Seliro, and it is well implemented in the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims to create a peaceful and harmonious society in religious diversity.

Islam and Iran's post-revolution War on Drugs: A Durkheimian Analysis

By applying Durkheim's last opinion in the elementary forms of religious life, this paper seeks the rationale of the Iranian war on drugs policy in religious thoughts, not penological or criminological ones. It attempts to show that the war on drugs policy originates from an understanding that attributes evilness to such criminals to prevent the disintegration of Islamic society. This approach blurs the line between "preserving Islam" and the "Islamic society," and the repressive policies are consecrated to avoid social disintegration. Our study confirms Durkheim's attitude in which sacredness is highly contagious. Following the sanctity of preserving Islamic society from the profane of drug crimes, the application of specialized mechanisms for fighting drugs would be plausible.

The Understanding of Islamic Moderation (wasatiyyah al-Islam) and the Hadiths on Inter-religious relations in the Javanese Pesantrens

The Wasatiyyah of Islam has been described as the value of moderation in Islam, emphasizing justice, balance, and tolerance. The Quran and al-Hadith contain these values, but they are often misunderstood and misapplied. The pesantren or Islamic boarding school, is an educational institution close to the community and it plays a key role in instilling the moderate values of Islam. This article aims at discussing the moderation of Islam in relation to other religions and religious communities as taught through the hadith and as understood among the teachers and students of three pesantrens in central Java. It investigates the teachers’ and students’ views of Islam as a religion among other religions, and their attitudes as the pesantren community toward other religious believers. It combines textual research employing a mukhtalif al-hadiṡ approach and living or lived hadith research. It argues that the hadiths on inter-religious relationship are understood as a necessity to be just towards faith, which means that one should believe that his own faith is correct but should keep tolerant towards other faiths. This means giving others the right to choose and implement their own faiths, behaving in a balanced way, and conducting healthy competition in various fields, especially the proselytization or dawah. With this textual understanding, the students have generally been quite well informed about the values of Islamic moderation and they seek to apply it in their religious and social life. The students have learned about the hadiths on interreligious relations and the moderate values primarily from their teachers although they have read directly from books and sometimes from social media. Wasatiyyah Islam digambarkan sebagai nilai moderasi dalam Islam, menekankan keadilan, keseimbangan, dan toleransi. Al-Qur'an dan al-Hadis mengandung nilai-nilai ini, tetapi sering disalahpahami dan diterapkan secara salah. Pesantren merupakan lembaga pendidikan yang dekat dengan masyarakat dan berperan penting dalam menanamkan nilai-nilai moderat Islam. Artikel ini bertujuan membahas moderasi Islam dalam kaitannya dengan agama dan umat beragama lain sebagaimana diajarkan melalui hadis dan sebagaimana dipahami para guru dan santri di tiga pesantren di Jawa Tengah. Artikel ini menyelidiki pandangan siswa tentang Islam sebagai agama di antara agama-agama lain, dan sikap mereka sebagai komunitas pesantren terhadap pemeluk agama lain. Ini menggabungkan penelitian tekstual yang menggunakan pendekatan mukhtalif al-hadiṡ dan penelitian hadits hidup (living or lived hadith). Artikel ini berargumen bahwa hadis-hadis tentang hubungan antarumat beragama dipahami sebagai keharusan untuk bersikap adil terhadap keimanan, yang berarti bahwa seseorang harus percaya bahwa imannya sendiri benar tetapi harus tetap toleran terhadap agama lain. Ini artinya memberikan hak kepada orang lain untuk memilih dan menjalankan keyakinannya sendiri, berperilaku seimbang, dan melakukan persaingan yang sehat di berbagai bidang, terutama dakwah. Dengan pemahaman tekstual ini, para santri secara umum telah terinformasi dengan baik tentang nilai-nilai moderasi Islam dan mereka terus menerapkannya dalam kehidupan keagamaan dan sosial mereka. Para siswa telah belajar tentang hadits tentang hubungan antaragama dan nilai-nilai moderat terutama dari guru mereka meskipun mereka telah membaca langsung dari buku dan kadang-kadang dari media sosial.

Hybrid Perspectives: Muslim and Secular Discourses in French Politics

Increased immigration, especially from Muslim-majority countries, has been broadly debated in French socio-political life. Frictions have been common between two groups: Muslims and non-Muslims who identify themselves as 'defenders of secularism'. At the same time, however, hybrid strategies have emerged in which Muslims and non-Muslims have sought to culturally and socially adapt themselves. Through a review of online French media published between 2017 and 2020, as understood using social constructivism, this study explores these groups' construction of hybrid identities. Discourses were analyzed to identify their ideological schemes, utterances, references, and arguments, with linguistic analysis facilitated by NVIVO software. Analysis shows that the hybrid discourses of non-Muslim 'defenders of secularism' have been more prominent than those of Muslims. Furthermore, the narrative tendencies of these hybrid discourses indicate that non-Muslim groups have sought to promote diversity in religious practices in France, while Muslim groups have sought to integrate themselves into broader French society.Meningkatnya jumlah imigran, terutama imigran muslim menjadi persoalan sendiri pada kehidupan sosial politik Prancis. Seringkali terjadi gesekan-gesekan narasi mengenai keislaman antara dua kelompok, yaitu kelompok muslim; dan non-muslim yang melabelkan dirinya sebagai ‘pembela sekularitas’. Namun di sisi lain, muncul pula narasi hibrid yang memuat strategi adaptasi budaya dan sosial dari kelompok muslim maupun kelompok non-muslim. Maka dari itu, penelitian ini membahas konstruksi wacana hibrid pada dua kelompok tersebut di media online Prancis dari tahun 2017 sampai 2020 dengan menggunakan perspektif konstruktivitis sosial dalam masyarakat menurut Lev Vygostky. Data wacana dianalisis dengan skema ideologis, tuturan, referensial dan argumentasi dengan melihat konteks wacana dengan menggunakan alat bantu linguistik NVIVO. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa wacana hibrid dari kelompok non-muslim ‘pembela sekularisme’ lebih tinggi daripada wacana hibrid dari kelompok muslim. Selain itu, pola-pola narasi konstruksi wacana hibrid menunjukkan bahwa kelompok kelompok non-muslim bersikap terbuka dengan adanya keberagaman agama dan praktik keagamaan di negara Prancis; dan kelompok muslim berkeinginan untuk dapat berintegrasi dengan masyarakat Prancis.

Islam-based peace education: values, program, reflection and implication

There is a gap between ideal Islam and real Islam. Ideal Islam means peace, greeting, safety, salvation, and conceptually means absolute submission to God`s Will. Real Islam resembles unresolved conflicts in some communities and unpleasant meanings to some non-Muslims. To minimize the gap, it is important to socialize peaceful Islamic values in the community through education. This study aims to explain Pendidikan Perdamaian Berbasis Islam (PPBI, the Islam-based Peace Education) program initiated by Pusat Studi Budaya dan Perubahan Sosial (PSB-PS, the Center for the Study of Culture and Social Change) at Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta (UMS). This participatory action research is especially to reveal Islamic values identified in the PPBI program in terms of its uniqueness, implementation, reflection, and implication. Based on the Sirah of the Prophet and the Al-Qur’an, the PPBI program has identified 15 Islamic values which contribute to peacebuilding. Those values were used as core contents of PPBI’s handbook and classroom program. The program has been implemented through series of activities ranging from seminars, FGDs, workshops, training of teachers, publication of books, and classroom implementation. PPBI program based on nonviolence and peacebuilding assumptions, i.e. to build a culture of peace, is designed as the formal peace education through learning materials and classroom processes either in any existing course or co-curricular activities.

Critique of the radical religious paradigm: An epistemological analysis from the principles of Islamic jurisprudence

One important factor enabling Islamophobia, radicalism has been a global issue endangering personal safety and public security. It is strongly associated with incorrect understanding of religious doctrines. This paper aims to present a critique of the religious paradigm promoted by the radical groups from the principles of Islamic jurisprudence (ushul fiqh) perspective. Using an epistemological analysis to uncover the nature of their religious understanding and its justification, this study argues that the radical religious paradigm is characterized by a monolithic, textual, and rigid interpretation of the sacred texts. According to the radical groups, the sources of Islamic laws or teachings are restricted to only the Qur’an and the hadith, leaving no space for alternative interpretations. They do not give place for ra’yu (reason) in determining the laws or teachings. On the other hand, ushul fiqh perspective maintains that the sources of the Islamic laws or teachings are not restricted to only the two said sources; it also gives place for ra’yu (reason). The sources can also be found in the form of isyarah (signaling) and ruh (spirit) of the Qur’an and the hadith. In this sense, ushul fiqh refuses the literal interpretation proposed by the radical groups since not all of the texts in the Qur’an and the hadith can be understood literally. Taken together, these findings strengthen the idea that incorrect understanding of religious doctrines helps lead to the absolute, puritanical, and intolerant stance towards differences.