Use critical education to root out terrorism

DECONSTRUCTING NETWORKS: Dialogue leads to the ability to listen to the views and needs of others

IN response to the various terror-related incidents that have plagued Indonesia ahead of the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the government and the police have applied a security approach that is inadequate to uprooting  terror networks.

Radicals in Indonesia are getting younger. Two suspects in the recent terror attack in the Central Java city of Surakarta were only 19 years old when they were gunned down by counterterrorism police officers.

It is through critical education that terrorism can be rooted out. While the security approach is more to do with the surface structure, critical education is aimed at deconstructing the basic tenets that cause terrorism. It is through critical thinking that the fluid nature and methods of terrorist organisations, which are constantly adapting to law enforcement procedures and goals, can be tamed.

Suicide bombers usually do not have the ability to act and move alone. Rather they are steered by ruling figures based on misleading concepts of religion. Authority belongs to leaders, as well as the interpretation of holy texts.

As long as the interpreting authority still belongs to particular persons, it is likely to be used to force others, namely subordinate people, to commit brutality.

Many cannot think clearly since loyalty and absence of dialogue stand hand in hand. Someone with naïve consciousness tends to do much damage. Suicide attacks on places of worship, such as churches and mosques, could be seen as damaging the earth and human beings at such an unprecedented rate.

Critical education is basically adult education full of love and affection. One is urged to think and be conscious that he or she is a part of this earth, which in turn is held within a macro-cosmos calling for human preservation. By the time distortion and abuse appear, one is required to remedy the situation.

Terror acts against places of worship are not a never-ending vicious circle. Rather, they constitute a distorted human civilisation exerting stress upon one-sided coercion.

Any efforts to get things right and done, greatly serve to foster one's freedom and self-reliance. Only a free and independent person might prevent human beings' deviant attitude from worsening.

In response to increasing religious extremism, critical education must consider a dialogical approach, the end of cult personality and the strengthening of philosophy.

Through dialogue, one learns to foster a greater balance between freedom and openness on one side as well as responsibility and control on the other.

People's awareness of dialogue will lead them to acceptance and the ability to listen to the views and needs of others.

The dialogic religious experience does not simply make people tolerate differences of opinion or the practices of others, but also encourages them to respect others, characterised by the concept of "agree to disagree".

There will be no extremism as everybody reaches a common  platform and respects different thoughts.

 Preventing this cult of personality is equally necessary. It seems there is a tendency in Indonesia’s religious extremism that is marked by a rise in lone jihadists.

 These so-called lone jihadists rely upon individuals for the interpretation of Islamic messages conveyed by fundamentalist Muslim scholars.

They have absorbed the teaching from books and the Internet in an illogical dialectic manner.

 Leaders of Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah representing mainstream Muslim organisations need to take a role in countering extreme doctrines by joining the anti-terror campaign, reiterating their commitment to the Constitution which protects religious freedom, and assure the public that the state will take all necessary steps to guarantee the freedoms for all Indonesians regardless of their faith.

 Young Muslims need to be provided with art, literature and philosophy. Islamic boarding school students, for instance, ought to be exposed to art and literature to see a world beyond the black and white.

 Art and literature can soften a human’s soul and mind. In terms of critical thinking, teaching philosophy might change militant individuals after failed efforts to talk to them hundreds of times.

 Philosophy makes Muslims more curious about their doctrines in a critical manner without having the fear of eliminating authentic doctrines. Bolstered by this dialogical method, philosophy becomes the key to shielding young Muslims from falling under the influence of the extreme Muslim figures and narrows the field for potential radicals.    Jakarta Post