By: Muhammad Fatih)*
Intolerance and radicalism are still a real threat to Indonesia’s diversity. Therefore, the community supports the application of religious moderation to counter anti-Pancasila ideology.
Do you remember the bombings in public places some time ago and the most shocking one (to the international news) was the Bali bombing in 2001. These threats and bombings are caused by terrorist groups that spread radicalism and insist on changing the concept of the Indonesian state. It’s a shame they resorted to violent means and took the lives of other innocent people.
Eradication of radicalism is still a big PR because radical groups are very cunning and use guerrilla methods to spread their teachings. They are also good at camouflaging and blending into the community, some even become teachers (although they were eventually arrested by the authorities). It is the behavior of radicals who use this trickery that makes their eradication still a bit stagnate.
Ngasiman Djoyonegoro, Director of the Executive Center of Intelligence Strategic Studies stated that religious moderation must be implemented in accordance with the roadmap prepared by the Ministry of Religion. In a sense, the application of religious moderation is very important because it can prevent extremism, fanaticism, and radicalism.
Moreover, the 2024 election will soon be approaching and there are still political resentments in the previous presidential election. In a sense, radical groups can instigate people to support the party that lost yesterday and vilify the government. So it will be chaotic because it mixes between politics, religion, and radicalism.
To overcome this chaos, religious moderation must be made viral again. Religious moderation is understanding religious teachings in a moderate manner, not being too extreme right or extreme left. Isn’t too much of it bad? When you are moderately religious, you also understand your relationship to God and your relationship with your fellow human beings, so you have to respect each other.
Tolerance is one of the supporting factors in religious moderation, because if one does not become an extremist, one will become tolerant of others. Not only for people who have one belief but also for those who have other beliefs. With tolerance, we will appreciate it more, because even though they have different beliefs, that person is a brother in humanity.
We must echo tolerance again because there has been too much chaos that has occurred due to intolerance (which is also carried out by radical groups). Don’t let our children learn intolerance from adults. Do you still remember when there was a small child who damaged the graves of people with other beliefs? This chaos occurred because his mind was poisoned by the intolerant and his teacher from a radical group.
Makmun Rasyid, Daily Executive of the Central MUI Countering Extremism and Terrorism Agency stated that religious moderation is moderating the way religion is implemented in the context of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. Religious moderation is the spirit and commitment so that religion and the state are not turned into each other. However, complementing each other is like 2 sides of a coin.
In a sense, if someone already understands religious moderation, he will be loyal to his country, because he believes that obeying the head of state is the same as being rewarded. We have to think positively and with religious moderation, everything will run smoothly, without any interference from radical groups.
Religious moderation is a powerful way to prevent the spread of radicalism because if someone understands religious moderation, he doesn’t want to act as extreme as a radical group. Instead, he will avoid radicalism and eradicate it, knowing that this understanding is not compatible with conditions in Indonesia.
)* The author is a contributor to the Press Circle and Cikini Students
