By: Ahmad Pahlevi )*
Since the ISIS movement broke out, the process of spreading radicalism has changed, which was previously through training camps, now most of the spread of radical ideas has occurred through the internet media. As if social media became an incubator of radicalism until the trend of radicalism spread more easily and quickly.
Usually the social media users who are dominated by young people get various narratives that give rise to the perception of a threat that the world will get worse.
After that the radical groups will persuade social media users to make ‘improvements’ to the world, these radical groups will provide a role for young people with the sentence. ‘If you want to be a good person, you must have a contribution’.
Of course the sentence makes young people feel challenged, so that the passion of young people will be channeled to extreme movements that actually actually misleading.
Although it has been a threat for a long time, we must admit that the spread of radicalism is a new challenge that continues to grow, in line with technological developments.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Vice President Ma’ruf Amin reminded that the campus environment could play a role in reducing negative conditions such as the spread of radicalism in Indonesia.
In his scientific oration at the graduation ceremony at UIN Sultan Maulana Hasanudin Banten, Ma’ruf said that the UIN campus should be able to act as a stabilizer, especially in efforts to reduce various negative conditions that could create instability in society, such as the spread of radical understanding.
Ma’ruf Amin explained, the spread of radicalism at this time could occur in everyday life and did not rule out the possibility in the educational environment.
Various forms of radicalism include using religious excuses, ethnic supremacy that gave birth to separatist movements, and radicalism under the pretext of certain groups.
He explained, radicalism occurred and joined in social life, now religious radicalism is the most often used to justify the use of violence.
Of course, efforts to counter radicalism become something important to cope with its massive spread to acts of terror that can threaten people’s lives, because radicalism is the main root cause of terrorism that threatens the life of the state and religion.
The initial step to counteract radicalism must be started from efforts to counteract radical thinking, then to break the process of transfer of radical thinking from one group to another group.
That is, Terrorism is the result of the process of radicalization through the level of individuals to groups.
Therefore, there are 2 prevention strategies that should be carried out, namely the hard approach which is a form of legal action and enforcement against radical actors, so that adherents of the understanding can be sentenced in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, and the soft approach which is a form of fostering the community to anticipate the potential for radicalism and raising it against terrorist prisoners and former terrorist prisoners.
On different occasions, the Director of Deradicalization of the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) Irfan Idris said, the approach using the heart is one of the keys in addressing radicalism.
Strategies to reduce radicalism can be elaborated with the concept of 3H, namely heart (heart), hand (hand), and head (head).
When the heart is touched, it will be even easier to prevent or deal with radicalism.
Researcher and lecturer from UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Yunita Faela Nisa revealed that getting used to dealing with diversity would certainly be one way to prevent radicalism early on.
This certainly refers to a theory of contact hypotheses, where one needs to recognize that basically other people have diverse backgrounds.
Also, be aware that it needs to be known and familiarized, so differences can be positive.
This is of course different from the radicalist tendency to feel himself the most righteous and destroy anyone with different views. Therefore we must increase awareness of people who like to say infidel towards others just because of differences in belief.
We also have to believe that differences in Indonesia are beautiful, NKRI in Indonesia has the symbol of Unity in Diversity which means different but still one. Compete that social media literacy is primarily related to radicalism
)* The author is a social political observer