Alif fikri )*
Radicalism is a forbidden ideology that can spread in various media, including social media. Therefore, the synergy of all parties is needed to prevent the spread of this understanding.
Indonesia is indeed a country that has a very high diversity, in which it consists of many tribes, religions, races and cultures. However, in fact this diversity can make this nation very strong if all are in the spirit of tolerance, including religious moderation because it can be the best solution in anticipating potential conflicts.
So indeed, the diversity possessed by the country is actually like a double-edged sword, because on the one hand it will bring a very high potential for conflict or horizontal friction, but on the other hand, if it can be addressed properly, namely through the implementation of religious moderation, it will also become a something very beautiful.
Regarding this, the Special Staff of the Minister of Religion for Media and Public Communication, Wibowo Prasetyo explained that currently social media as a communication medium has also become an accelerator in transforming information to the public. Therefore, people need to be more aware that the digital world needs digital literacy so that religious life in Indonesia is not affected by what is on social media.
How not, the article with the digital era as it is today, also actually brings its own challenges. Not only does it allow humans to get information very quickly and easily, but precisely because the spread of information is so massive, it will also be dangerous because any form of information is very easy to access, which sometimes has absolutely no substance or is in the form of fake news.
False narratives are also widely spread on social media. So, according to Wibowo, it is very important to counter narrative things that actually indicate people are going towards intolerance and radicals by reloading many invitations to do religious moderation on social media.
With the massive nature of social media, it also makes propagandists of radical groups take advantage of this platform to really be able to disseminate their teachings so that they are easily accessible to the public, especially the younger generation who really like to play social media and also their emotional condition is still low. unstable with the urge to seek identity.
Young people are indeed the most easy targets for radical groups in disseminating the teachings of their intolerance so that regeneration will continue to occur. Therefore, the Special Staff of the Minister of Religion appealed to all education personnel, especially PAI teachers to continue to supervise their students, especially from the threat of the influence of religion-based extremism and populism on social media.
Supervision and the role of teachers are very important because it cannot be denied that students also really need proper guidance and direction, on the one hand they are also the main target of propagandists for radical groups so they must be guarded.
Meanwhile, Head of Islamic Education Division of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Religion of Central Java Province, Imam Buchori explained that PAI teachers should be the driving force in the religious moderation campaign in schools. According to him, this is very necessary in order to instill the spirit and value of religious moderation in students from an early age.
Concerns about the increasing number of radicalism movements that are spread through social media as a platform for propagandists of radical groups in conveying their ideas and ideas are very natural. According to the lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Jambi, Mohamad Rapik, the consequences of using social media that are not wise are very bad.
The reason is, any exposure to information, even about things that are not at all good, can be accessed by everyone, especially young people, which is very possible that they will access radicalism content which will later direct their actions towards extremism and even terrorism. Therefore, to be able to prevent it, it is very important to increase the literacy culture.
Although on the other hand there have actually been a lot of activities carried out by the government and have been coordinated to be able to carry out terrorism countermeasures, radical groups have become increasingly sophisticated with their various strategies regarding the expansion of their ideas, which will continue to threaten vulnerable groups such as the younger generation. . So that it is not just a counter-radicalism movement, but there must be self-awareness, namely to increase literacy on social media.
In addition, with proper supervision from educators and parents when children are playing or surfing on social media, it will at least be able to prevent them from being exposed to radical ideas that they are very likely to access either intentionally or unintentionally.
)* The author is a contributor to the Nusa Bangsa Institute