The mosque is a house of worship for Muslims. Besides functioning as a place of worship, mosques are also often used for other social and religious activities, even in the era of struggle to uphold the religion of Allah, the mosque is also used by the Prophet Muhammad, the caliphs and friends and loyal followers to plan strategies in winning the war, so the mosque’s position is very strategic for Islam.
In the current era, the mosque also plays a crucial and important role in preaching activities, religious literacy and even other activities. Considering the important position of the mosque, there are also many interest groups, especially from the group of “religious manipulators” in some areas who try hard to “dominate” the mosque by dominating or replacing the mosque’s board and Honorary Council which are in line and agree with them.
According to Terrorism Observer, Al Chaidar, stated that exposure to radicalism and intolerance did not only occur in the ministries, institutions and state-owned mosques, but had spread to almost all places of worship in Indonesia. In his research, the declaration of allegiance was carried out openly in mosques.
At present it is estimated that more than 200 campus mosques have been established. From the description of the results of research conducted by LPPM UNUSIA in Jogjakarta and Central Java, it was found that many campus mosques in state universities were exposed to radicalism.
In qualitative research conducted from December 2018 to January 2019, of eight State Universities (PTN) in the Special Region of Yogyakarta and Central Java, including Gadjah Mada University (UGM) Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta State University (UNY), Diponegoro University (Undip), Semarang State University (Unnes), Surakarta State University (UNS), Surakarta State Islamic Institute (IAIN Surakarta), Jenderal Soedirman University (Unsoed), and Purwokerto State Islamic Institute (IAIN Purwokerto) found that some Islamic movements on the campus were oriented to Islamic organization in the Middle East which is a transnational Islamic movement.
The finding that needs to be a common concern is that transnational Islamic movements that appear in PTNs are not merely oriented abroad, but also tend to close themselves off from the diversity of Indonesia and instead want to homogenize Indonesia. Because of this closure to diversity, the transnational Islamic movement is also called the exclusive Islamic movement.
The exclusive transnational Islamic movements that this research is concerned about are the Tarbiyah, Hizb ut-Tahrir, and Salafi Movements. The Tarbiyah movement is oriented towards the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international movement to establish the Islamic Khilafah, which manifests on campus in the form of a GP (Liberation Gema). Meanwhile, Salafis are Islamic purification movements oriented towards Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabism.
Meanwhile, according to the survey results of the Association of Islamic Boarding Schools and Society (P3M) NU and the Nationality House said, as many as 41 of the 100 mosques in the ministries, institutions, and BUMN, were exposed to radicalism. P3M NU conducted research on a number of mosques, namely 35 mosques in the ministry, 37 mosques in BUMN (State-Owned Enterprises), and 28 mosques in state institutions. The study was conducted on September 29-October 21, 2017 by recording audio and video on Friday sermons during this period. Agus said there were at least six of the most popular radical topics in the mosques. In addition to expressing hatred, the topics are positive attitudes toward the Khilafah, negative attitudes towards minorities, negative attitudes towards other religions, negative attitudes towards women leaders, and hatred towards minorities.
From that research, negative attitudes towards other religions became the second highest radical content with a percentage of 21.17 percent. As for other topics such as a positive attitude towards the khilafah at 18.15 percent, a negative attitude towards a minority of 7.6 percent, hatred for a minority of 2.1 percent, and a negative attitude towards a female leader of 1.1 percent.
The radical understanding in the study is that low radicals are interpreted related to the content of the sermon which contains a doubtful attitude if there is a negative attitude towards other religions. While radicals, namely agreeing with negative attitudes or intolerance towards other religious communities. Meanwhile, high radicals have provoked people to act negatively towards other religious communities.
The existence of mosques especially in Ministries / Institutions and BUMN needs to be protected from all efforts to spread hatred, especially those carried out by religious manipulator groups. The efforts of all stakeholders are needed to provide an early warning in order to increase alertness, while maintaining a tolerant attitude and respecting diversity.
To that end, in preventing the spread of radicalism, preachers are also empowered to deliver soothing lectures and increase cooperation with moderate Islamic mass organizations to prevent mosque mastery by religious manipulators.
In addition, it is also necessary to anticipate and pay attention to the existence of mosques in universities / colleges from the mastery of “underbow religious manipulator groups” as allegedly controlled / controlled by ex-HTI. Moreover, there is also a survey that states, there are seven State Universities (PTN) exposed to radicalism, and 39 percent of students in 15 Provinces are interested in radicalism.
