Experts agree that teachers have a significant role in instilling religious tolerance among Indonesia’s youth by providing lessons that emphasize universal religious values.
Instructors must teach young children religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence with members of different faiths, former Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chief Hasyim Muzadi said.
Religious teachers should focus on Islamic principles and also highlight the religious spirit of tolerance, he added.
“Don’t just teach about Islam, but provide a context that requires respect for people who follow other religions,” Muzadi said.
Madrassa (Islamic schools) teachers should teach students that there are “people who embrace religions different than ours” and that those people had the right to practice their own religion, he said.
A recent spate of religious conflicts, notably church closures and attacks on mosques belonging to the Ahamadiyah sect, have caused concern over threats to religious tolerance in Indonesia.
A recent study by the Institute for Islamic and Social Studies Foundation (LKiS) showed that 40.53 percent of Muslim senior high school students in Yogyakarta showed low levels of tolerance.
Teachers, especially religious studies instructors, must be “enlightened” by either the government or their school boards on the importance of instilling the values of religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence, Hasyim added.
“Many extremist teachers are from the Middle East, where the entire population is Muslim,” he said, adding that religious instruction in Indonesian schools are generally “good”.
Non-Muslim children must also receive sound religious education so that their faith will not waver, Hasyim said.
“They must also be taught to respect others,” he said, adding that they must learn how to live as a social minority, just as he had to learn how to adjust in foreign countries where Muslims were the minority.
Teachers should emphasize the universal values present within every religion and show how they complement each other, Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) rector Komarudin Hidayat said.
“Some books are old and out-of-date. School curriculums should not be locked within traditional notions, but instead must be flexible enough to accept revisions to focus on the real role of religion in advancing civilization and society,” Syarif said, adding that some prevailing philosophies, including democracy and civil liberties are not mentioned in many religious texts.
Teachers must develop their student’s ability to think critically by starting interesting dialogues that are relevant to daily life, Syarif told The Jakarta Post.
“It is not impossible to teach young children to think critically,” he said, adding that teachers also need instruction to carry out these tasks.
Schools could organize camping trips for students of different religions to give children the opportunity to share information about their religious traditions, he said.
“In this present time, being religious means being inter-religious too,” People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) deputy speaker Hajriyanto Y. Thohari said.
The will to be inter-religious is inherent in the challenge to be a modern-day Muslim, because justice could only be attained by granting everyone their universal human rights, Harjriyanto said.
“We are at a crossroads that demands an alternative to violence in solving this century’s problems,” he said.