Pluralistic Islamic Religious Education: A Vision for Indonesia

Abstract

This essay argues for the development of a pluralistic Islamic religious education in Indonesia based on the principles of positive pluralism, in which students can hold tightly to their convictions while at the same time understand, accept, and engage with those who differ in beliefs. Specifically, this essay focuses on how to develop an Islamic Religious Education—Pendidikan Agama Islam (PAI) in Indonesian—that is pluralistic, shaping students who are open-minded, tolerant, and have a positive outlook on accepting and working together in the midst of differences.

Keywords:

• Islam
• positive pluralism
• religious education
• Islamic education
• Indonesia
• Pancasila

Indonesia is a diverse nation in terms of religion, language, and ethnicity. The country is home to Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and Baha’is as well as indigenous religious communities. There are about 733 languages in Indonesia and 1340 ethnic groups. There is also great diversity within the Indonesian Muslim community, the world’s largest. Various madzhab fikq (schools of jurisprudence), theological streams, organizations, and movements flourish within the community.

There are varied responses to this diversity within Indonesia. On the one hand there are radical, fundamentalist, and conservative groups which to tend to be closed-minded. They reject differences. By contrast, pluralist and inclusive groups respond positively, open-mindedly, and tolerantly to groups with different beliefs. They even establish cooperation with other groups (see Schmidt-Leukel 2005, 13–27).

In this essay,¹ my starting point is a positive outlook on differences. For instance, the essay concurs that differences within the Islamic ummah can be a source of wealth and a blessing (Khalili 2011, 466), which, if carefully managed, will bring progress to the ummah. Specifically, this essay focuses on the study of how to develop an Islamic Religious Education—Pendidikan Agama Islam (PAI) in Indonesian—that is pluralistic, shaping students who are open-minded, tolerant, and have a positive outlook on accepting and working together in the midst of differences as appropriate to the teachings of Islam.

Religious communities in Indonesia generally live in harmony, but there are still problems with intolerance. The roots of the problem are complex. Among the sources of religious intolerance is Islamic Religious Education, including its material, media, and study sources, and the religious knowledge of teachers. Research by the Center for the Study of Islam and Society of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta of students at the pre-university and university level show prominent symptoms of intolerance (PPIM UIN Jakarta 2018). The survey indicates 58.5% of students tend to have radical views, 51.1% are intolerant towards their co-religionists and 34.3% are intolerant of followers of other religions. This means that students are more tolerant toward other religious communities than toward their co-religionists—especially groups like Shia and Ahmadiyah that are considered deviant. These attitudes and views are influenced by three main factors: Islamic Religious Education teachers and materials, information about religion on the internet, and perceptions of Islamism in relation to government performance. The study’s findings are in line with surveys of the religious views of Muslim teachers in primary to secondary schools and madrasas. Using the implicit association test (IAT) tool, the survey (Abdallah 2020) concluded that 63.07% of the teachers was intolerant toward other religions, while with explicit measuring tools, the level of intolerance was 56.90%.

However, the survey among the students (PPIM UIN Jakarta 2018) also found that the majority of students of both lower and upper levels of education showed a high level of interest in learning from and interacting with followers of other religions. They agree to have an Islamic Religious Education that discusses common problems (70.75%), exchanges experiences (79.12%), and have discussions to reduce negative stereotypes (89.24%) with adherents of other religions. The majority (67.56%) also agree to have course contents that respect local cultures.

The road is open to allow the development of pluralistic Islamic Religious Education on the principles of positive pluralism (Mu’ti and Khoirudin 2019) in which students can hold tightly to their convictions while at the same time understand, accept, and engage with those who differ in beliefs. Pluralistic PAI is not a form of talfiq (amalgamation), syncretism, or agnosticism. In this regard Pluralistic PAI is similar to the philosophy of “covenantal pluralism” (Stewart, Seiple, and Hoover 2020). In Pluralistic PAI, students are given perspectives that allow them to see something from many angles, to evaluate critically, and make choices freely and responsibly. This paper offers the renewal of PAI as a solution to build harmony and tolerance based on shared values, educational policy, and legislation.

According to Government Regulation [PP] 55/2007 Article 2[1] and 5[3 and 4], in addition to the aim of shaping persons of faith who are pious, with noble morals and Pancasila character, religious education is also an important part of creating and maintaining agreement, peace, mutual respect, and harmony among followers of other religions. It also aims to make religion the ethical and moral foundation in individual, family, public, community, and national life. Religious education does not just focus on the formation of spiritual piety, but also on social piety and national piety (muwathonah²).

In line with the purpose, function, and goals of education, religious education is taught in accordance with the religion of the students and taught by teachers of the same religion (55/2007, Article 4 [2]) as the right of students (Law 20/2003, Article 12 [1.a]). Religious instructors are provided by the Government or the Regional Government according to the needs of the education units. Since the Dutch colonial period and the New Order (the 1960s to the 1990s), a system of religious education has been developed using the “teaching into religion” approach (Grimmit 1987), where religious teaching is directed more to building religious commitment. Teaching tends to be doctrinaire, giving rise to fanaticism. Some circles criticize the provisions of religious education as an exclusive system that creates social segregation. According to others, this policy is in fact more pluralistic and appropriate, pedagogically, psychologically and sociologically, for a plural society.

Referring to Regulation of the Minister of Religion (PMA) 16/2010, the organization of religious education in schools should be implemented at the least through courses on religion (Article 1) whose scope includes the teachings of Islam, Protestant Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism (Article 2 [2]). In addition to these six religions, based on the Regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture (Permendikbud) 27/2016, followers of indigenous faiths in Indonesia also receive their own education services. Nonetheless, not all students in schools are able to receive religious education appropriate to their religion. Students can receive religious education according to their religion and be taught by coreligionist teachers when several conditions have been met (Article 4 [1]): (a) when in a class, the number of students of the same religion is at least 15, then religious education must be given in the class; (b) when the number of students of the same religion in a class is less than 15, but overall in one education unit (school) there are at least 15 people, then religious education is implemented with a separate schedule which is not detrimental to students for taking other courses; (c) when students of the same religion in an education unit are less than 15, then religious education is implemented in collaboration with other schools or religious institutions within the district.

Despite the threat of administrative sanctions (55/2007, Article 7 [1]), in practice religious education has not been implemented as required. There are five practices across a spectrum of implementation of religious education in education units. First, the implementation of religious education in accordance with statutory law. Second, religious education given according to the religion of the student but taught by someone whose core teaching subject is not religious education. Third, religious education taught in accordance with the religion of the education unit which is different from the religion of the students. Fourth, religious education given alongside adherents of other religions. Fifth, religious education in which the teachings of various religions are studied under the guidance of a religious teacher of the education unit.

The non-implementation of the provisions of religious education is the result of several factors. First, a shortage of religious teachers. According to data from the Ministry of Religion, there are four problems: insufficient numbers of religious education teachers, disproportionate distribution, uncompleted certification, and poor competency. Second, theological factors. Many education units characterized by a particular religion are not provided with religious education appropriate to the religion of the students for reasons of religious mission. Even though it is voluntary and is not aimed at religious conversion, education is systematically used to propagate religion or a certain understanding. Third, technical factors. Many education units do not have the human resources or funding to meet the statutory provisions. With the agreement of students or parents, the education unit “pragmatically” merges religious education for students who number less than 15 with the majority religion.

Pluralistic PAI: Paths Toward Renewal

To achieve the goals of national education and the role of Islamic religious education in cultivating people who are religious, pious, and have noble character in a harmonious, peaceful, and orderly society, there needs to be a renewal of policy, approach, curriculum, and evaluation. The direction of renewal should be developed according to the basic values of Pluralistic PAI, educational policy and legislation, and national trends.

A more inclusive religious education policy is needed to ensure that the civil rights of citizens, particularly minority groups, are protected. The Minister of Religion Regulation No. 16/201 Article 2 concerning the scope of religious education, and Article 4 concerning the implementation of religious education in schools, need to be changed. The scope of religious education which only covers six “official religions” makes citizens embracing other religions, outside these six religions, lose their right to religious education. The implementation of religious education that requires the minimum number of 15 (fifteen) students of the same religion should be changed.

I want to argue for changes in the paradigm of PAI leading to religious education which is more mindful, meaningful, and fun.

Mindful means “devoting thought and care or attention to somebody/something” (Hornby 1989, 787). In the context of PAI, mindful education contains the following three aspects.

First, it contains identity recognition and the acceptance of the presence of differences. In the midst of the pluralism of the Islamic community, a mindful PAI is one that provides a place for all students who differ in manhaj (the methodology by which truth is reached) and hold different maddhab (Islamic schools of thought). In practice, there are tendencies in PAI for teachers and education units to ignore or sideline differences in the religious background of students. Teachers tend not to be mindful of the existence of religious diversity among their students. In addition to religion, manhaj and Islamic organization affiliations should become a part of students’ profiles.

Second, mindful religious education should be student-centered. PAI, and education in Indonesia in general, is still too teacher-centered. The teacher is the main actor, the source of learning, and the one who determines a student’s “success.” Learning tends to give no space for difference. Following the “teaching into religion” approach, PAI tends to be top-down, one-sided, and doctrinaire. Students tend to learn with an achievement orientation and not one of deep learning (Biggs and Moore 1993, 307). This learning approach is one in which students are motivated to deepen their knowledge, discover meaning, and connect lessons with prior knowledge, life experience, and readiness in the future. In mindful learning, the task of education is to guide, encourage, and facilitate students to think critically, and have “eureka!” moments. With this method, students can realize the existence of pluralities and the justifiable variations (ikhtilaf) as a process. This process determines high-level thinking and critical thinking skills: how to understand a problem, compare various views, analyze thoughts and opinions, build arguments, draw conclusions, and determine one’s own thoughts (Foresman, Fosl, and Watson 2017). At the end of the learning process, the teacher does not grade according to correct or incorrect and does not direct students to choose a particular view. Critical and openminded thinking is the learning method that is emulated and commanded in the Qur’an. The Qur’an repeatedly instructs humans to use the intellect (aql) as the way to gain knowledge and truth (Abdullah 1982, 81).

Third, mindful education involves a process of dialogue. The teacher can encourage students to explain religious experiences and religious practices. Regarding the nature of prayer (kaifiat shalat), for example, the teacher can ask a student to perform shalat according to custom within his or her family or community. Through this process, PAI can accustom the student to live in a pluralistic classroom environment. Students develop self-confidence, feel that their presence is accepted, and have the opportunity to learn from fellow students.

The second path of the renewed approach to PAI is meaningful learning. Learning will be meaningful when it is in accordance with the level of development and ability, answers questions, meets needs, and equips for the present and future. The approach is learner-centered. Learning is not top-down, but rather bottom-up, not textual but contextual. This type of learning is not new, especially since the Student Active Learning Method (SALM) system was introduced in the 1990s. In practice, SALM is implemented by giving tasks to the student or answering questions based on a student workbook. The learner-centered approach makes learning meaningful when it is developed based on a metacognitive learning approach. Learning is a natural process by which the student has an intrinsic drive to search out and interpret information with knowledge and passion. Learning is a knowledge construction process that involves high-level thinking processes and executive learning processes by which the student is able to plan, implement, and evaluate a series of learning processes and results, and to know how to improve them (American Psychological Association 1993). Learning and study materials are developed according to the reality of the student’s life, including daily religious matters, so that they can be beneficial and enlightening.

A third path of renewal is fun (menyenangkan) learning. This method is also not new. For more than a decade, fun learning has been developed in Indonesia. The Ministry of Religion has developed active, innovative, creative, effective, and fun learning (PAIKEM in Indonesian). Several schools have developed active, innovative, creative, effective, fun, joyful, and meaningful learning (PAIKEM GEMBROT in Indonesian). Unfortunately, however, it seems that PAIKEM and PAIKEM GEMBROT are too often limited to slogans. Religious learning still remains an unpopular subject, and in several cases has actually become a matter of ridicule. Besides being considered not important and uninteresting, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center (Tamir, Connaughton, and Sarazar 2020) and Twenge (2018, 130) in general the millennial generation or iGen around the world, with Indonesia no exception, tends to be irreligious, not close to religion or properly practicing it. Fun learning (pembelajaran yang menyenangkan) which ought to be enjoyable, should be translated as fun-filled learning (pembelajaran yang lucu). Fun learning is a heritage and tradition in PAI. According to Al-Syaibani (1979, 615–619), learning is fun when it brings renewal, novelty, creativity, originality, freedom of thought, reflectiveness, and creates a good impression and experience.

Alongside making religious education in Indonesia more mindful, meaningful, and fun, another path of renewal in Pluralistic PAI is a change of curriculum. The curriculum load of PAI is too content-heavy. A PPIM (PPIM UIN Jakarta 2020) analysis of PAI curriculum as in Regulation of the Ministry of Education and Culture (Permendikbud) 21/2016 concluded that there was too much content in the curriculum of PAI, much of which was redundant and lacking in material related to national life, tolerance, and the appreciation of differences. Research by the National Education Standards Agency (NESA) is in line with that of PPIM. NESA is currently revising eight National Education Standards, including those of PAI content. The new National Education Standards are more concise and denser with essential content. Not everything needs to be taught in school. Students have limited time and capacity.

Therefore, what is needed is a renewal of curriculum and the content of PAI that is integrated with other disciplines and with the environment of family and society. The study burden needs to be reduced by giving students the opportunity to study in the community. Students experience social and religious disengagement with peers and traditional Islamic educational institutions, such as mosques and mushalla, as a result of the overly long hours of study in education units. Borrowing Dweck’s term (2017, 7) in regard to content, PAI curricula should be developed with the principle of a “growth mindset” and not a “fixed mindset.” A growth mindset is a positive outlook in seeing reality and opening the hope to be better by constant learning and self-improvement. Someone might fail and not learn much in an education unit, but with optimism and passion for lifelong learning, he or she will succeed. In terms of learning strategies, there is material taught in education units and in society at large. For example, the procedures of shalat do not need to be taught in a school, as learning in the community will be sufficient. Students learn how to perform shalat in the mosque/mushalla. But naqli arguments and the wisdom of shalat in life needs to be discussed in class. How to be filial to one’s parents also does not need to be taught. Students are simply tasked with making reports on how they interact with their parents in accordance with local social culture and good manners within the family.

Study materials can be enriched by making good use of religious material on the internet. Proper use of the internet has two implications. One is to enrich and broaden study material. Another is to apply clarification and correction to sources and material that are not compliant with the basic teachings of Islam, that split the ummah, and that are antithetical to the Pancasila state.

Finally, another key path of PAI renewal is to improve the system of evaluation. So far, the evaluation of PAI has placed too much emphasis on low-level cognitive aspects: basic knowledge and understanding. Presently evaluation is more related to declarative knowledge, knowledge which is connected with facts (the what) and less to procedural knowledge connected with the how and why. Learning is more quantitative: rote memory and an emphasis on how much is learned, not on the quality of it (how well). Evaluation puts more emphasis on the function of evaluating learning and less on the function of evaluating for learning and evaluating as learning. The aspects of character and morality as a measure of the success of PAI often escapes evaluation. There are many cases of students achieving high and satisfactory PAI scores but whose morals are deplorable.

The evaluation in PAI should place more emphasis on qualitative aspects through self-reflection. At a certain level, the approach of teaching from religion—teaching from religious experiences and values, rather than simply teaching of knowledge (Grimmit 1987)—can be developed. The evaluation model with multiple choice tests should be abandoned. Apart from being irrelevant to the goals of PAI, these can also lead to uniformity of understanding of religion. In “objective” tests, only one answer is correct. But in fact, in matters of religion within Islam, especially ritual, there are many differences of opinions, each supported by naqli (revealed knowledge) and aqli (acquired knowledge). For example, in the matter of the prescription of ablution (rukun wudlu) and matters that invalidate ablution, there are differences of opinion between the Maliki, Syafii, Hanafi, and Hambali schools of legal thought. There are still many other khilafiah in matters of worship (ibadah) and rules governing commercial transactions (muamalah) that are impossible to explore and discuss in objective tests with multiple-choice questions. With the elimination of the national examination (UN) and the national-standardized school test (USBN), it’s time that the national PAI examination no longer be held.

Conclusion

Religious education generally, and Islamic Religious Education specifically, is a very important, strategic, and necessary course of study in the context of the goals of national education and the shaping of national character and identity in Indonesia. In the midst of moral problems, the growth of intolerance, and religiously tinged violence, religious education and PAI is increasingly needed to nurture a principled, positive religious plurality, and to help build harmony, peace, concord, and the unity of the nation. PAI is also required so that religion can play a more meaningful role in driving the nation’s progress in various aspects of national and state life. Pluralistic Islamic Education is not limited to studying matters of worship but must be developed beyond fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) by the contextualization of religion with present-day life and addressing the challenges of the future. Through PAI, the students are expected to be more aware of the global issues of the ummah and humanity as a whole.

In the midst of a globalized world, renewal of the PAI system is needed to more deeply form a pluralistic generation. PAI needs to be developed in a more pluralistic direction, based on the values of Islamic pluralism and a model of learning that is mindful, meaningful, and joyful.

A key to all these aspirations is to improve teacher ability. For this to happen, teacher profiles must change. Academic, professional, and social competency needs to be strengthened with digital skills. The government needs to meet the number of PAI teachers required, fulfill certification, and upgrade PAI teacher competency in a well-balanced way. There are still many PAI teachers of the colonial generation with a feudal mentality. The millennial generation needs PAI teachers who are openminded, pluralist, and have a global perspective.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Abdul Mu’ti

Abdul Mu’ti is Secretary General of Muhammadiyah and a lecturer on the Faculty of Islamic Education and Teacher Training at the Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah.

Notes

1 The essay is an abridged and adapted version of a speech given by Prof. Abdul Mu’ti, UIN Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta, September 2, 2020.

2 Acknowledgment of the nation-state and honoring citizenship.