Building Moderate Muslim Networks by Angel Rabasa Cheryl Benard Lowell H. Schwartz Peter Sickle

Author:Angel Rabasa, Cheryl Benard, Lowell H. Schwartz, Peter Sickle [Rabasa, Angel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8330-4267-5
Publisher: RAND Corporation
Published: 2007-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Programmatic Priorities

The programs directed at the above audiences should have the following foci: democratic education, media, gender equality, and policy advocacy.

Democratic Education. The narrowly sectarian and regressive instruction on religion and politics dispensed at radical and conservative madrasas26 needs to be countered by a curriculum that promotes democratic and pluralistic values. As in many other areas where religion and society intersect, Indonesia is a leader in democratic religious education. The State Islamic University and Muhammadiyah educational systems have developed textbooks to teach civil education in an Islamic context. The courses are mandatory for all students attending these universities.

Some Muslim teachers, although of a moderate disposition, lack the ability to link Islamic teachings explicitly with democratic values. In response, the Asia Foundation has developed a program to assist the efforts of moderate ulama to mine Islamic texts and traditions for authoritative teachings that support democratic values. The result is a corpus of writings on fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) that support democracy, pluralism, and gender equality. These texts are on the cutting edge of progressive Muslim thinking and are in great demand internationally.

Institutions like the Nahdlatul Ulama–based Institute for Islamic and Social Studies (LKiS) hold that instead of creating specifically Islamic schools, Muslims should ensure that all institutions are infused with values of social justice and tolerance. The “i” in LKiS (which stands for Islam) is deliberately written in lower case to underscore that LKiS is against the type of Islamism that emphasizes Islam’s superiority over other religions. LKiS is currently involved in human-rights training in pesantren, the Indonesian Islamic boarding schools.27

The outcome of this work is the emergence in Indonesia of a coherent Muslim democracy movement with some unique features: (1) male ulama who campaign for gender equality; and (2) roots in mass-based organizations, giving the movement the capacity to reach a wide section of the populace at the grass-roots level in a way that urban-based secular groups cannot.

Media. The dissemination of information throughout most of the Muslim world is dominated by anti-democratic radical and conservative elements. In fact, there is no moderate media in some countries. A moderate alternative to the radical media is a critical tool in the war of ideas. Again, Indonesia provides a model, with numerous examples of moderate media:

The Liberal Muslim Network’s weekly radio program, “Religion and Tolerance,” reaches approximately 5 million listeners through 40 radio stations nationwide.

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