In my senior high years in a madrasa or pesantren, from 1991 to 1994, some of my friends were voluntarily involved in an Islamic youth organization which had a strong desire to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia.
But luckily, our senior teachers were able to find out about their activities and discuss it with the students.
One of the teachers examined the "brainwashing process" of the organization and concluded its teaching was against Islamic teachings. Some of the students agreed with the teachers, while others kept their radical ideas buried deep.
Although it is true that Soeharto was repressive toward Islamic-based organizations, the community around the madrasa mostly shared our teachers' views about the radical organization.
The wisdom of our teachers was pivotal in maintaining the mainstream ideas on Islam.
This is only one example, and on a micro level. There were many other success stories we could take into account.
Two of them are certainly how the two biggest Islamic organizations in Indonesia have successfully represented such a wonderful civilization, eliminating or sidelining the radical Islamic movement or ideas in modern Indonesia.
Even during Soeharto's 32-year rule, the biggest Islamic organization in Indonesia, the Nahdlatul Ulama's (NU) Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, who later became the country's fourth president, fought fiercely for pluralism, social equality, and diversity of culture.
Many of its leaders, such as KH. Musthofa Bisri or KH. Salahuddin Wahid, even now are still in the front line to preserve the existence of Indonesian diversity through multiple cultural approaches And many of its young scholars, incredibly, are defending the rights of the minorities, often in conflict with radical Muslim organizations.
Another prominent Islamic organization, the Muhammadiyah, has too continuously focused on strengthening peaceful civil society in Indonesia.
It even established thousands of loosely Islamic- and modern-based schools throughout Indonesia where boys and girls have the same rights to go to school.
Aisyiah, the women's branch of the organization, has also established thousands of early childhood schools all over Indonesia.
And there are many other Islamic social organizations where women, for example, enjoy relatively equal rights and political freedom, and where the foundational principles never include honor killings or blood vengeance, such as the ones found in some parts of the Middle East.
The April 9 legislative election proved again how Islamic-based parties failed to win a majority of seats in parliament both at central or regional levels.
Most people seemed to have chosen nationalism-based parties rather than incline toward the religious ones. It certainly means that most people believe in the continuation of the current conducive atmosphere of political and social life.
However, the current tendency toward a more radical interpretation of Islam, not only in Indonesia but also on a world scale, could be understood and be solved respectively based on the Indonesian example.
But that does not mean there is no danger of radicalism here. The radical groups are very small but very active, and most of them are die-hards.
The well-educated Islamic teachers need be deeply involved to give their services at the mosques and in Islamic learning forums to challenge the hard-liners, who will never stop trying to spread their one-sided beliefs.
None of us, for example, would like to see this well-established multicultural community be destroyed by the current tendencies of several provinces, regencies and cities to enact - reportedly about 151 - sharia bylaws.
If society itself does not strongly endorse the efforts to review and reject these rules, we are likely to see more conflicts, or even violence, occurring in our society.
The writer is currently a teacher at Lazuardi Global School -Indonesia.
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