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National scene: RI needs moderate values to tackle radicalism
Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Sunday that Indonesia needed to tackle the issue of radicalism with a soft approach, encouraging moderate Islam instead of resorting to violence
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ice President Jusuf Kalla said on Sunday that Indonesia needed to tackle the issue of radicalism with a soft approach, encouraging moderate Islam instead of resorting to violence.
A confrontational approach involving the deployment of police and army personnel, he argued, would not be able to curb radical ideology.
'No matter how much power the police and the army have, [they] will not be able to eliminate radicalism without the use of ideology. That's why we need to resort to moderatism, the middle ground,' Kalla said as quoted by Kompas.com on Sunday in a speech during his visit to an Islamic boarding school in Maros, South Sulawesi.
Kalla told students and staff at the school, operated by Indonesia's largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, that Islamic boarding schools, which are considered to foster moderate Islam, played a significant role in countering radicalization in the country.
'Many Indonesians go to Saudi Arabia [to study Islam], but people are bombing each other there. It is even worse in Yemen and Syria. That's why individuals in Islamic boarding schools have an important role [in counter-radicalism],' Kalla said.
Kalla also expressed gratitude that Indonesia, unlike much of the Middle East, was not plagued with civil war and political turmoil, and urged the people of Indonesia to maintain social harmony.
