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xperts have urged the government to strengthen ties within communities to increase public participation in combating radicalism.

A senior researcher from the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) at State Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, Dadi Darmadi, said that until now the government had only involved scholars, researchers and law enforcers, but seemed to ignore the public.

'€œWomen, specifically mothers, could play an important role in deradicalization. They are directly involved with social activities, such as educating their children,'€ Dadi said at a workshop held by the German Embassy on Thursday.

He also emphasized the role of netizens in fighting radical narratives.

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can be easily used to spread extremism.

A video of Indonesian Abu Muhammad al-Indonesi calling on Indonesian Muslims to join the Islamic State (IS) group was disseminated through social media. A photo of firebrand Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'€™asyir with his followers, mainly from the Aceh military camp, with an IS flag in the background, was also widely circulated on social media.

In the same way, he said, netizens should spread ideas to counter radicalism on social media, challenging the radical doctrines.

'€œIt'€™s time for the government to move forward with a new approach that goes beyond religion,'€ Dadi said. '€œDeradicalization narratives should be spread openly.'€

Liberal Islamic Network (JIL) founder Ulil Abshar Abdalla suggested that the government provide such a web-based report center that would allow the public to log complaints or reports on the potential of radicalism in their surroundings.

Institute for Policy and Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) director Sidney Jones agreed that such recommendations would be useful to neutralize radicalism, especially for Indonesians studying or living abroad.

'€œThat'€™s one of the challenges for the Indonesian government to realize its counterterrorism agenda. The point is that the government has to adopt a more effective policy and immediately implement it,'€ Sidney said.

Meanwhile, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian acknowledged that the government had poor coordination with other relevant parties.

'€œIn fact, all we need is a good coordination among all parties, including the government, scholars, NGOs and the public, but that seems difficult to achieve. We can see that even coordination among ministries is still poor,'€ Tito said.

He went on to say that law enforcers in Indonesia also needed to coordinate with law enforcers from other countries, especially those located in terrorism-prone regions.

Thorsten Gerald Schneiders, a German political and Islamic scientist who is also an editor at German public broadcasting radio station Deutschlandfunk, said that Indonesia played a pivotal role in the international agenda of countering radicalism, considering its status as home to the world'€™s largest Muslim population.

'€œIndonesia already has a lot of good laws. They just need to be enforced well,'€ Schneiders said.

He added that Germany also faced the same threat; extremism that could potentially lead to violence and terrorism. (foy)