V

ice President Jusuf Kalla launched on Saturday the android-based da’wah Islamic preaching app at Istiqlal mosque in Jakarta.

The app was developed by the Indonesian Mosque Council to assist people to preach Islam.

“The mosque management is different from that of the past. It is more and more advanced, more efficient,” Vice President Kalla said, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Development in the preaching of Islam in mosques should also follow the development of technology, to make it easy for the public to discover and use the mosque as a positive activity, Kalla emphasized.

“As a part of Indonesian society, I feel proud and happy that mosques will have a wide network through the application of android-based proselytizing,” Kalla said.

Concerns over radical content in mosque sermons have increased amid news of the growing influence of Islamic State (IS) militant group.

The National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) and the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) have also cooperated with the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) to curb the spread of radical sermons across mosques as part of the government’s long-term deradicalization program.

As part of cooperation efforts, it has been agreed that preachers from the MUI and moderate Islamic organizations will communicate with those mosques and pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) that BNPT and BIN suspect may have spread religious dogma, sufficient to lead to extremism and terrorism.

The government hopes the program will transform radical preachers and teachers into moderate ones.