F

rom helping rebuild the fragmented society in post-Yugoslavia Bosnia-Herzegovina to ending a civil war in the Ivory Coast, soccer has played important roles in bringing peace to the world and is arguably considered the most effective, universally accepted means to help eradicate hatred among people.

It was also apparent in Indonesia, home to hundreds of millions of soccer aficionados, when recently three professional players of different religions — a Hindu, Muslim and Christian — celebrated their team’s goal by demonstrating the three religions’ prayer positions, the photograph of which has gone viral. The peace ambassadorial role of soccer is again being highlighted by Indonesia’s biggest Islamic organization, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), as it prepares to commence a competition among thousands of pesantren (Islamic boarding school) to “ensure the unity of NKRI [the Unitary State of Republic of Indonesia].”

Entering its third year, the Liga Santri Nusantara (The Archipelago’s Muslim Students League) will begin its two-month run on August, gathering 1,024 pesantren from across Indonesia.

The NU claimed this year’s edition would help unify the country being rocked by sectarian issues and an alarming rise of radicalism.

“The situation in this country is changing. That’s why this year, the league’s motto is ‘from pesantren to NKRI.’ We believe pesantren are the foremost partner of the state in fostering unity among people in this country,” the league’s chairman, Abdul Ghaffar Rozin, also chairman of NU’s wing overseeing pesantren the Rabitnah Ra’ahud Islamiyah (RMI), said during a visit to The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The NU’s reason for choosing soccer to promote unity and tolerance is simple. Soccer is a populist means of communication and the most popular sport among pesantren students, Abdul said. When students cannot find a suitable ball to play with, a ball made from durian may be used.

In the longer term, the NU is hoping the league is sustainable, believing it could strengthen the organization’s bid to form a network of pesantren in the country, with Abdul saying it was “important to make sure we can reach all pesantren in Indonesia” amid the spread of radical teachings.

The number of pesantren in Indonesia is estimated to reach about 27,000, 23,300 of which are NU-owned. Abdul acknowledged it was difficult to monitor the pesantren toeing the NU’s line or those that had been infected by radicalism.

Abdul singled out the condition of pesantren in West Java, which, according to him, had the most pesantren among the 34 provinces, but had fewer pesantren students than East Java. He explained the spread of radicalism was omnipresent among pesantren in West Java, which is notorious for being the most intolerant province in Indonesia for the past three years, according to surveys.

“In East Java, it is easier to conclude which pesantren have been infiltrated by radicalism. They are mostly located in and around Blitar and Pasuruan. Also, we haven’t experienced many issues in identifying these kinds of pesantren in Central Java. They can be found around Surakarta, the hometown of our President,” Abdul said.

The league’s executive director, Mohamad Alfuniam, said Vice President Jusuf Kalla was expected to attend the kickoff match slated for the first week of August in Pinrang, South Sulawesi, while also expressing hope President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo would attend the final series of the league to be held in Bandung, West Java.

The first stage of the league is divided into 32 groups consisting of 32 teams each. The best teams from each group will compete in the final series that will run for eight days.

The league’s marketing director, Abdul Aziz, a businessman who hails from Bandung and former pesantren student, expressed his hope that the competition could produce wonder kids as the backbone of Indonesia’s soccer national team, which has been a pariah for a long time.