Islamic Boarding Schools
Jul 19th, 2006, in News, by PatungHasyim Muzadi of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) says Islamic boarding schools are not breeding grounds for terrorists.
The accusation that Islamic boarding schools are not breeding grounds for terrorists is without good reason because the western countries don’t know about the boarding schools in Indonesia.
(Tuduhan terhadap pondok pesantren banyak melahirkan atau menimbulkan teroris sebenarnya tidak beralasan, karena negara-negara barat tidak mengetahui pondok pesantren yang ada di Indonesia.)
he said gatra, rather unsatisfactorily and without dealing with the issue of Al-Mukmin School, Ngruki. Speaking at the Pontianak Convention Center on Monday 17th July Muzadi went on to say that the western accusers of Islamic schools in Indonesia would have to provide evidence for their claims.
Then the Palestinian and Israel-Lebanon issue sprang to his mind:
In fact the emergence of terrorists is a form of revenge attack caused by the Israeli attack on Palestine.
(Justru teroris itu timbul karena serangan-serangan balasan yang diakibatkan oleh serangan Israel terhadap Palestina tersebut.)
That was how terrorism emerged in Indonesia, he said, to the point where Indonesia had become a victim of it, and not a producer of it. He cited as an example the Malaysian terrorist Dr Azhari who had carried out a number of atrocities in Indonesia. Why had he not done his work in his own country, Hasyim Muzadi asked. He did it because he viewed Indonesia as a country full of infidels.
That’s something we have to look into further. What does it mean that Dr Azhari could think that Indonesia was an infidel country?
(Hal itu yang perlu kita selidiki lebih lanjut. Karena apa maksudnya sampai-sampai Dr Azhari menuduh kita sebagai bangsa kafir.)
February 14th 2007. Badrudin, the head of an association of Islamic schools in the province of Banten, says that institutions in his body do not teach violence or radicalism at all.
Anything that smells of hatred is not taught at all, so it’s not true that Islamic schools are the basis for terrorism.
(Hal-hal yang berbau kebencian dan permusuhan sama sekali tak diajarkan, jadi tidak benar kalau pesantren merupakan basis terorisme.)
Islam is a “blessing for the world”, he says, and eschews any violence or terror, teaches peace and love, and protection for non-Muslim minorities. republika
Because of that we reject terroristic or radical teachings because they are not in accordance with Islam, above all killing innocent people. Terrorism is a great sin.
(Karena itulah kami menolak ajaran terorisme serta radikalisme karena tidak dibenarkan menurut agama islam, apalagi sampai membunuh orang-orang yang tak berdosa. Apapun alasannya terorisme itu perbuatan dosa besar)
March 29th 2007. Police in the province of Lampung, Sumatra, plan to “embrace” Islamic schools, in order to keep a closer watch on them. Police Brigadier General Suharijono Kamino says there is evidence that Lampung is a main base for the storage of explosives used by terrorist groups in past attacks and therefore the police will require the heads of pesantren to share information and report on the arrival of newcomers from outside the area to schools or their surroundings. kompas
20th April 2007. Said Agil Siradj of NU told vice president Jusuf Kalla on the 17th that NU schools were free of radicalism and terrorists.
I guarantee there is not a single NU boarding school student who is involved in terrorism.
He said there were about 11,000 NU boarding schools in the country and added that not one student attending them even had any sympathy for terrorists. The NU had always had a nationalist basis, he said, and never struggled for the establishment of an Islamic state. mediaindo
11 Comments on “Islamic Boarding Schools”
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Thats why we have to support the Pasukan Bom Jihad Palestina to provide good channeling for all terrorist wanabe.
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Molisan Tono says:
yo wadehel…
you need to brain wash dude… Bom Jihad is not the answer. Israel is absolutely lost their mind but violence is not the answer… take a good example… Rockstar said mostly his friends are Moslem but they can hang out together… why? love, peace and understanding.but you, i doubt that you can even manage a better world in your own house. get real dude!!!
I’m worry of you… so sad.
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O. Bule says:
It depends on the school and the culture. I know that in Pakistan, for instance, the vast majority of Islamic boarding schools are simply extremist indoctrination centers intended to turn out boys who are willing to murder people in the name of “Jihad”. I hope in Indonesia that this is not the case.
O. Bule
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Abu Sulaiman says:
O.Bule, said
“it depends on the school and the culture. I know that in Pakistan, for instance, the vast majority of Islamic boarding schools are simply extremist indoctrination centers intended to turn out boys who are willing to murder people in the name of “Jihad”.
Control the schools, control the youth, and control the future
I’m not even sure if this is the case in Pakistan. In the time of Muslim Rule over Spain when the Catholics were attempting to wrest power from the Muslims the first thing that they attacked were the Madrassas. The key to conquering a people is through conquering the minds of their youth. When the youth were focused on memorizing Quran, learning how to build societies and defend them the Catholics didn’t have a chance. When they got rid of the Madrassas Spain fell to the Christians in less than one generation
(Here is a short story to illustrate the fact: During the Crusades a local Christian chieftain was considering launching an attack upon the neighboring Muslim state. He pleaded with the Christian King and the Christian King said, “First go as a spy to the lands of the Muslims and investigate the condition of their youth” An investigation was made and the report came back as followed. ‘The Muslim youth are as active and engaged in the adults society, they compete on memorization of Quran and religious texts, they marry young and raise healthy families, and they also compete in archery and horsemanship.” The Christian King then responded, “leave them alone we will never conquer them.”
Generations later another Christian chieftain made the same request to launch an attack on the Muslims. At request of the Christian King another investigation was launched. The investigator returned to the Christian King and reported: I found no youth around at all until I walked by a tree and I saw a young man crying, I asked him what was wrong and he said “My girlfriend just left me” The Christian King after hearing this smiled and said “Prepare our forces we will attack now!”)The most obvious way that occupying forces can conquer a society is by dismantling the indigenous school system and replacing it with one that will breed future home grown occupiers that display more loyalty to the colonial power then they do to there actual homeland.
The case of Pakistan
Perves Musharuf is western educated and hence he has proven himself to give priority to the United States commercial interests over the social and political interests of his country. He boasts that he enjoys wearing silk shirts and every once in a while enjoys alcohol. Where did he pick up these habits? Let’s investigate: Musharraf was raised in Kemalist Turkey and proclaims that Mustafa Kemal (not he prophet Muhammad) is his hero. Musharraf received his secondary education in St. Patrick’s High School in Pakistan. St. Patrick’s is one of the few schools in a Pakistan that is completely controlled by the Roman Catholic Church. Musharaff later went on to study at Forman Christian College in Lahore Pakistan before joining Pakistan Military Academy.Now I believe that Allah blessed both Mustapha Kemal and Pervez Musharaf as brilliant military leaders however they will have to answer to the fact that they have not sued this blessing in order to serve this deen (With Mustapha its too late, its not to late for Musharaf..make Dua for him) . The Military is supposed to be apolitical. This means that it gives loyalty to what ever political power controls it. Although Musharaf has professed to be a Muslim when a military officer takes over a government he is going to ally himself with and govern upon the ideology of which he is most familiar with, which if often the ideology in which they received the majority their education in. The founders of these Christian academies were the religious wing of the powers that colonized India for the past 300 years. As of the case with many leaders, they are simply servants of their Christian colonial masters.
It would not surprise me one bit if many Christian schools in Indonesia can trace their roots to Dutch colonialism.Short history of Extremist schools in Pakistan
What is worth mentioning in the case of Pakistan is the fact that during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the CIA funded and opened the majority of the “Extremist Indoctrination Madrasahs” that existed. Their involvement went as deep as producing textbooks that taught children how to count by using “dead Russians” and AK rifles. This type of extremism was welcomed and fostered as long as the end result was the destruction of the Soviet Union. To quote (Al Hajj Malik) Malcom X “The chickens have now come home to roost.” The Soviet Union has fallen and the graduates of these schools have now turned on their masters. How was the United States so sure of the fact that Pakistan had built and was running schools that indoctrinated children in extremist ideologies?.. Well they wrote the textbooks for those schools and paid the salary of the teachers.This is why it never advisable for a teacher, or principal or community leader to turn over their educational institution to any state or regulatory committee. While the temporary funding and benefits they offer may be tempting the results, as in the case of Pakistan, can be disastrous.
Reality of American consumerism and education
In contrast the US education system from kindergarten to PhD level is a breeding ground for consumerism. Creative thought, initiative, intellect, and leadership is destroyed in the minds of most Americans by the time they complete elementary school. The goal of the USDOE (US Department of Education) is to develop a passive population that displays predictable reactions to authority, not independent minds. It also needs a slavish class of workers and consumers to keep the economy running smoothly by making sure that the wealth comes straight from the impoverished directly into the hands of the wealthy.Here is a story to illustrate this reality. A young Indonesian girl is handcuffed to a sewing machine and works a 12 hour shift with no bathroom break. Her job is to produce Nike sneakers. She only makes less than the equivalent of $1 USD for a full day of work. That sneaker will sell in the US for up to $100USD and some American working class fool will exhaust 3 days of pay in order to purchase this sneaker. If either of them had independent minds they could work together. The American sneaker fanatic could purchase the sneaker from the girl directly for one fourth of the price or $25 dollars. While the girl could produce two pairs of sneakers for less than $5 USD. She can use the remaining $20 USD to pay for shipping and to buying her own materials and sewing equipment for the production of at least 10 more sneakers. As soon as the second pair of sneakers is sold for another $25 USD her overhead costs are paid for. In less than one days work she has now made 25 times the amount that she would take home from Nike and she now has the capacity to make $250 USD worth of sneakers which will sell quickly after word gets around that it’s the same shoe for ¼ of the price. What most important is that she is no longer chained to a sewing machine and she can work at her own pace from at home, study, help with her family, or relax.
This is just a generic example of the type of business practices that can be conducted when the laborer and consumer are both innovated and not indoctrinated. This is also the exact type of entrepreneurial thinking that the USDOE strives to erase from the minds of Americans.
American Pondok Pesantren.
Many parents and educators have studied the American educational phenomena and seen are not satisfied with the results. In protest many parents have taken their children out of school and educated them at home. Often times they form associations of professionals who rotate in the instruction of their children. This movement is known as the home-schooling movement. There are over 2 million people registered as home-schoolers and even more who are unregistered. The government has tried everything from bribes in order to get these students back in school. Regardless of the campaign the numbers of home-schoolers are growing.Interestingly enough home-schooling is attacked in the media, the same way Pondok Pesantren, or Madrassas are attacked. The only difference between the homeschoolers in the US and Pesantri in Indonesia is that the majority of home-schoolers in the US are Christians. The Media preferred method of attack is to label homeschoolers as being Radical Christian Fundamentalists”¦Sound Familiar? Once Muslims start following suit in large numbers it won’t take a genius to guess what the article on the cover of the NY times will be.
The bottom line is that the government dislikes any institutions that they cannot regulate and control, and this seems to be the case with most Pesantren in Indonesia.
I really respect Abdurrahman Wahid for the reason of his educational background. I think Indonesia can serve as a model for the Muslim world to follow but guard your education since it is precious. Many Americans have learned the hard way that multimillion dollar budgets and technology in the classroom does not improve quality of education. The Columbine massacre and the Virginia Tech shooting are only samples as to what type of extremists American schools are breeding. -
caroline says:
I believe strongly for a good islamic boarding schools. Many parents living both in Muslim and non-Muslim countries are struggling with their teenagers from the many issues in the community. Parents working trying to raise their children and trying to keep them from harm but this is not enough. Kids are no longer interested in studying or having a future. This does not mean they are interested in terrorism either.
They need a structure where people with the true meaning of Islamic life as our prophet has lived, to teach our children that it is peace that we want and honesty and that we are all responsible to keeping our environment and the earth in good working order. As well as education is an important part of Islam to be a productive member of society.Boarding school helps keep our children limited with the temptation of technology and understand the meaning of being independent but as well responsible.
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Laurence says:
Abu,
I think you need a reality check. US extremist schools?? Indonesian sweat shop worker make the shoes herself, where she get the capital, pay for imported leather and patents?? What a load of rubbish.
I hardly believe any Islamic school scholars are up there with the best from USA or other Western schools, Western schools are full of islamic students trying to get a “world” education so they can compete at international level in business.
How many islamic scholars have won the noble peace prize from something they have done in there own country?
Don’t want to islamic bash, but sometimes cannot help it when I read the rubbish posted.
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Oigal says:
Abu.
Got any more little bedtime stories for us, you are good for a laugh
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Odinius says:
There have been some pretty exhaustive studies of the Islamic school system in Indonesia, and they’ve found that only a very small percentage of the country’s 2.5 million Islamic schools can be characterized as “extremist.” Most accept and teach Pancasila, democracy, etc.
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Nay says:
@Abu
Interesting read. Western education has been slowly going down the drain for decades.
I tend to like this little speech by American comedian and writer, George Carlin.
I don’t think he was anti-God as much as he was anti-religion.“There’s a reason for this, there’s a reason education sucks, and it’s the same reason it will never ever ever be fixed. It’s never going to get any better. Don’t look for it. Be happy with what you’ve got… because the owners of this country don’t want that. I’m talking about the real owners now… the real owners. The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. That’s right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting f*** by a system that threw them overboard 30 f*** years ago. They don’t want that. You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your f*** retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later ’cause they own this f*** place. It’s a big club and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in the big club. By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table has tilted, folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Good, honest, hard-working people: white collar, blue collar, it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good, honest, hard-working people continue — these are people of modest means — continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a f*** about them. They don’t give a f*** about you. They don’t give a f*** about you. They don’t care about you at all! At all! At all! And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes every day, because the owners of this country know the truth. It’s called the American Dream, ’cause you have to be asleep to believe it. “
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There have been some pretty exhaustive studies of the Islamic school system in Indonesia, and they’ve found that only a very small percentage of the country’s 2.5 million Islamic schools can be characterized as “extremist.”
That may well be true, but I would then yet a another rant about the perils and misdeeds of Western Education whilst ignoring the generally abysmal state of Education in Indonesia and for that matter the Islamic world borders of abject nonsense.
Kind of sad really as one of the strides forward was the Islamic religion’s emphasis on education for all in the beginning.
Nay,
I do find it interesting someone such as yourself would choose Carlin as a muse..Carlin became an atheist and often denounced the idea of a God in interviews and performances, notably with his “Religion” and “There Is No God” routines as heard in You Are All Diseased.
“I’ve got 341 days of sobriety,” referring to the rehab he entered after being fired from MGM. Topics covered included suicide, natural disasters (and the impulse to see them escalate in severity), cannibalism, genocide, human sacrifice, threats to civil liberties in America, and how an argument can be made that humans are inferior to animals.
Despite the above, assume your point is Islamic Nations have spread the wealth and knowledge better amongst their people than the “failed” American democracy? I think it would be only fair to nominate those countries as obviously a fair and equitable model is one we should all follow.
Comment on “Islamic Boarding Schools”.
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I know there are some boarding schools in Bandung that really teach the true value of Islam. About 85% of my friends in college were Moslems. I used to go to their houses just to hang out. Two of my friend’s house are located next to the boarding school, so often time I could listen to the preach as well.