IPNU concerned Rokhis to promote radicalism in high schools

Jakarta, NU Online
The Nahdlatul Ulama Students  Association (IPNU) has expressed concern that the intra-student  organization Rokhani Islam (Rokhis) at public high schools in the  country will become a breeding ground of religious radicalism, a  spokesperson said.

Therefore, IPNU would urge the National Education Ministry to  change its policy of allowing only Rokhis to exist as an Islamic  students' club at public high schools in the country, IPNU chairman  Ahmad Syauqi said here Satu<>rday.

Speaking at an IPNU national conference to mark the oragnization's  58th anniversary at the University of Indonesia (UI) campus in  Depok, Ahmad Syauqi said IPNU would also ask the Nahdlatul  Ulama national congress to be held in Makassar on March 22-27 to  exert pressure on the national education minister to reconsider the  ministry`s decision regarding Rokhis or dissolve it as the only Muslim  high students` organization for religious activity.

Rokhis which was first set up based on an education ministry  decision issued in 1980 at first only engaged in cultural activities such  as helping make arrangements for the celebration of Islamic holy  days. "But since the 90s it gradually turned into a religious  organization that increasingly tended to become ideological in both  thinking and actions," he said as quoted by Antara.

The shift from cultural to ideological was perceptible in the views and  attitude of Rokhis activists which were tending to become exclusivist  and to consider pluralism as anathema, he said.

The inclination toward radicalism in Rokhis, according Achmad  Syauqi, was the beginning of Islamic revivalism in schools.  "Revivalism will grow along with the belief that the state's economic,  political and social systems have failed and the only viable alternative  is Islam," Syauqi said.

Therefore, he said, IPNU was stressing the need "to review the  education ministry's policy on religious organizations in schools to  prevent radicalism from taking root among school students." (dar)