US anthropologist to study peaceful jihad of pesantren

For some the word of "jihad" has raised such a negative connotation used to label Muslim extremists committing violence in the name of religion.

Then what is the meaning of jihad in the eye of the US anthropologist Prof Ronald Alan Lukers-Bull? In this respect he describes the word based on extensive ethnographic research in his book entitled "The Jihad of Pesantren in the Eye of US Anthropologist" that was discussed by the Research and Development Board of the Department of Religious Affairs of RI in Jakarta on Thursday (11/9).

"Jihad for pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) is facing globalization, reconceptualizing modernity based on the line of thoughts appropriate with Muslim people and Indonesians to compete in world market," he said.

He explained that Islamic community had responded to modernity in various ways. In the past for instance, Turk had successfully adopted modernity as a whole as the same as in the West. But there have been Islamic groups that reject all coming from the West. "Indonesia is a mixture integrating both," Lukens-Bull said.

Unfortunately, by quoting the statement of an expert on Islam Bernard Lewis, Lukens-Bull said that what had most of the time happened was the integration of negative elements of both the West and Islam.

Lukens-Bull said pesantren would always be able to actualize the concept of al muhafadhotu alal qodimis sholih wal akhdzu bil jadidil ashlah (Defending old good traditions and taking better new ones).

"The modernity has been taken by pesantren, but what they have taken is the useful one," he said.

Respecting the allegations of some people or researchers saying that pesantren is the hotbed of terrorists, Lukens-Bull strongly rejected.

He admitted there had been some pesantren introducing radical views but they could no longer be considered to have represented pesantren as a whole. While, he added, the number of pesantren labeled as radical had remained obscure.

"For instance, there are 100 (radical) pesantren. It is really very small if compared with 18.000 pesantren in Indonesia," he said.

Lukens-Bull said that the education jihad conducted by pesantren circles has been able to bring changes to world with greater and longer influence than any political effort or violence.

This book is the result of his research for his dissertation entitled "A Peaceful Jihad: Javanese Islamic Education and Religious Identity Construction" at the Arizona State University.