Support for Radical Religious
Attitudes and Behavior
Indonesian Survey Institute
(LSI, Lembaga Survei Indonesia)
Background
Religious attitudes and behavior, especially among Muslims, are
of increasing interest to national and international audiences.
Some believe that certain variants of Islam, or even Islam itself
(Huntington 1993), are a source of intolerance that is disruptive of social harmony in plural societies.
A series of violent actions have been carried out in the name of
religion, e.g Imam Samudera and associates.
At the national level, the government plans to “supervise“
(mengawasi) a number of traditional religious boarding schools to prevent the growth of violent versions of Islam.
“Radical Islam” is a set of attitudes and behavior intended to
replace the present social and political order with one based on a certain understanding of Islamic teachings.
Is there good reason to be fearful of radical Islamic attitudes
Radical religious actions
Actions to replace the present social
and political order with a different one,
either new or old, based on a certain
religious understanding.
These actions may be carried out
The Islamic system of values,
norms and laws
The value system of a social order is not easy to specify, especially if
that order no longer physically exists. Perhaps it existed historically, for example in the caliphate with its many variants, but is now accessible only in documents or community memories. Only its signs and
symptoms remain visible.
This value system can be expressed in norms, regulations or laws
passed down from earlier times. These may be found in books and in the thoughts, attitudes and behavior of the community. If they are not formally present in a society, and we want to know if they really exist or not, we have to search for them as potential norms or laws.
Suppose that there is an Islamic value system that underlies a social
and political order different from ours, and that its proponents want to implement.
Those norms or laws are very different from our current norms and
The radical agenda
The following Islamic norms or laws are not part of our legal
system. Voices are nonetheless heard in favor of their
implementation. We look for their potential by observing how many members of society support their implementation. These norms may live and be practiced in society, even though they are in conflict with modern social norms.
A woman may not become a leader (president).
Bank interest must be prohibited because it is
riba
andharam
according to Islamic law
.
Thieves must be punished by amputation of a hand. Adulterers should be stoned to death.
Radical means
Imam Samudera, Amrozi and Muchlas, the Bali
bombers who killed hundreds of foreigners and
Indonesians some time ago, have been sentenced to
death by the court. How just is this punishment?
A number of people like Imam Samudera, Amrozi, Dr.
Azhari, Noordin M. Top and others believe that
actions like the Bali bombing are
jihad
to strengthen
Islam. Are they right?
Some are convinced that suicide bombing and other
Radical groups
Do you know about the following
groups? Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI),
Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI),
Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), Darul
Islam/Indonesian Islamic Army
(DI/TII), Indonesian Islamic Dakwah
Council (DDII), Wahabists.
For those who know about these
Responses to the
government’s planned policy
The government is planning to
supervise traditional religious boarding
schools to prevent the spread of
understandings of Islam that provide
reasons for Muslims to act violently
Data sources
January 2006: Indonesian Survey
Institute (LSI)
November 2005: Freedom Institute and
Center for the Study of Islam and
Society (PPIM), State Islamic University
(UIN) Jakarta
Method and data I
Radical religious attitudes and actions are a complex
matter, open to a number of analytical approaches.
If we are talking about the degree of support in a
community for radical Islam, we must be able to
observe all the members of the community. A
systematic survey can help to provide a realistic
picture of the extent of popular support.
We surveyed all Indonesians over the age of 17, from
Aceh to Papua.
Multistage random sampling was used to produce a
Method and data II
Some of the data presented here is from five
previous surveys, but the analysis is focused on the
most recent (January 2006).
Sample size varies. For 2001 dan 2002, there were
2,000 respondents; for 2004, 2005, dan 2006, 1,200
respondents. For 2000 respondents, the margin of
error is about +/- 2,2%; for 1200 respondents, it is
about +/- 2,8%).
The primary sampling unit (PSU) is the village/urban
ward (
desa/kelurahan
), the lowest administrative unit
in government census data.
Method and data III
In the surveys with samples of 1200, 120
villages/wards were chosen, proportional to provincial
populations.
Villages and wards were chosen proportional to the
national distribution: 58% rural, 42% urban.
Half the respondents were male, half female.
A list of all RT (Rukun Tetangga, the next lower level)
Method and data IV
Face to face interviews were conducted in
each survey.
Interviewers were students trained to
conduct interviews. Each interviewer on
average interviewed ten respondents.
For quality control, 20% of those interviewed
At the provincial level, villages and wards (desa/kelurahan) chosen randomly proportional to population. National level population of
villages and wards.
Five RT selected randomly from every chosen village/ward.
Two families (KK) selected randomly in each RT.
In the selected families one adult male and one adult female chosen to be interviewed.
Ds 1 … Ds n
Findings
Support for the radical Islamic
agenda
Support for radical means
Support for radical groups
Rejection of the government’s
Agenda: Agree … (2006) (%)
38
48 38
40
52 34
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Amputate hand of thief Stoning for adultery Interest should be
prohibited
Polygamy More inheritance for
sons
Agree hand of thief should be
amputated (%)
29
33
39 40
38
30
20 25 30 35 40 45
Agree with stoning adulterers
to death (%)
39
55
48
58
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Agree with polygamy… (%)
37 39
40 40
34
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Agree bank interest should be
prohibited by the government (%)
26
49
47
38 41
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Unacceptable for woman to become
president of our country (%)
6
Radical means: Agree (%)
(January 06)
9 9
12
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Punishment for Amrozi and associates not just
With the actions of Amrozi and associates
Radical groups: Know about and agree
FPI MMI HTI DI/TII DDII Wahabi
Support or reject supervision of
traditional boarding schools (%)
55.5
27.2
17.3
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Correlations of radical agenda, radical
means and a number of factors
(***
P
<.01, **
P
<.05, *
P
<.1)
Choose PKS over PDIP
Radical means Radical
Discussion and conclusion I
Religious radicalism, which intends to replace the present
social and political order with one based on Islamic norms and law, has considerable though not majority support from Indonesian Muslim society.
The use of violence for religious purposes has the support of
one in ten Indonesian Muslims. This percentage seems small, but it is enough to provide mass support for the extreme behavior of individuals like Amrozi, the Bali bomber, and his colleagues.
Support for the actions of several radical groups is also
small but can not be ignored. Between one and two of every ten Indonesians supports the recent behavior of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and the Muslim Mujahidin Council (MMI). Support for Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) is less, perhaps because HTI is still not well known. Another reason is that the ideals for which it is fighting are more radical
Discussion and conclusion II
In the last two years, support for these groups has declined. The government’s plan to “supervise” traditional religious
boarding schools, anticipating a rise in radicalism, has considerable societal support. A majority support the suggestion, although a large minority rejects it.
“Supervising” is perhaps a poorly chosen term. It obscures the real target, radicalism, so that there is a tendency for the NU (Nahdlatul Ulama) community to reject it.
Government communication on this topic in the future should be better and more sensitive.
A number of factors correlate positively with support for
religious radicalism, most notably support for PKS compared to support for PDIP and other large parties (Golkar, PPP,
Discussion and conclusion III
We do not know which is prior, support for radical agendas
and means or support for PKS. But it is probably the former which comes first, leading to the emergence of PKS. It is probably also true that PKS activities in turn strengthen and expand support for radical agendas and means.
The strengthening of support for radical agendas and means
will change the national political map. Parties that have a tendency to struggle for radical agendas will become
stronger. Conversely, mass rejection of radical agendas and means will strengthen political forces that do not have an orientation toward radical agendas. Politically, the
