The radicalization of contemporary educated Indonesian: A case study of university students in Yogyakarta

Abstract

This paper explored the process of radicalization of contemporary educated Indonesian Muslims by focusing on the case of radicalization in one of the oldest and largest university in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This study is a qualitative study in which data were collected through interviews, observations, and literature reviews. The key informants of this research were students or alumni who were active or had been in Islamist-exclusive groups or who had been involved, directly or indirectly, in incidents of religious intolerance or violence. This study found that there were three groups that dominated the religious lives of Muslim students of Yogyakarta XXX University: salafis, tarbiyah, and Hizb al-Tahrir Indonesia (HTI). The salafi- jihadists group have entered and influenced lecturers and students at the university since the era of the president Soeharto. Meanwhile, the development of the Muslim Brotherhood ideas brought by the preachers of the Indonesian Islamic Propagation Council (Dewan Dakwah Islam Indonesia/DDII) since the 80s finally built the tarbiyah movement. Through the Indonesian Muslim Student Action group (Kesatuan Aksi Mahasiswa Muslim Indonesia/KAMMI), tarbiyah group has dominated almost all external campus student organizations. In addition, Muslim students’ interest in Islamic political ideas attracted them to HTI, which offered a global Islamic caliphate as an alternative to the existence of a modern state system that was considered marginalizing Muslims. Systematic recruitment and regeneration, and manipulating the Islamic Assistance Program for Muslim students of the University have succeeded in putting their members at the university student organizations into important position.