Varieties of Religious Authority: Changes and Challenges in 20th Century Indonesian Islam

7. THE INDONESIAN MADRASAH: Islamic Reform and Modernization of Indonesian Islam in the Twentieth Century, by Arief Subhan

126 7 THE INDONESIAN MADRASAH Islamic Reform and Modernization of Indonesian Islam in the Twentieth Century Arief Subhan The madrasah is one of the important Islamic educational institutions in Indonesia. Emerging in the late nineteenth century, in the early period of its development the madrasah tended to compete with the Dutch education offered by the colonial government and became a symbol of Islamic reform. The madrasah is an Islamic institution of education which teaches both Islamic and secular subjects, uses a grading system, and offers a certificate to its graduates. In the Indonesian context, the madrasah is located between the pesantren and sekolah (public school). According to the Ministry of Religious Affairs (Education Management and Information System (EMIS, 2003), the number of madrasahs in Indonesia is 37,363.They have 5,698,143 students. This chapter discusses the madrasah and the influence of the educational policy of the Indonesian state on its development. It deals with the negotiating process between people representing madrasah education and the state about the time allocated to secular subjects in the curriculum and draws attention to the emergence of salafi madrasahs and the Sekolah Islam (Islamic School) in recent years. The Indonesian Madrasah 127 INDONESIAN ISLAMIC REFORM AND MADRASAH In the late nineteenth century, Indonesian Islam began to create a new centre of learning later called madrasah. The emergence of the Indonesian madrasah cannot be separated from two important events. The first one is the Dutch Government policy to build modern schools, volkscholen, which were designed to provide basic education for indigenous Indonesians, in line with the changing colonial policy that began to be concerned with the welfare of the people of the Netherlands Indies, the Ethical Policy. The second concerns the Islamic reform movement that emerged in Indonesia as a result of intensive contacts between Muslims in Indonesia and the Middle East (Van der Mehden 1993; Azra 2004).1 The growing number of Indonesians who performed the pilgrimage and studied in Mecca and Cairo is one good example to indicate the close relation and interaction between the two regions.2 Such a connection encourages cultural exchanges between Indonesia and the Middle East. Indonesian students staying in Mecca and Cairo played a vital role in this (see Abaza 1994). The media have also strongly influenced the introduction of the ideas of Islamic reform in Indonesia. Among the periodicals which contributed to this was al-Manar, published in Cairo from 1898–1936. Al-Manar served as one of the main references of the Islamic reform movement in the Malay world. It inspired three reformist periodicals in the Malay world: al-Imam, al-Munir, and Azzachierah al-Islamijah (Expression of Islam).3 Through al-Imam, Sheikh Tahir Jalaluddin (1869–1956), who had studied in Mecca and Cairo, advocated reforms to the traditional system of education. He encouraged Muslims to teach secular subjects at Islamic schools. In this regard, al-Imam was instrumental in establishing a modern madrasah in Singapore, al-Madrasah al-Iqbal Islamiyah (Islamic School alIqbal ), in 1908. Haji Abdullah Ahmad, the major reformer in Minangkabau, took it as a model to found such a modern Islamic school in Padang, West Sumatra, the Adabiyah School (School of civilization) (Noer 1973, p. 34). Indeed, it could be said that the expansion of modern Islamic education in Indonesia was part and parcel of the Islamic reform movement at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Minangkabau was the first region in Indonesia where such new centres of learning were established. The Adabiyah School mentioned above is one example. Founded in 1909 by Haji Abdullah Ahmad (1878–1933), it offered secular and religious subjects to its pupils. It was the first school in 128 Arief Subhan Minangkabau that combined religious and secular subjects in its curriculum. Others included the Diniyah School (School of Religion) founded by Zainuddin Labai El-Yunusi (1890–1924) in 1915, and the Diniyah Putri (School of Religion for Women) built by Rahmah El-Yunusi for Islamic female students in 1923. Especially active in the field of education was the Sumatra Thawalib, an organization set up by Haji Abdul Karim Amrullah (1879–1945) and other prominent Muslim leaders to establish modern madrasah. Deliar Noer (1973, p. 41) notes that these schools offered languages, mathematic, history, geography and other secular subjects beside religious ones. They even had music clubs. Lee Kam Hing (1995, p. 10) states that in 1922 there were fifteen religious schools using...