Protecting Our Universities
In the last few weeks, one of the most-reported and most-discussed national issues was radicalism in our universities. Regardless of semantic and substantive debates on radicalism, the phenomenon was highly worrying for everyone.
/https%3A%2F%2Fkompas.id%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F06%2F20150619HAS5.jpg){kind=logo}
Azyumardi Azra
In the last few weeks, one of the most-reported and most-discussed national issues was radicalism in our universities. Regardless of semantic and substantive debates on radicalism, the phenomenon was highly worrying for everyone. The National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) and research bodies such as Jakarta State Islamic University’s Center for Islamic and Social Studies (PPIM UIN) and the Alvara Research Center, have reported increasing radicalism in universities nationwide.
Despite these reports applying different scales of radicalism among college students and lecturers, it is difficult to deny that radicalism exists. Based on the questionnaires used in these surveys, “radicalism” is described as having several parameters and indicators. Certain ideologies spreading in our universities may have all or just some of these parameters.