Effectiveness of Interreligious Literacy in Preventing Radical Views in Higher Education: Narrative Inquiry Research

Abstract

The notion of radicalism or extremism is currently a problem faced in the world. Many organizations or institutions adhere to this ideology with the aim of their own interests on behalf of the Islamic religion. In dealing with these problems, various efforts have been made by the government, one of which is implementing interfaith literacy at the tertiary level to suppress radical views. Universities are the target of this organization because students are considered to have souls that are still unstable and volatile. This research aims to study the effectiveness of this interreligious literacy in suppressing radicalism in several universities. This study used a qualitative approach with a narrative inquiry design as its research methodology. This study involves students and stakeholders who play an important role in this interfaith literacy. The research findings show that this interreligious literacy program can prevent and suppress radical understanding among students by changing the pattern of religious education from a closed doctrinal pattern to shifting to using a functional humanistic approach. The increase in students' interfaith literacy skills can be seen from the change in their perspective or mindset towards the teachings of Christianity and other religions. It can be concluded that interreligious literacy is effective in counteracting and preventing the spread of radicalism in the campus environment. The implication of this research is that this inter-religious literacy program provides an alternative to revitalizing religious education and its models in increasing students' religious knowledge and socializing religious values in an inclusive and humanistic manner. Keywords: interreligious literacy, radicalism, education, Islamic, higher education