The Construction of Jihad and the Level of Radicalism among
Pesantren Leaders in Indonesia
Nurrohman Syarif, Tajul Arifin and F. Fridayanti
UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Jl.A.H. Nasution 105, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Ideology, Islamic education, Islamic State, Sharia law, Terrorism.
Abstract: The phenomena of extremism and radicalism that potentially lead to an act of terrorism still widespread in
the world and becoming a global challenge. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe radical
mindset among the Islamic school leaders in Indonesia. The subject of this study was 225 leaders of Islamic
boarding school that is called Pesantren in West Java, Indonesia. Data were collected using survey and
interview. The result of this study was that there are still elements of radicalism and fundamentalism in the
mind of pesantren leaders when they constructed the meaning of jihad. The ambivalently or inconsistency
also occurred in their mind. In the one hand they have supported the compatibility of democracy with
Islamic teaching, but on another hand, they also supported the establishment of the theocratic caliphate.
Some of them also still maintained the element of sharia law which contained discrimination and intolerant
to be applied in Indonesia. This finding implies that reconstructing the Islamic teaching that more familiar
with the value of tolerance, democracy, and modernity in all level of educational institution in Indonesia is
badly needed in order to prevent the widespread of radical element as early as possible.
1 INTRODUCTION
Radicalism becoming a global challenge, including
in Indonesia. McCauley and Moskelenko describe
radicalization as a change in beliefs, feelings, and
behaviors in directions that increasingly justify
intergroup violence and demand sacrifice in defense
of the ingroup (McCauley and Moskalenko, 2008).
Recently, there are some indications that religious
radicalism that using Islamic tenet has reached an
alarming level. They have influenced some
educational institution. According to PRC (Pew
Research Center), 4% or about 10 million of
Indonesian people become the supporter of ISIS
(Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). From this research,
we might assume that pesantren, the oldest Islamic
educational institution in Indonesia, might also
influence by radicalism. Pesantren leaders play
critical roles. Their understanding of Islamic
teaching still become the reference of society,
because of their role as a cultural broker to their
surrounding community. At another side, leaders
can also be the main factors that lead individuals to
join terrorist groups. (Kruglanski, 2002) have
emphasized the importance of ideology and
leadership in the process of radicalization.
Pesantren, particularly which affiliated with the
Muslim largest organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU),
has no historical precedence of insurgency toward
legitimate state and government of Indonesia.
However, their choice to preserve classical Islamic
books which their content are still condoning
violence act prone to be misused by irresponsible
people. Their understanding of some Islamic
teaching such as jihad, sharia law, Islamic state was
potentially able to be hijacked by radical group to
justify their violence act to challenge secular state
ideology of Pancasila (five principles consisted of
believing in Almighty God, just and civilized
humanity, the unitary state of Indonesia, democracy
and social justice for all).
In the article Pesantren Responses to Religious
Tolerance, Pluralism and Democracy in Indonesia
Nurrohman concluded that Pesantren commitment
to democracy is still high. However, their acceptance
to pluralistic state based on Pancasila still be
questioned as evidenced by their thought that it is
impossible to build peace coexistence eternally with
non Muslims or infidels. Although many argued
that Pesantren promotes tolerance and pluralism,
46
Syarif, N., Arifin, T. and Fridayanti, F.
The Construction of Jihad and the Level of Radicalism among Pesantren Leaders in Indonesia.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 46-51
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

nevertheless his study shows that some of their
teachings tacitly supported violence act in the name
of religion that will tarnish the effort of Indonesia to
synchronize Islam, democracy, and
modernity(Nurrohman, 2014). The purpose of this
study was to identify the element and the level of
radicalism among the pesantren leaders in west Java
Indonesia
In his paper entitles: “Violent and Non-Violent
Extremism: Two Sides of the Same Coin?” Alex P.
Schmid (Schmid, 2014) presented 20 indicators for
extremism that may lead to radicalism, among other
are 1) Reject the existing social, political or world
order. 2). Seek to overthrow the political system in
order to (re-) establish the natural order in a society
based on race, class, faith, ethnic superiority, or
alleged tradition. 3) Are usually in possession of an
ideological program or action plan aimed at taking
and holding communal or state power. 4) Reject or,
when in power, subvert the liberal-democratic
conception of the rule of law; use the political space
provided by it to advance their cause in efforts to
take state power. 5). Reject universal human rights
and show a lack of empathy and disregard for rights
of other than their own people. 6). Reject diversity
and pluralism in favour of their preferred mono-
culture society, e.g. a worldwide Islamic state. 7)
Reject democratic principles based on popular
sovereignty. 8) Reject equal rights for all, especially
those of women and minorities. 9) Adhere to a
(good-) ends-justify (-any)-means philosophy to
achieve their goals.10) Are unwilling to accept
criticism and intimidate and threaten dissenters,
heretics, and critics with death 11) Have fixed ideas
and closed minds and believe there is only one truth
– theirs. In its pursuit, they are often willing to face
punishment or even death and sometimes actively
seek martyrdom (Schmid, 2014)
Bilveer Singh made the characteristic of radical
Islam in Indonesia like this: 1) using literalist
approach towards religion with religious teachings
being interpreted strictly based on the written word.
2) A romantic importance attached to religion, with
the unseen past viewed as good tradition and the
ideal type that should be re-created; 3) Hold the
view that there should be no new interpretation or
ijtihad of what has been stated in the Holy Koran. 4)
Believes in the unconditional absolute truth, with
any other view treated as heretical. A believer of
such “wrong” views can be classified as a postate or
murtad, and labelled as a traitor to the religion; 5)
Practices exclusivity, where working with adherents
of other religions (kafirs or infidels) is considered
haram or forbidden. Many Islamist hardliners will
not even cooperate with Muslims who do not share
their views, viewing them as jahiliyyahs (ignorant)
or worst still, as kafir harbi (enemy infidels), which
traditionally only described non-believers operating
in a conflict zone 6) Sees justification in the use of
violent jihad to realize their beliefs. Radical
Islamists believe that violence carried out for
religious causes is legitimate. 7) Adopts Islamist
radical ideology in political discourse. All issues are
described purely in religious idioms with Muslims’
persecution as the common theme; 8) Virulently
opposed to Westernization and democracy, as these
are viewed as un-Islamic; 9) Resists liberalism,
pluralism, and secularism as being antithetical to
Islam; 10) sharia-minded, and aims to create a Darul
Islam (Abode of Islam) as a prerequisite to Darul
Salam (Abode of Peace), where Islamic law or
Sharia would determine the rules of society(Singh,
2011).
Many scholars try to explain radicalism from
outside factor. In his paper Exclusivism and
Radicalism in Schools:
 State Policy and
Educational Politics Revisited, Abdallah said that
the growing exclusiveness in educational institutions
is associated with the influence of an intolerant
curriculum, exclusivist teachers, the Islamist
movement in schools, and Islamic school
environments penetrated by radical movements from
the outside (Abdallah, 2016). However, research
which focused on personal aspect like describing or
constructing the the process of mind of Islamic
school leaders particularly pesantren was not found
or still rare. This study was focused to identify the
level of radicalism base on the psychological and
theological process. In this article, we used the
staircase model proposed by (Moghaddam, 2005) to
identify the level of radicalims among pesantren
leaders.
There is a substantial body of literature
concerning the radicalization process that describes
stages through which people pass in the transition
from ‘normal’ lives to active engagement in
terrorism and other forms of political violence.
Fathali Moghaddam (Moghaddam, 2005) used
staircase metaphor in explaining how individuals or
group grow and climb step by step until he or she
becomes radical or even terrorist. On the ground
floor, perceptions and feelings of relative
deprivation dominate. Some individuals from among
the disgruntled population will climb to the first
floor in search of solutions. Those who reach the
first floor seek ways in which to improve their
situation and achieve greater justice. If they do not
see possibilities, they are more likely to keep
climbing. The most important transformation that
takes place among those who reach the third floor is
a gradual engagement with the morality of terrorist
organizations; these individuals now begin to see
terrorism as a justified strategy. In his article:
Staircase of Terrorism and Deradicalization
The Construction of Jihad and the Level of Radicalism among Pesantren Leaders in Indonesia
47

Strategies Moh.Yasir Alimi said that there are stairs
before someone becoming really terrorist. According
to him, the roots of terrorism are the violent
ideology that nurtures hatred and justifies violence.
The violent ideology is normally packaged and sold
as religious speeches that provoke hatred against the
West, non-Muslims, religious minorities and
Muslims with different religious orientations. The
result of these speeches is takfiriah, or apostatizing
others or fellow Muslims and justifies taking their
lives and property. They even regard mosques of
their enemies as appropriate targets to be destroyed.
The characteristics of takfiriah include examining
the errors of others, emphasizing the compulsion of
religious laws, the jahiliyyah-ization of the current
regime, and the use of violence. These kinds of
people inhabit the third floor of the terrorist
building. The higher the floor they inhabit, the more
tolerant they are of violent means. Living on the
second and first floors are those provoking hatred
without justifying the use of violence. The fourth
and fifth flour inhabited by actor and facilitator of
terrorist activities (Alimi, 2011) In his article: The
Development of A Jihadist's Mind Tawfiq Hamid
described three psychological stages base on his own
experience involved in jihadist radical group base on
Salafi Ideology. The first stage was initiated by
hatred of non-Muslim or dissenting Muslims. In the
second stage, suppression of his or her own
conscience, and in the third stage is the acceptance
of violence in the service of Allah or accepting
violence without guilt (Hamid, 2007). To identify
the level of radicalism, the staircase metaphor
proposed by Moghadam and Alimi will be used in
this study. Constructing this level is important to
know or to differentiate which ones of their opinion
that have or easy to be misused by radical
movement. It also can be used to predict the
potential violence and the level of intolerance
toward diversity among them.
Jeremy Menchik (Menchik, 2016) divided the
level of intolerance into full intolerance and semi-
intolerance. Full of intolerance can be identified by
the existence of persecution. The actor actively
persecutes the target in order to eradicate it from
society. This may include violence or conflict, and
certainly, includes organization and mobilization
against the target. Semi-intolerance can be identified
by the existence of discrimination. The actor works
to maintain strict, hierarchical boundaries between
groups but does not mobilize violence. The actor
violates boundaries and restricts the autonomy of the
target.
This study is based on assumptions that the more
Muslims give their support for certain Islamic
teaching legitimizing the use of violence, the more
violence will happen and the more Muslims give
support to political ideology of radical group, the
future of moderate, tolerance, inclusive Nusantara
Islam and democracy in Indonesia are in danger.
2 METHODS
This research used mixed approach that combines
quantitative and qualitative design (Creswell, 2009).
The data collected was a combination of previous
study with a new one. This is an approach is mention
by Belcher (Belcher, 2009). She state that
“approach old evidence in a new way or to pairs old
evidence with old approach in a new way” Data was
collected between 2007 -2010 in various pesantren
in West Java. The subjects were 225 pesantren
leaders consisted of 20 from Bandung, 100 from
Cirebon, Indramayu, Kuningan, Majalengka and
Ciamis, 105 from Tasikmalaya, Garut and Cianjur.
All leaders are picked purposively base on the types
of pesantren according to the ministry of religious
affair (traditional, modern and semi modern). The
data collected using semi structure interview and
questionnaires. They asked about their opinion
around jihad and terrorism, sharia law, and violence,
political power, and Islamic state or caliphate. The
data was analysed using content analysis. Their
answers were code based on construction of their
views on jihad and radicalissm base on the concept
presented by Schmid (Schmid, 2014) and Singh
(Singh, 2011). The level of radicalism derived from
the concept developed by Fathali Moghaddam
(Moghaddam, 2005)and Hamid (Hamid, 2007). The
level of intolerance presented by Menchick
(Menchik, 2016) was also used to determine the
level of intolerance among them.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Results
The combination of previous studies shows that
most of the pesantren leaders (85%) disagree to
equate jihad with war and violence act. But when
they are asked on suicide bomb to destroy the
interest of the West, some of them (16%) are
condoning this act. Also, some of them still
acknowledged that Osama bin Laden is an Islamic
warrior. This study also found that some 33 % of
them believe that Muslims are impossible to build
eternal peace coexistence with non-Muslims or
infidels. Concerning sharia law, violence and
intolerance, this research revealed that most of the
pesantren leaders (56%) supported the action
ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education
48

perpetrated by FPI (Islam Defenders Front). The
significant amount of pesantren leaders (44%)
allowing the death penalty for apostasy. Most of
them tolerated the corporal punishment to be
practiced in sharia law. They (55%) supported
cutting hand for the thief. The significant amount of
them (45%) not supported a woman and non Muslim
to be head of state and 77% agree that Non-Muslims
not allowed to be head of state in Indonesia.
Concerning intolerance, Most of them (75%) are
intolerance toward the place of worship for
Christians that will be built in their area. The
resistance of pesantren leaders toward church
building is very high as indicated by 86% of them
supports Muslims who refuse to give a permit for
Church building in their area. There is an indication
of intolerance in religious social relation, the
majority of them (81%) agree not telling Marry
Christmas and attended the invitation to celebrate
Natal.
Concerning political power, Islamic state or
caliphate, this research revealed that the majority of
pesantren (78%) leaders supported the idea to
integrate religion and state and 96% agree that
Muhammad PBUH (peace be upon him) besides
prophet (religious leader), also head of state
(political leader). Most of them (92%) also
supported and defended the Unitary State of
Republic Indonesia (NKRI) and accepted Pancasila
as final ideology of Indonesian Muslim. However,
most of them (78%) supported the idea to build
caliphate
3.2 Discussion
From the result of the study, there are some elements
of radicalism as well as inconsistency in the mind of
pesantren leaders. For example, by rejecting non-
Muslim as well as woman to be head of state, they
actually reject universal human rights or reject equal
rights for all, especially those of women and
minorities that have been adopted by the constitution
of Indonesia. For Schmid, it is an indication of
extremism. Allowing the death penalty for apostasy
is an indication that they justify the use of violent.
The justification for the use of violent to realize their
beliefs is also an indication of radicalism according
to Singh.
Concerning inconsitency in their mind, it is clear
that most of the pesantren leaders disagree to equate
jihad with war and violence act. However, when
they are asked on suicide bomb to destroy the
interest of the west, some of them are condoning this
act. They are might be not aware of how as a
movement, Islamic radicalism and global jihad can
both potentially and practically complicate the
international security environment and far greater
threats for international security than belligerent
states that act within the predictable norms
(Roshandel,2009). Most of them also supported the
action, including violence act perpetrated by FPI. In
the article Authentic jihad is about peace and
coexistence, Nurrohman (2007) said that what is
needed in Indonesia now is not jihad in the sense of
war or violent attacks. Although more difficult, jihad
against poverty, corruption, human rights abuses and
other crimes against humanity is what is really
required.
Also, there is ambivalency in the concept of the
state. On the one hand, they supported the concept of
NKRI (Unitary State of Republic Indonesia) as well
as the compatibility of democracy with Islamic
teaching, but on another hand, they also supported
the establishment of the theocratic caliphate. The
idea of caliphate proposed radical group is criticized
for its tendency to be a theocratic and opposed
democracy. In his article Nurrohman (2007) said,
considering the spirit of nationalism embedded in
the heart of every Muslim in various nations, the
idea to establish the caliphate as the sole theocratic
political system for Muslims in the world is
unrealistic if not utopian.
Ambivalency can represent that there is a
cognitive dissonance in the thinking of some leaders
of pesantren. Cognitive dissonance refers to a
situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or
behaviors. This situation can produce a feeling of
discomfort and furthermore lead to an alteration in
one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce
the discomfort and restore balance. A Theory of
Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger, 1957) assumes
that person strives for internal psychological
consistency for function well in the real world. A
Person who experiences internal inconsistency will
feel psychologically uncomfortable. As a result, he
or she motivated to reduce the cognitive dissonance
by changing parts of the cognition, to justify the
stressful behavior; or by adding new parts to the
cognition that causes the psychological dissonance;
and by actively avoiding social situations and
contradictory information that is likely to increase
the magnitude of the cognitive dissonance. If
combined with Moghaddam theory, that the reason
for someone to jump to the higher level is the feeling
of injustice, so somebody who experiences the
feeling of injustice has a potential to migrate to
another level. If measured by concept or theory
presented by Alimi, Hamid, Moghaddam, and Singh
the element of radicalism occurs in the mind of some
pesantren leaders when they constructed the
meaning and manifestation of jihad. For Alimi,
Hamid and Moghaddam, who used the stage or
staircase metaphor, some pesantren leaders have
entered the first or second stage in their staircase. If
The Construction of Jihad and the Level of Radicalism among Pesantren Leaders in Indonesia
49

measured by two categories of intolerance presented
by Menchik, there is a semi-intolerance in the
mindset of pesantren leaders as indicated by the
existence of discrimination, particularly for non-
Muslims and women.
4 CONCLUSIONS
From this research, it can be concluded that there is
still ambivalency in the mind of pesantren leaders
when they constructed the meaning of jihad and
have entered the first or even the second stage of
radicalism. This finding implies that pesantren was
not immune from the infiltration of radical ideology.
If not aware, in the future, some leaders, can
potentially jump to the next level. Therefore the
implication of this study is we suggest for pesantren
leader or government to make an early warning
system about indication of radicalization in
pesantren. Also, government should design a model
of reciprocal communication to pesantren leader. For
further study, this research must be expanded to
make an instrument that the government, researcher
or pesantren leader it self, can identify the level of
radicalization.
Implication of this study for ministry of religious
affairs that in the future, they should make a
prevention program. Prevention to radicalization
process can be done by a system of education
represents an approach, in which tolerance and
equality are promoted within society at large.
Reconstructing the Islamic teaching in all level of an
educational institution in Indonesia is badly needed
in order to prevent the widespread of the radical
element as early as possible. Further research can be
directed to detect an intolerant curriculum,
exclusivist teachers, the Islamist movement in
schools, and Islamic school environments penetrated
by radical movements from the outside and how all
of them contributed to creating the ideology of
hatred.
REFERENCES
Abdallah, A. 2016. “Exclusivism and Radicalism in
Schools: State Policy and Educational Politics
Revisited,” Studia Islamika, 233., pp. 625–632. doi:
10.15408/sdi.v23i3.4425.
Alimi, M. Y. 2011. “Staircase of terrorism and
deradicalization strategies,” The Jakarta Post, 29
September. Available at:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/09/29/stairc
ase-terrorism-and-deradicalization-strategies.html
Accessed: October 5, 2017..
Belcher, W. L. 2009. Writing your journal article in 12
weeks : a guide to academic publishing success.
SAGE Publications.
Creswell, J. W. 2009. Research design : qualitative,
quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage
Publication.
Festinger, L. 1957. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.
California: Stanford University Press.
Hamid, T. 2007. “The Development of a Jihadist’s Mind,”
Current Trends in islamist Ideology, 5.
Kruglanski, A. W. 2002. Inside the Terrorist Mind, Paper
presentati on at National Academy of Science.
Washington, D.C. Available at:
https://terpconnect.umd.edu/~hannahk/Terrorism_files
/TerroristMind.pdf Accessed: October 5, 2017..
McCauley, C. and Moskalenko, S. 2008. “Mechanisms of
Political Radicalization: Pathways Toward Terrorism,”
20, pp. 415–433. doi: 10.1080/09546550802073367.
Menchik, J. 2016. Islam and democracy in Indonesia :
tolerance without liberalism. Cambridge University
Press.
Moghaddam, F. 2005. “The Staircase to Terrorism A
Psychological Exploration,” American Psychologist,
602., pp. 161–169. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.60.2.161.
Nurrohman, N. 2014. “Pesantren Responses to Religious
Tolerance, Pluralism and Democracy in Indonesia,”
International Journal of Nusantara Islam, 21., p. 69.
doi: 10.15575/ijni.v2i1.49.
Schmid, A. P. 2014. Violent and Non-Violent Extremism:
Two Sides of the Same Coin?, ICCT- The Hague
Reseach Paper. Available at:
https://www.icct.nl/download/file/ICCT-Schmid-
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Accessed: October 5, 2017..
Singh, B. 2011. “Religion as Political Ideologi in
Southeast Asia,” in Ishtiaq Ahmeed ed.. The Politics
of Religion in South and Southeast Asia. New York:
Routledge, pp. 121–135.
ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education
50

APPENDIX
Table 1: The staircase metaphor of radicalism and
terrorism.
Fifth floor Specific individuals are selected and
trained and those selected are equipped
and sent to carry out terrorist acts
Fourth floor Recruitment to terrorist organizations
takes place on the fourth floor, where
potential terrorists learn to categorize
the world more rigidly into “us-versus-
them” and to see the terrorist
organization as legitimate.
Third floor Those who reach the third floor is a
gradual engagement with the morality
of terrorist organizations; these
individuals now begin to see terrorism
as a justified strategy.
Second floor Individuals who reach the second floor
but still perceive grave injustices
experience anger and frustration, and in
some circumstances, they are
influenced by leaders to displace their
aggression onto an “enemy.”
First floor Those who reach the first floor seek
ways in which to improve their
situation and achieve greater justice. If
they do not see possibilities they are
more likely to keep climbing.
The ground
floor
Perceptions of fairness and feelings of
relative deprivation dominate. Some
individuals from among the disgruntled
population will climb to the first floor
in search of solutions.
Source: Fathali Moghaddam.
Table 2: The stages of radicalism or terrorism.
Fifth floor Specific individuals are selected
and trained and those selected are
equipped and sent to carry out
terrorist acts
Fourth floor Recruiting potential terrorist and
categorizing the world more rigidly
into “us-versus-them” and seeing
the terrorist organization as
legitimate.
Third floor Examining the errors of others,
emphasizing the compulsion of
religious laws, the jahiliah-ization
of the current regime, and the use
of violence.
Second floor Takfiriah, or apostatizing others or
fellow Muslims and justifies taking
their lives and property. They even
regard mosques of their enemies as
a
pp
ro
p
riate tar
g
ets to be destro
y
ed.
First floor The violent ideology that nurtures
hatred and justifies violence. The
violent ideology is normally
packaged and sold as religious
speeches that provoke hatred
against the west, non-Muslims,
religious minorities and Muslims
with different religious
orientations.
Source: Moh Yasir Alimi.
Table 3: The psychological stage.
Third stage Acceptance of violence in the
service of Allah or accepting
violence without guilt
Second stage Suppression of one own
conscience
First stage Hatred of non-Muslims or
dissenting Muslims
Source: Tawfiq Hamid.
The Construction of Jihad and the Level of Radicalism among Pesantren Leaders in Indonesia
51