Madrasahs Still Fight Reputation

Mataram - The heads of Islamic boarding schools and their teachers must step up efforts to demonstrate that Islam is against terrorism, a senior religious affairs official said.

Nasaruddin Umar, director general for mass guidance on Islam at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, voiced his concerns during the opening of a meeting for Islamic boarding school teachers from across West Nusa Tenggara Province in Mataram, Lombok Island, over the weekend.

“Let us prove to the world that Islam is not supporting terrorism, especially in this province where most of its population is Muslim,” Nasaruddin told about 50 Islamic boarding school teachers.

During previous discussions with academics in the United States, he said, the activities of madrasahs, or Islamic schools, and pesantrens, or Islamic boarding schools, had often been called into question, and some people in the West even considered madrasahs to be places for terrorist training.

“That`s why our ambassadors in the West continue correcting such faulty assumptions about madrasahs and pesantrens in Indonesia,” he said. Antara

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com (Februari 01, 2009)
Photo Credit: http://www.acicis.murdoch.edu.au

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