MAINSTREAMING MODERATION IN PREVENTING/ COUNTERING VIOLENT EXTREMISM (P/CVE) IN PESANTRENS IN CENTRAL JAVA

Abstract

As religious-violent extremism (RVE) is snowballing, government, authorities, and also Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are trying to seek various approaches from soft to hard measures to eradicate and decrease religious-violent extremism at many levels of society. CISForm, as a study center at UIN Sunan Kalijaga, has quite long been active in preventing/ countering violent extremism (P/CVE) through its delicate methods, i.e., mainstreaming moderation in some pesantrens in Yogyakarta and Surakarta, Indonesia. This paper will display the methods, strategies, and responses of the programs that have been carried out by the university-based research center. Due to the problematic terms or concepts of radicalization and deradicalization, the whole program of CISForm on CVE is termed as mainstreaming moderation instead of deradicalization. This research found that some conservative pesantrens, as dormant entities, should be approached properly through soft measures since hard measures could neither touch nor address the roots of radicalism appropriately. The indirect and soft approaches initiated by CISForm could re-mainstream pesantrens to moderate Islam (wasathiyah).