ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN ISLAMIC EDUCATION: STRENGTHENING RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE OR REPRODUCING NEW SOCIO-LEGAL RISKS?

Abstract

This article examines the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Islamic Religious Education (IRE) from a socio-legal perspective aimed at strengthening substantive religious tolerance, defined as tolerance grounded in disciplined scriptural reasoning, ethical accountability, and legal consciousness. Using a Classroom Action Research (CAR) design with 200 university students, this study incorporates AI-based pedagogical tools, specifically thematic Qur'anic search, multilingual translation, semantic analysis, and cross-referential verification, into IRE instruction. The findings reveal that AI fundamentally transforms students' access to Qur'anic texts, shifting from authority-dependent reception to critical, evidence-based engagement. Quantitative analysis shows significant improvements in Qur'anic literacy, theological justification, and independent religious inquiry, along with a notable decline in takfīr-oriented and identity-based exclusivism. From a socio-legal perspective, this pedagogical transformation concretely operationalizes Indonesia's legal mandate on religious moderation, as articulated in Presidential Regulation No. 58 of 2023, thereby enhancing students' legal awareness and normative compliance. The study also formulates an integrative Legal-Sharia Educational Framework that positions IRE as an instrument of socio-legal governance, capable of producing religious subjects who are theologically grounded, ethically responsible, and constitutionally oriented. This research contributes to contemporary debates on law, religion, and education by demonstrating that AI-driven pedagogy can serve as a normative catalyst for sustainable religious tolerance and social cohesion within plural legal societies.