The standardization of pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) is not part of the government’s efforts to deradicalize Islamic extremists, but instead aims to further spread moderate Islam, an official has said.

“It’s not a deradicalization program. It’s going to take moderate Islam mainstream,” the Religious Affairs Ministry’s Islamic education director general Kamaruddin Amin said as quoted by Antara in Jakarta on Friday.

Perceiving the pesantren standardization to be a deradicalization attempt could lead to a false understanding that Islamic boarding schools are a base of radicals, or, in a more extreme terminology, “terrorists”, he said.

(Read also: BNPT identifies 400 ex-terrorists ‘untouched’ by deradicalization program)

By mainstreaming moderate Islam, Kamaruddin said, Islamic boarding schools were directed to mainstream an Islam that was peaceful, moderate and served as “rahmatan lil ‘alamin”, or a blessing for the whole world and its contents.

He said pesantren were not radical and it had been proven since Indonesia’s pre-independence era that the non-formal religious education institution had never grown radicalism. Pesantren had continued to develop without creating radicalism problems, but instead by promoting love for the nation.

Kamaruddin did not deny that the potential for radicalism could grow in pesantren if people with extreme views were allowed to enter them. Therefore, the government must be present in pesantren with various programs, including through its pesantren standardization program.

“It is hoped the program can start in 2017,” said Kamaruddin.

Kamaruddin said in several countries, such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, Islamic schools were protected from any government intervention, making them fertile ground for radicalism.

Unlike in those countries, he said, pesantren in Indonesia were strategic partners of the government and important elements in education and social affairs in the country. (rdi/ebf)