PESANTREN, IS IT REALLY THE DEN OF TERRORIST?

Pesantren, which became controversial since the issue of terrorism rocked Indonesia, today are becoming increasingly popular internationally. Pesantren, or often referred to Pondok Pesantren is actually an Islamic schools that teaches religious teaching of Islam thoroughly. Education in Pesantren aims to deepen knowledge of the Qur'an and Prophet Muhammad's guidance as we called Sunnah, as well as Arabic as the language used in the Qur'an. 

The term of Pesantren derives from the word “pe-santri-an”, where the word "santri" means students in the Java language. Hence, the student of Pesantren is better known as “santri”. Pesantren are mostly led by a kyai to regulate students’ life. Kyai later appointed a senior students to organize their class brothers, they are usually called “Lurah” (the head of students).

Actually, the Islamic School in Indonesia is currently divided into two specialized: boarding schools that teach religion (traditional pesantren) and Islamic schools that teach a variety of science on the basis of religion (modern pesantren). Patterns of traditional pesantren are the students live in a boarding house provided by the kyai and work for their kyai – it can be with hoeing his fields, taking care his fish pond, and so forth - and in return, they are taught religion by the kyai.

Meanwhile, modern pesantren tends to teach general education, where the percentage of teaching Islamic rules greater than the general sciences (mathematics, physics, and others). In modern pesantren, the material taught is a mixture between formal general science and science of Islam. Students study in public schools generally called “madrasah.”

Wherever and whatever the form, an excessive zealotry make a man acts extreme. This also happened on a number of former Pesantren students who were too fanatical on certain subjects without aligning with other teachings and then made Islam as the basis for his terrorism activities when in fact, Islam never teaches terrorism.