Introduction
Religious extremism among university students remains a cause for concern for Indonesian government officials, including President Joko Widodo. The president spoke publicly at least twice on the threat of religiously extremist groups that target university students for recruitment. On 13 September 2021, during a meeting with the Indonesian Rectors’ Council, the president reminded university rectors to remain vigilant against individuals or groups that introduce and inculcate extremist ideas among students. This statement echoed his request to Indonesian rectors four years ago for universities to play a greater role in tackling religious extremism among university students.
The former Chief of the National Counter Terrorism Agency (Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Terorisme, or BNPT), Suhardi Alius, has explained that radical groups often target new students to become members of their groups, through the mentorship scheme or by facilitating their entry into university life. In 2017, the Alvara Research Centre conducted a survey and provided comprehensive and elaborate data on rising religious extremism among university students. Hasanuddin Ali et al. found that 19.6 per cent of a total of 1,800 university students in the survey supported sharia bylaws (Hasanuddin Ali et al. 2017, p. 45). Some 17.8 per cent supported the establishment of an Islamic caliphate as a form of government in Indonesia. At the same time, as much as 23.4 per cent were “ready to perform jihad to establish Islamic caliphate in Indonesia” (Hasanuddin Ali et al. 2017, pp. 50–52).
This general trend parallels the recent increase in religious extremism in Indonesia noted in various studies. However, few of these works focused on the radicalization of university students in Indonesian campuses. While a substantial number of studies on Islam and extremism in Indonesia have focused on security and cultural paradigms (Saat 2021, p. 327), this article discusses Islamic extremism in Indonesian campuses through an organizational and institutional lens. It investigates religious extremism disseminated by student bodies and studies responses by rival extracampus student organizations. For example, while the student organization Gema Pembebasan supports the establishment of an Islamic caliphate, other student organizations support more moderate forms of Islam, such as the Indonesia Muslim Student Organization (HMI), the Indonesian Islamic Students Movement (PMII) and the Association of Muhammadiyah Students (IMM).