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the colonial government provideda       they joined the Masjumi. Among them,                  According to the reformists, the religious   occupation. This prompted the reformists
                                          European style of education: the        to mention some names, were H.O.S.                    format of imitation (taqlid) had to be   to seek a new format and to find a new
                                          Hollandsch Inlandsch School             Cokroaminoto, Agus Salim, Kasman                      replaced by ijtihad and renewal (tajdid).   formula from within Islam itself. Their
                                          (HIS) for the primary level, Meer       Singodimejo, Mohammad Roem, and                       Ijtihad is none other than independently   goal was that Muslims would get on the
                                          Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs (MULO)       Mohammad Natsir.                                      making intellectual efforts by utilizing the   path of progress, as they also became
                                          for the junior intermediate level, and                                                        power of reason and thinking optimally to   politically freed from Western hegemony.
                                          Algemene Middelbare School (AMS)        It should be added that in Muslim                     capture the essence of religion, to ensure
                                          for the senior secondary level. In the   societies in Western colonies a sort of              that being religious is to understand the   The hallmark of the reform was the
                                          following period it also established the   secularization process had taken place             basic arguments and the foundation     confrontation with Islamic traditionalism.
                                          College of Engineering (Technische      under the influence of the Western                    beneath all doctrines, commands and    The reform tried to detach itself from
                                          Hogeschool/THS) in Bandung, and the     educational system, both for those                    prohibitions, as well as to discover the   the past and at the same time to orient
                                          Rechtshogeschool (RHS) in Batavia.      who were studying in their homeland                   methodological bases of the further    itself to the future. ‘More than a reactive
                                          In addition, since the end of the 19 th   and those who were sent to study in                 development of religious knowledge.    stance, reformism is generally assertive,
                                          century, there had been a medical high   the West. The reformer group of Islam,               Tajdid is renewing a way of thinking to   suggesting changes and developing
                                          school, the School tot Opleiding voor   as Western reformists, was open to                    allow the discovery of the essence of the   strategic action-plans to achieve the
                                          InlandscheArtsen (STOVIA), and the      accommodation and assimilation. It                    religious truth, so as to create a pattern   ideological objectives.’(Abdullah and
                                          school of governmental science for the   wanted to produce a new synthesis                    of diversity that does not lag behind   Sidique, 1988: 2)
                                          native civil servants, Opleiding School   between Islam and modern science                    the progress of earthly life, but on the
                                          voor Inlandsche Ambtenaren (OSVIA).     and technology. So, reformers tried                   contrary, being religious causes progress   The Proponents of Islamic
                                          Young Indonesian Muslim children        to distance themselves from two                       on earth and in the here after.        Reform
                                          gradually started to enter modern       orientations: old-fashioned and stagnant              According to reformists, the Muslims’   Muslim scholars had in fact started to
                                          European schools, which slowly          Islam, and from admiring Western                      backwardness and ignorance over the    entertain thoughts of Islamic reformism
                                          affected their modern way of thinking.  secular civilization that only saw religion           last several centuries was caused by a   for a long time. As-Syaukanie (2009)
                                                                                  asan individual phenomenon (Esposito,
                                          The children who entered modern         1999: 647).                                           false understanding of religion. According   asserts that the roots of Islamic
                                          public education were partly influenced                                                       to them, the closing of the door of ijtihad   reformism can be delineated in the
                                          by a Western secular way of thinking    The emergence of the reform movement                  was a major mistake and the cause      medieval period of Islam. During the
                                          and some became anti-Islamic and        in Indonesia was partly characterized                 of stupidity. The closure of ijtihad  had   middle ages, we find names like Abu
                                          behaved like Europeans, while others    by the establishment of modern                        halted intellectual activities, while the   Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111) and
                                          took advantage of rational thinking to   organizations for structurally well-planned          Western nations had been enlightened   Taqiuddin Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328).
                                          comprehend their religion (i.e. Islam)   activities. These organizations are the              after their encounter with Islam and they   Both are often regarded as the early
                                          better. Members of this group later     Sarekat Islam (1911), the Muhammadiyah                continued to progress. In the 19 century,   reformers in the medieval period.
                                                                                                                                                                    th
                                          became the forerunners of Islamic       (1912), Al-Irsyad (1915), and also                    most of the countries with Muslim      However, in the beginning, the reform
                                          modernism and after Independence        Persatuan Islam or Persis (1923).                     majority populations were under Western   was limited to the realm of ideas but



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