ASILE conference presentation:
Individual Paper The use of Topic about Islam in Teaching of Indonesian Language and Culture to Counter Islamophobia Abstract Islamophobia has been a global phenomenon that has been a threat for humanity. Misunderstanding about Islam and those who embrace the religion has been one of the main culprits of this social problem. Most people tend to see Islam as the one practiced in the Middle Eastern countries or the one portrayed in media and popular culture. However, data from Pew Research Center (2015) showed that the biggest population of Muslim in the world is in Indonesia with 209,120,000 people that made of 13 % of total Muslim in the world. In addition, the Muslim in Indonesia reached almost 87.2 % of the total population in the country. Thus, Islam in Indonesia could represent the religion to the global community in a different perspective from the existing situation. The use of topic of Islam in the teaching of Indonesian Language and Culture could be one of the solution and alternative to give a better understanding and a more comprehensive overview about the religion. The topic could be part of discussion in the cross cultural understanding part while teaching Indonesian to foreigners and some of the reading topics about the practice of Islam in Indonesian community could be used also in Indonesian reading class. The topic of listening could also use be taken from authentic materials such as discussion and speech from some Islamic figure in Indonesia that represents moderate and nationalist Islam such as Gus Dur (the fourth President of Indonesia), Muhammad Natsir, and some other interesting figure. Students can also do some practice or cultural observation such as trying one day fasting, home staying with a muslim family, and etc. By implementing this, Indonesian teaching could also contribute to give better understanding about Islam to fight Islamophobia. |