Asianlayleaders.com – ALL Forum with Pemuda Katolik Indonesia have organized an Online Course with the theme “Promoting Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue for the Common Good: Challenges for Catholic Young People in Indonesian Context.” This online course was carried out for 4 meetings with topics including Extremism of young people, globalization and the role of the media, interfaith education and the last one being challenges and opportunities. The main speaker, Father JB. Heru Prakosa, SJ who is an advisor to the Commission on Religious Relations with Muslims under the Pontifical Council for Interfaith Dialogue, and two Muslim religious leaders were invited as responders.
The first week session opened with an explanation of the demographics of young people and the current conditions in Indonesia. We learnt that although Indonesia has a large population of youth, they have been vulnerable to all the events that have occurred here. Father Heru as the speaker gave reasons why extremism can occur, among others, because of 3 emptinesses, namely: emptiness of mind due to limitations in critical thinking, emptiness of the heart because of not being able to face existing differences, and an empty stomach due to social economic problems that make a person want to do anything for money.
Illustration of Interfaith and Interculture Dialogue in Indonesia
Furthermore, in the second week, there was a theme discussing how globalization and the role of the media has contributed to fostering differences and created more spaces of conflict. Often people think that they themselves are God. This solely wrong and considers ‘Others’ as different from ‘Us’, and this gives rise to negative sentiments towards other groups. As youth, we are invited to be aware of this and be able to use the media as a means of reporting this misunderstanding.
The third week’s material was about interfaith education; where there were tips on how we should proceed- firstly from understanding our own contexts, then learning about differences among others and how we can evaluate what we have done. The fourth week, which was the last week, Father Heru explained the challenges and opportunities that can be utilized by young people in promoting interfaith dialogue.*