Social Entrepreneurship: Concrete Solution to Intolerance

Young Muslims of the millennial generation are forming a social movement to promote tolerance and peace. The movement is expected to be accompanied by social empowerment initiatives.

Kompas/Sonya Hellen Sinombor

High school and university students from the Interfaith Youth Harmony Alliance (Akapela) attend the Conference of Youths for Change in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, on Tuesday (17/1). The event was organized by the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (Oxfam) Indonesia, the Women’s Legal Aid Foundation (LBH APIK) in West Nusa Tenggara and the Indonesian Tunas Alam Foundation in West Nusa Tenggara, among other organizations.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Young Muslims of the millennial generation (those born between 1980 and 1995) are forming a social movement to promote tolerance and peace.

The movement is expected to be accompanied by social empowerment initiatives for young people. Approaches that overly emphasize ideological aspects are ineffective as a solution for the millennial generation. Concrete action with real social impact is necessary.

“Social entrepreneurship is the way to go strategically, as it empowers individuals and communities and strengthens social networks,” Muslim Milenial (Millennial Muslims) movement founder Romzi Ahmad said on Saturday (3/3/2018) at the “Muslim Millennial Platform for National Movement” event in Jakarta.

Muslim Milenial is a social movement that aims to expand and strengthen the network of young Muslims across the archipelago, regardless of their ethnic, social and organizational backgrounds. The movement enables members to share their knowledge and skills and to work together in a supportive and non-bureaucratic environment.

“Thus far, young people have frequently resorted to acts of intolerance because of their dissatisfaction with their social status, and their perceived lack of ability to do important things and make change,” said Romzi, an active member of the Indonesian Islamic Students Movement (PMII).

Furthermore, there was a lack of opportunity for these youths to travel beyond their hometowns to meet with people of other ethnic backgrounds, beliefs and social groups. As a social entrepreneurship scheme, the Muslim Milenial movement also provides scholarships for young people who have initiated positive change in their hometowns. These changes could be an economic empowerment program, a literacy program, a health campaign, an arts program or a religious program.

Empowerment

Muslim Milenial founder and Muhammadiyah Young Intellectuals Network member Subhan Setowara said that the scholarship for young change leaders could help create a network of grassroots empowerment leaders. “This could connect them with businesspeople invited as trainers or a network of experts and activists that can add to their knowledge,” Subhan said.

In the process, young Muslims would get the chance to immerse themselves in national diversity. Subhan said that messages of tolerance would be delivered organically through personal interaction instead of through sermons.

The experience would expand the perspective of young Muslim millennials. Islamic and Social Studies Center researcher Didin Syafruddin of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University said in an interview on Sunday that millennials enjoyed freedom and personal interaction. Many Muslim mass organizations failed to see this opportunity and preferred a recruitment system that demanded young people to be members of the organization.

“The youths who wish for change are not satisfied with merely being members. They want to be more actively engaged and not simply receive orders from their leaders. Muslim millennials are beginning to see that there are worlds beyond their immediate environment, and even beyond one’s geographical limitations and nationality,” Didin said.

He added that the idea of tolerance was present in the system of the nation-state, but was often forgotten as it was buried by social, political and economic interests. Youth movements were important to return the collective memory of the people to the spirit of unity, which was inseparable from Indonesia’s cultural identity.

(DNE)