PeaceGeneration Indonesia and Ministry of Religious Affairs Launch SALAM Project to Strengthen Safe and Loving Learning Environments
PeaceGen.id - PeaceGen, together with the Ministry of Religious Affairs (Kemenag) and UIN Salatiga, launched the Safe and Loving Approach for Learning Environment (SALAM) project. The project is designed to strengthen efforts to prevent extremism through an educational approach that focuses on the root causes (8/19/2026).
Irfan Amali noted that patterns of extremism among young people continue to shift. Today, the issue does not always appear in the form of religious ideology, but is increasingly connected to identity-seeking, nihilism, digital culture, gaming, and the development of artificial intelligence.
As someone who has previously supported a child who wanted to join ISIS, he said that prohibiting or taking a hardline approach is not enough as a mechanism for preventing extremism. According to him, we must address the educational environment and culture that shape children's character.
“We do not always have to take a hard approach, but rather look at the roots,” he said.
Irfan Amali said that the SALAM project will examine various educational practices in Islamic boarding schools (pesantren), such as interactions between educators and students, as well as the hidden curriculum and how everyday culture is formed.
“If we only look at the documents, we may not see any extremist teachings there. But when we look at how they deliver them, how they interact, and how the hidden cultural curriculum takes place, perhaps that is where the ideology is transmitted,” he explained.
The launch of the SALAM project is part of a collaboration with the Ministry of Religious Affairs to strengthen the implementation of the Love-Based Curriculum (Kurikulum Berbasis Cinta/KBC) in Islamic boarding schools.
(Photo: Ministry of Religious Affairs)
Irfan Amali emphasized that the SALAM project is not intended to be the only program to address the issue of extremism. However, it is expected to serve as an accelerator for various existing programs, particularly efforts to strengthen the Love-Based Curriculum (KBC).
“This SALAM program will serve as an accelerator. It is not the only program, but an accelerator that can speed up our good goals, namely creating a culture of peace in our pesantren, madrasahs, and schools,” he concluded.
(Photo: Ministry of Religious Affairs)
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Secretary General of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Kamarudin Amin, said that the main challenge after policies and curricula are implemented is ensuring that their impact is truly felt by students. Therefore, the implementation of KBC needs to be demonstrated through practices and measurable results.
“It is no longer time for us to talk about what the Love-Based Curriculum is. We have finished that discussion; we have even implemented it. The question is its impact,” Kamaruddin said.
Kamaruddin considers pesantren to be strategic environments for strengthening the values of love. He hopes that the SALAM project will not stop at the implementation stage within the targeted pesantren. Instead, the good practices identified need to be documented and developed into knowledge that can be further developed to strengthen education policy.
(Photo: Ministry of Religious Affairs)
In addition, Director General of Islamic Education, Amien Suyitno, said that the SALAM project holds a strategic position in strengthening education within pesantren.
“Pesantren are very strong educational environments. There, children do not only learn religious knowledge, but also live, interact, and build character,” Suyitno said.
Amien hopes that the SALAM project will be able to capture good practices in depth and that the results can serve as material for evaluation while also strengthening the implementation of KBC in Islamic educational institutions.
The SALAM project will be implemented through collaboration with various parties and will target six Islamic boarding schools in West Java, Central Java, and East Java.
The launch of SALAM is part of a collaboration between the Ministry of Religious Affairs, PeaceGeneration Indonesia, UIN Salatiga, development partners, and civil society organizations to strengthen learning environments that are safe, loving, and supportive of students' character development.
