Archive for the ‘Religion’ Category
Global Islam: Between Images and reality
Image source: asetow.wordpress.com
By Dr. Muhamad Ali
Globalization has made the world of Islam more heterogeneous than homogeneous. It continues to shape Islam identities and moralities, imagined or real, at both global and local levels. What is conceptually homogenous is Islam itself, but what it means differs.
Globalization in its broadest sense is not new, and early Islam normatively preached trans-racial, trans-ethnic solidarity of the community of the believers, although information technology today has made them even more aware of the world. Read the rest of this entry »
Lahir dari Rahim: Sebuah Teologi Profeminis Indonesia
Oleh P. Mutiara Andalas, S.J.[1]
Saat mencari judul buku yang dibedah hari ini, perbincangan dengan seorang rekan perempuan dari Indonesia yang mendalami teologi feminis berkelebat dalam benak. Ia dengan bangga memperlihatkan t-shirt The Vagina Monologues sambil menawarkan tiket pertunjukan yang semua pemerannya dari sebuah sekolah teologi Kristen di Berkeley. Meskipun akhirnya absen dari pertunjukan karena menghadiri acara lain, Eve Ensler mencuri perhatian sampai saya mengoleksi tulisan-tulisannya. Tuturan lugasnya pada bagian My Vagina is My Village memaku saya pada keterpukauan.
There is something between my legs. Read the rest of this entry »
Tipping point, terrorism and crimes against humanity
by Jennie S. Bev
It’s mind-boggling that the National Police have claimed they are one of the best police forces in the world in tackling terrorism and that the government has claimed it is an administration that governs a pluralistic country. Their claims are far from factual conditions. Otherwise many people wouldn’t be puzzled.
The Islam Defenders Front’s (FPI) acts of terror are rampant and have reached a point where religious minorities, including both non-Muslims and Muslims, have no place to stand and breathe. Recently, the places of worship and private residences of the Ahmadiyah Muslim sect have been ransacked, destroyed and burned. People have been abused physically, mentally, and emotionally. Read the rest of this entry »
Zuck, Manifesto Facebook & Gereja
Oleh Mutiara Andalas, S.J.
Saya hanya perlu berpaling ke para Yesuit di sebelah kamar untuk melihat keberagaman pendapat tentang Facebook. Seorang sahabat segera pasang paras sinis saat beberapa dari kami asyik memperbincangkan Facebook di meja makan. “Facebook? Hanya buang waktu!” Seorang rekan menimpali, ”Saya belum merasa membutuhkannya.” Keduanya di rentang usia empat puluhan. Beberapa rekan yang sering berbagi meja makan dengan paras tersipu mengaku memiliki akun, namun membatasi diri sebagai pengguna pasif. Seorang sahabat mimiknya berubah serius saat membeberkan alasannya. “Saya menolak pendangkalan hidup di kampung global (globalization of triviliazation).” Read the rest of this entry »
Doubt and why good people do bad things
[Image Source: Photobucket]
by Jennie S. Bev
Indonesia is renowned for its kind, smiling and warm-hearted people, beautiful culture, strong values, high morality and for being very religious.
By the same token, Indonesia is also enigmatic, mind-boggling and paradoxical.
Minorities have been persecuted. “Heretical” Islamic sects have been condemned, destructed and banned. Churches have been burnt, closed and destroyed. Genocide has occurred in Papua causing tens of thousands of deaths.
Porn has been banned and ministers have been judging morality based on people’s wardrobes. All kinds of corruption have remained rampant beyond belief. Read the rest of this entry »
AS dan Kebebasan Beragama
Image source: reddogreport.com
Oleh Dr. Muhamad Ali
Kontroversi pembangunan pusat Islam di dekat Ground Zero—tempat serangan teroris 11 September 2001— membuat Presiden Amerika Serikat Barack Obama yang beragama Protestan harus angkat bicara. Wali Kota New York Michael Bloomberg, yang beragama Yahudi, sebelumnya mendukung.
Meski awalnya low profile karena itu ia anggap urusan Kota New York, ikut campurnya Obama menunjukkan isu Islam dan Barat, Islam dan keamerikaan, serta agama dan kebebasan agama belum selesai di Amerika Serikat. Read the rest of this entry »
Interpreting Koran as the source of living fatwas
[Note: This article is an example of my attempt in peace-building and creating better understanding in a pluralistic and multicultural society.]
by Jennie S. Bev
In Indonesia, clerics and their “political” organization Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) have been making headlines with their so-called “fatwas.” Even though some fatwas make sense, like forbidding smoking, which is bad for one’s health, other fatwas sound trivial. Read the rest of this entry »
The constrained and unconstrained views
By Jennie S. Bev
Raphael’s painting The School of Athens depicted Plato pointing to the sky and Aristotle pointing to the ground. It encapsulates the two approaches in how we perceive the world: perfection and grounded reality.
These perspectives divide the world into unconstrained and constrained views, using terms used by Harvard professor of behavioral studies Tal Ben-Shahar.
In psychology, they become perfectionism and optimalism; in politics, they become communism and capitalism; in everyday arguments, they become can-do and cannot-do. Read the rest of this entry »
Air Mata Xie Xie
Sumber gambar: loveisperfectharmony.files.wordpress.com
Oleh Mutiara Andalas, SJ
Thank You. Xie Xie. Terima Kasih. Matur Nuwun.
Kapan pulang? Pertanyaan ini menggelayuti benak saya beberapa waktu terakhir. Saat seseorang menanyakannya, saya awalnya menjawab sambil lalu,“Masih lama.” Saat kepulangan sudah di depan pintu, lidah semakin tercekat untuk menjawabnya. Perubahan rona penanya saat saya menyebut perkiraan tanggal kepulangan menyadarkan beratnya kandungan pertanyaan. Read the rest of this entry »
The rise of Indonesia’s “accidental guerrillas”?
Image source: pacamat.com
By Evan A. Laksmana
The arrest of two university students in Central Java on terrorism charges two weeks ago – following a wave of arrests in recent months – highlights several trends regarding Indonesia’s evolving terrorist threat.
First, as a recent International Crisis Group report argued, there are now at least three jihadi streams in the country. Read the rest of this entry »
Lessons from the Jews and conflict resolution
(Image: The Garden by Joan Miro)
by Jennie S. Bev
The historical backdrop of the Israel-Palestine conflict can be traced back 5,000 years to 3000 BC. The story of struggling Jews is part legend, part scriptural, part psychological, and entirely political.
Religions happens to be in the picture because the Middle East is the birthplace of three monotheisms — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — thus making it “the cradle of civilization.”
This “cradle” status ensures the region is continuously in the limelight. Religions are involved, yet they are not the main concern. Instead, this conflict is a humanitarian issue of massive proportion. Like the Mindanao conflict, the Israel-Palestine conflict also centers on a piece of land. Read the rest of this entry »
State, Islamic Law and Minorities in Indonesia
by Muhamad Ali, Ph.D
How did the State and civil society negotiate the Shari’a and the civil law in a modern pluralistic Indonesia? Why is it difficult for a compromise that pleases everyone? The State continues to function as the legitimate power to produce laws in which the Shari’a has to contribute and to adjust itself in a Muslim majority yet, pluralistic nation. The tensions and negotiations between various elements– the government and civil society, result from a long duree of encounters of the Middle East (including the Mediterranean), Europe, and Asia in the Indonesian archipelago. A history of a legal culture and interfaith interaction in a local context reveals the various and changing impact of global forces. Read the rest of this entry »
Anniversary of Indonesian riots spurs talk of pluralism
by Jennie S. Bev
San Francisco, California – This month marks the 12th anniversary of a critical event in recent Indonesian history – the May 1998 riots. Following the death of four university students who were participating in a protest to demand the resignation of President Suharto, people took to the streets, rioting and looting.
Though many claim the riots were a result of frustration with the current regime and mass unemployment, the ethnic Chinese Indonesian community quickly became a target of mob violence, including reports of nearly 100 Chinese Indonesian women being raped. Read the rest of this entry »
Learning universal `Salaam’, a start to making peace on earth
Image source: tikkun.org
by Muhamad Ali
A basic understanding of humanness and human kindness (that everyone has equal dignity as human before being Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, straight, gay, and so forth). If people believe in God, but they use different terms for God, then they share that humility before God. If some believe and others do not believe in God, they still share that human kindness. The Koran uses the term “children of Adam”.
Peace can only last when there is such basic understanding of equality of every single being. German religion scholar Hans Kung, for instance, says, “no peace among the nations without peace among the religions, no peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions, and no dialogue between the religions without investigation of the foundation of the religions.” I would add that there is no sound investigation of the religions without the understanding that every human being has inherent dignity. Read the rest of this entry »
Gus Dur as a defender of pluralism, religious freedom
By Dr. Muhammad Ali
Pluralism has always been a contentious issue, but Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid worked beyond passive tolerance. He advocated the creation of a public space for communication, dialogue and cooperation between the mainstream and the marginalized.
Raised in a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) tradition, but also in Western and Eastern traditions, Gus Dur became the advocate of a reform rooted in the traditions. Read the rest of this entry »
