Cultures of Peace as a base of civilization
Religious community runs their lives according to the values of the religion they adhere. For most adherents, religion is something that is taken for granted. People usually get their religion with all set of values and the understanding way of it from their parents and community. Muslim society in Indonesia for example, they recognize two major organizations that is Muhammadia and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). A person who was born in NU community, he or she will follow the culture and the way of understanding Islam that is usually done by Nahdliyyin (NU members) and this seems to be happened in any other communities. In fact the community did this intentionally to keep the tradition alive and perpetuated it to their descendant.

Nowadays we frequently heard news about clashed mass almost happened all over the world and every day. Something jumped into my mind when I heard this kind of news. Why people do so? Religion supposed to bring peace rather than violence or brutality. I finally found the answer that is lied in the media releases the news itself. Media have very widely broad in scale of conveying ideas to the audiences or spectators. These media have chances to generate culture, either the good one on conversely to the bad one.

Religious teaching or tenet itself generated two conflicting images of how to practice the faith. One image is of an embattled community of believers surrounded by enemies with evil ways. This community called to holly war by divine command, by God, who will lead His people to victory. The second image is of community of believers living at peace with neighbors, called by a loving God to deal non violently with other peoples when conflict arise, prepare to practice forgiveness and reconciliation and to live in respecting for other ways of thinking, believing and acting. The component of struggle in this image is in the inward struggle to achieve goodness, virtue, compassion . Its our duties as intellectuals to provoke and propagate peaceful tenets of the religions rather than cultivating hatred in the name of narrow minded of fanaticism. People can choose which tenets supposedly applied in social live. Medias could foster by keep releasing fresh peaceful news more than on contrary. This will need great efforts for all of us; state and citizen. Work hand by hand in a holistic development mechanism to gain the destination, that is prosperity not only economically but also social and spiritually as it is part of human essential live.

Living in happiness is generally the ideal of human lives. A peaceful civilized society is an idea that worth to battle for. By using any tools or instruments available surrounding us including medias, we could possibly generate and cultivate a peaceful culture. Since we realize that in religious teaching there are two images like what Elise Boulding explained above, why don’t we generate and spread goodness values of the religion over the violence or brutality. We could start it from now on and from our closest persons in the community. [ ]

Read More...

Islam was revealed by God, Allah in Arab jazira. The society of Arab at that time was tribal. People saw other not simply of his or her appearance or personal identity, but they would rather see other from their tribes. War among the tribes was commonly happened just for a small reason. The dignity of the tribe was just above everything. The tribe was the symbol of social status in the society. In this circumstances a tribe was consider superior to another. The unjustice situation as the outcome of such condition was that people only be respected in the name of their tribe. The lower tribes will never get any privileges as much as the superior one.
The other bad custome that commonly done at the time was burying girls baby right after be borned. A daughter was regarded as a disgrace for the family even for the tribe itself. It was not because they like to do it but they were situated in such a cultural values that they could do nothing but accept it. Supposedly, by using their basic sense, they will now instantly whether they did something good or bad. This is the reason why that era was called the era of jahiliyyah that simply means darkness or stupidity era. The jahiliya here did not mean illiterate at all since there were so many poet contest that was held in front of kakbah. The society was called jahil because they followed and did the wrong behaviour or attitude or culture from generation to generation.
Islam itself in fact encourages a lot of peace building with its conceptions and approaches. In social justice Islam told people that all human are equal. No privilege granted based on race, etnicity, or tribal association. The only two criteria for judging human worth are faith (iman) and Good deeds (aml sholeh). This was against the culture of Arab society at the time. Islam put human being as the highest creation among God’s creations. Human regarded as the manifestation of God. Saving a human life, it would be as if he or she saved the life of the whole people (Qur’an 5:32). Islam regards assisting the poor and pursuing equality among all humans are the core of religious values throught out the Qur’an and Hadits.
In economy, Islam generate the concept of Zakat, Shodaqoh, infaq, waqaf, even alwasiayah (will), Muslims leave a third of their estate to charity. These concepts are aimed to give balance and equality in social live by reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. It also generates emphaty among people in the society. This is why Islamic principles and teachings are clearly compatible with contemporary notions of non violent activism that mobilize communities to resist social injustice.
Islam viewed peace as an outcome to be achieved only after full submission to the will of God. Thus peace has internal, personal and social applications, and God is the source and sustainer of such peace. The various Islamic principles and values of peace can not be full identified without revisiting the concept and understanding the value of jihad. (Esposito, 1988). Jihad, that is lately be misunderstood by western as the violent way to spread Islam through the holly war, is simply defensive in nature. There is also possibility of peaceful and non violent jihad, that is jihad against self desire, temptations and selfishness is actually the most difficult to achieve.
The information that I convey above is aimed to show and give a positive understanding of Islam. Islam used to come in uncivilized society, with very unequal way of life. The dominant group had the privilages from that kind of culture. That is why, the bigger the tribe there was, the hater they were to Islamic teaching. Islam has threatened their privileges and challenged to change the condition. The territory where Islam was borned, was rocky desert. As long as the eye could see was mostly rock and sand. Even the Roman empire which was geographically very close to Madina, did not want to have it, even just to take a glance over Madina. But after Islam with its all set of values which was operated very well by very dedicated and responsible personnels, the city of Madina now became the dream land. In my opinion, we should have imagination and bravery to develop the civilized society, since we have the model, that is Madina. A lot of examples that we could absorb and learned from what prophet Muhammad did in building the Peaceful society in the brutal and violence society. If he (Muhammad) could do that, why we do not, yet we have the reference and models to be followed.

Read More...

The conflict occured between Palestine and Israel is just like never ending story. The background of the story is about the land that is believed as the sacred place. The land became very important to Islam, Christianity and Jews, because there lied the Rock of Dome, which is regarded as the holy place for all of those three religious adherents. It also a symbol of gloriness of Jews in the era of David and Salomon. There was a Decalogue which was contained Ten Commandment of God that has been given to Moses to be spread to Jews. The decalogue was put in a container named Ark of the Covenent. This ark used to be brought by all of Jews Kings into the battle as the symbol of power and gloriness. And after all they put the Ark back to the holy room inside the Dome of Rock. When the Jerussalem was conquered by Roman, Christianity became state religion in the era of King Agustin. The Dome of Rock was rebuilt, but then the dome was ruined in crusade war II when Islam take over the power and built the Mosque Al-aqsa. The problem is the Ark of the Covenant was left and buried underneath the mosque. Jews eager to dig it in order to get their holy Decalogue back, but from Muslim side they never let the Jews to do so, because according to Muslim the Ark of the Covenant had gone in the era of Roman.
For Jews the place is very important because they believe that if men appealed in that place, all of their hope will come true. The place is the way to encounter their god. At least they feel so very close to their God, and for that reason they will do everything to keep the land. For Moslem that land is very important since there lied the Mosque Al-Aqsa. Muslim believe that Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven from that place. The conflict becomes more complicated since it escalate to identitical problem, religious problem, and political issue that is mixed up altogether. These religious historical fact raised continuous conflict till today.

The movie review
Eleven September (9/11) tragedy was one of world humanity tragedy ever happened early in this century. Thousands of innocent people died for no reason. Some who survive became handicap, and got very deep traumatic experience. So many rumors grew speculated the reason of the action, and who was really behind that tragedy. Was it really Al-qaeda or could be America it self for political interest or might be anybody else. The media kept telling us that it was Alqaeda organisation who should be blame. This constellation remind us to Reene Gerard theory of scapegoat mechanism, that there must some body or some thing to be pointed to keep the stability againts people’s curiousity.
Religion seems to be like fast food that could easily grabbed as the motivation of the action. And in so many violence happened was commonly connected to religion. Some might be true but other part is not true, means that religion has been hijacked for the interest of other.
In the early 1980’s, a group of Jew set a plan to clean up the Dome of rock from Muslim presence. Jews group led by Yehuda Etzion took the initiative in shapping the movement by creating Jews special troops in hidden operation. The movement also got supported by other Jew named Dan Be’eri who had trained his troop by collusively sent his men to the dome of rock in order to blow the temple with the bluster or bomb. One thing that could be efectively gain from this action was the massage to show that this was not Arab war, instead it was all about the ruin of the Dome that has become the symbol of Islamic domination because according to them it belonged to Jews.
Since then the tention and violence escalated between both side. On May 1980, a group of American students was attacked by palestenian with the automatic gun. Six students died and vew got injured. Etzion took revenge for that. The target was two choosen Major by instaling bomb in their car. The Major was chosen because they were the representation of palestinian people. In the end Etzion group was cautch and be punished in 1984.
In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitsac Rabin and the leader of PLO movement Yasser Arafat shaked their hand in Oslo convention. In that convention, the West side submitted to Palestenian. This agreement brought great dissappoinmemnt to Jews, because they believe that the land is belonged to their ancestor that has been occupied over thousands of years. In that place the religion of Jew and Jew’s nation were formed.
In the end of 20th century the condition getting worsed. In West side of Hebron, 400 Jews build a housing compleks among 250 thousand Palestenian. The reason was because they were willing to be closer to old graveyard of Abraham, Sarah and Ishaak where for more than 300 years called as Cave of Patriarchs.
In Purin festival in 1994, Baruch Goldstein did massacre in Hebron Mosque that killed 30 congregations and injured many other. Baruch Goldstein finally beaten to dead by other Muslim congregation. For Jews he was regarded as the hero. Baruch Goldstein motivation itself was personal revenge but still they thought that Jews got advantage from that action.
Respond
The sequence of the movie about violation above show us the fact of reality that people live, and influenced by relgious values surrounding them. As we noted, it is rooted in the core metaphor of a violent cosmic contest between good and evil in terms of wich all of reality is consciously viewed and that is derived from the ancient Israelite root of all of our religions (Harold Ellens).
The terrorists always use the extreme ways to express and to show what they really want. They want to show to all over the world what happens in their life; they were suffering, they were discriminated, and they were also alienated. By doing such an extreme acts, they want people all over the world know and feel their pain, and pay attention to them.
The reason of the terrorism activity usually could be identified as below :
1. Gaining the support from all sources
2. To attract the world tention. By doing such terror they want people all over the world to pay attention to them. For example, to attract the international media attention, particularly Western media, they try to hijack the west plane. When they were succesfully hijacking the west plane, all medias like television, newspaper, radio, and so on in the world paid attention fully to the purpose of the hijacking. Before the incident, people did not realize what happened in Palestina. But after the hijack everybody knows and pay attention to the Palestinian struggle. Media is an efective instrument that they can use to create public opinion about terrorist and their struggle.
3. Solidarity, as it was shown in the movie the PFLP hijacking the air plane and ask The england government to release Lela Hamed. This kind of solidarity is not some thing that taken for granted. It must be developed in such a long periode of time and in a certain way.
Sociologically, those who joined in the terorism is usually those who has been allienated from his or her society. And people who are allienated will hate those who are perceived to those who are allienated them and for some of them, they get together with people who are experiencing the same experience. People like this is likely to become member of teroris.
For some fundamentalist Muslim they still believe that building civil society based on Islamic values on their community is Muslim responsibility. In this kind of community religious leader also has very strong influence to his congregation. When he allows people to do such violent, they will take it for granted and use it as license to kill. Sounds that his (religious leader) permission is equal with what the God say. So the interpretation of the sacred texts by the religious charismatic leader play very big role in brain storming his congregation to become militant and the devender of they religion and nation. They are willing to die for things they believe.
As it has been explaine by Harrold Ellen about religions. Eastern religion focus on individual and intrinsic spirituality that moves toward transcendence of self, society, and world, but the western religion (Abrahamic religion) tend to externalize their values in sociocultural influences (Harold.6).
Conclusion
The global conflict between Islam and the west is started from Palestine and Israel conflict in the Middle East. This local conflict become global conflict because there are many interests involved. Things getting more complicated when America come to interfere Palestine thought that USA take a side Israel. This escalate the hatred of Islamic world in general.
Religion supposed to brings peacefullness and love for mankind no matter who or whatever they are, but reality does not say the same thing as what has become the ideal of the religion it self. Moreover, religion can be an instrument to promote peacefullnes or on contrary to create violence. What is wrong here ?, According to us it might because of the imbalance information that people get from the media or any other news sources. We could promote a better life by giving more good information the religion rather than keep releasing bad news that will give bad impact to society in evaluating or judging certain religion.

Read More...

Islam is a religion that is built upon a foundation of peace values and principles. Islam itself means peace (salam). It means that all teachings and rules in Islam lead Muslims to make peace in the world, so if there is someone who considers himself Muslim, but in his/her daily life, s/he always commits something evil or violence or something that make the others pain, s/he is substantively not Muslim. Muslim must preach peace throughout the world. In this short paper I will explain what are the values and principles that are related to peace building in Islam.
All teachings and rules in Islam are based on the Qur’an and Hadits (Muhammadan tradition reports). If we consider the Qur’an and Hadits, we will find that there are many verses and hadits that relate to peace building. These values are unity, supreme love of creator, mercy, subjection of passion, accountability for all action, ‘adl (justice), ihsan (beneficence), rahmah (compassion), hikmah (wisdom), social justice, brotherhood, equality of mankind (abolition of slavery, racial and ethnical barrier), tolerance, submission to God, recognition of the rights of others, etc. These values are related to one another. These values have been practiced by Islamic communities in the prophet Muhammad saw’s era.
Muslims have a duty for justice and reject oppression on both interpersonal and structural levels. God says in the Qur’an: “Allah commands justice, the doing of good, and liberality to kith and kin, and He forbids all shameful deeds and injustice and rebellion: He instructs you, that ye may receive admonition” (16:90). It means that God insist Muslims maintain ‘adl (juctice).
There are many words in the Qur’an and Hadits that most commonly associated with the noun ‘adl. These words are qist, qasd, istiqomah, wasat, nisab, hissah, and mizan. Ibn Manzur in Lisan al-Arab, and al-Fayruzabadi in al-Qamus al-Muhit interpret ‘adala (in its various forms) as (1) to straighten or fix; (2) to straighten up or sit straight; to amend or modify; (4) to run away, depart or deflect from one (wrong) path to the other (right) one; (5) to be equal or equivalent, to match, or to equalize; (6) to be balance or counterbalance, to weigh, or to be in a state of equilibrium.
In Islam, besides there are many concepts that are related to nonviolence and peace building, also there are many rituals and cultures that train Muslims for nonviolence and peace building. These ritual and cultures are (1) fasting ritual (shaum), which train Muslims to be aware to the poor and the hunger; (2) ritualistic prayers, which train Muslims to be discipline in daily life; (3) religious chanting, which can become an outlet for peaceful marches, meetings and sit-ins.
Although Islam has the principles and values that lead Muslims to make peace and to avoid violent action, it does not means at all, if these values are not implemented in Muslim’s day-to-day practices. Therefore, it is duty for Muslims to make these values not be just an ideal concept that is far from reality, but be the concepts that are indeed implemented in daily life to create an Islamic society that is full with peaceful.[]

Bibliography:
Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Nonviolence and Peace Building in Islam: Theory and Practice, Chapter I.2, p. 48-84.

Read More...

The question about budism is always interesting and challenging to found the answer. The concept of God in Budism for example is unique, particularly from the perspective of Abrahamic or theistic religion. In this teaching, God is neither affirmed nor denied. The god is also conceptualised as an embodiment of Dharma or wisdom or truth. Budhism usually use the term enlightmen as the goal of the life as Budis. There are two different perspectives in Budhism regarding the way to achieve the final destination or goal of life. which are Theravada and Mahayana. This two different division is basically the same. The differentiation between this two divisions is simply in the way of getting into the enlightment or purpose of the life.
Theravada emphasize its adherents to enlight themselves before they could possibly do their Dharma. In this tenet, the adherent is pushed to achieve the Arahat (The person who has successfully achieve enlighment), before could possibly do their dharma, and finally to become a Bikhu. Mahayana on the other side could possibly do their Dharma while they are still seeking or in process in achieving the enlighment. In this tenet Buddhist supposed to be Bodhisatwa before achieving the Arahat. Actually this thing is also recognized in Theravada as well, but Theravada does not emphasize it. In Mahayana a budis could be a Bikhu or just an ordinary people to achieve the enlightmen. This understanding might become the reason why Mahayana is more popular and have more follower compare with Theravada.
The way of life, that is touch by Buda, is very unique. The highest ladder in Buddhist path is to achieve arahat (the enlightment). To be able to get there, people should be free from desire. Need to find a balance and permanence, Recognition of “no self” leads to freedom from desire, “Self” is the greatest illusion. In Buddhist perspective people should release their desire to create peace. Desire becomes the cause of suffering. Development of the country that was conceived of as a means to end suffering should not resulting the aggravation of suffering and in planting the seeds of incurable suffering. The desire for development should not land one in the coils of consumerism, which is manifestation of insatiable desire and covetousness of Trishna, which cannot lead to freedom from suffering, which in fact can only lead to suffering.
The teaching of Buddha recognizes the Noble Eightfold Path. These Noble eightfold path will lead Buddhist to free from suffering and building peaceful world:
 Right belief, especially the 4 noble truths that are: All Life is Suffering, The cause of suffering is desire, Removing desire removes suffering, The way to remove desire is to follow the Eightfold Path.
 Right resolve or thought that is shaped by detachment from hatred and cruelty
 Right speech: no falsehood, gossip or frivolity
 Right behavior: no killing, stealing or harming
 Right occupation: no astrology, casting magic spells or careers that inflict harm or killing
 Right effort: to clear and calm the mind
 Right contemplation or mindfulness: Buddhist meditation to clear the mind and body, cultivate detachment
 Right concentration: advanced meditation that involves mastery of trance states
Buddha teaches the ‘middle path’ that are : Rationalism, Practical wisdom, Moderation and Self control. Being rational is the first step of controlling the self. The practical wisdom lead Buddhis to the the ten precept of Budha that will make the fully realized Monk will abstain from; 1. destroying life,2. theft,3. fornication and all uncleanness,4. lying, 5.alcohol,6. eating at forbidden times,7. dancing,8. singing and shows personal adornment,9. using high seats and 10. handling gold or silver. All of those paths mentioned above are aimed to construct peacefulness from individu as starting point.In Buddhism, human are not separated from anything else, means that we are one with every thing else. Karma acts as energy, You continue to be what you think you are (reincarnation). The relationship between action (mental, physical or verbal) and the result of the action are to be understood in term of the somewhat ambiguous designation of “karmic fruitfulness” (the rotation of incarnation). If we do bad thing it will directly come to the doers themselves. Our faith is depending on what we’ve done at our previous live.[]

Read More...

A big question arise when we heard about warfare in the name of religion. Is this true? Or simply used religion to justify the action of violence? On behalf of humanity, ideally all violences are not accepted, even from the poin of view of religious values itself. Religion supposed to give a way of goodness and gives men guidelines to which ways to be chosen in case of not knowing where to go.
Virtually all cultural traditions have contained martial metaphors. The ideas of salfation army in Christianity and a Dal Khalsa (“army of the faithful”) in Sikhsm, Muslim notion of Jihad, even in Buddhist legends great wars are to be found. In Sri lankan culture as recorded in the Pali chronicles, the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa, that relates the triumphs of battles waged by Buddhist King. In India, warfare has contributed to the grandeur of the great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which are tale of simingly unending conflict and military intrigue.
Religion has dealt with violance, therefore, not only because violence is unruly and has to be tamed, but because religion, as the ultimate statement of meaningfulness, must always assert the primacy of meaning in the face of chaos. For that reason, religion has been order restoring or life affirming eventhought it has justified the taking of life in particular instances.
Notions of cosmics war are intimately personal but can also be translated to the social plan. The Muslim concept of struggle-Jihad-has been employed for centuries in Islamic theories of both personal salvation and political redemption. The struggle againts all ideas, ideologies and political institutions that they regard as alien to Islam. But the concept of jihad is neither a cart blanche for violence nor extremely as a license to kill.
One of the reasons a state of war is preferable to peace is that it gives moral justification to act of violence. Michael Bray made an ethical distinction between what is legal in peaceful society and what is morally justified in a situation of warfare. Bray’s argument is similar to that of the assasin of Mohandas Gandhi, Nathuram Godse, who in his court trial eloquently justified what he called his moral thought illegal act of killing the Mahatma.
The confrontation is likely to be characterized as cosmic war, if :
1. the struggle is perceived as a defense of basic identity and dignity
The Irish confrontation, for instance, become spiritualized when Rev. Ian Paisley interprated it as an attact on Protestanism, and the palestenian struggle took on areligious aura after a significant number of Sheiks and Mullahs interpreted it as devense of Islam.
2. Losing the struggle would be unthinkable.
For instance, some Palestinian Muslims have refused to even consider the idea of a jewish state in what they regard as Arab territory. Similarly some radically Jews have regarded the Israeli government’s return of Biblical land to Arab as unthinkable.
3. The struggle is blocked and can not be won in real time or in real terms
If the struggle is seen as hopeless in human terms, it is likely that it maight be reconceived on a sacred plan, where the possibelities of victory are in God’s hand.
The presence of any of these three characteristics increases the likelihood that a real world struggle may be conceived in cosmic term as a sacred war. When a struggle become sacralized, incidents that might previously have bee considered minor skirmishes or slight differencess of understanding are elevated to monumental proportions. The use of violence becomes legitimized.
In conclusion the key to resolution is willingness to accept the notion that there are flaws on one’s own side as well as on the opponen’s side. This is the sensible stand if one’s goal is to get along with others and avoid violence.

Read More...

Islam was revealed by God, Allah in Arab jazira. The society of Arab at that time was tribal. People saw other not simply of his or her appearance or personal identity, but they would rather see other from their tribes. War among the tribes was commonly happened just for a small reason. The dignity of the tribe was just above everything. The tribe was the symbol of social status in the society. In this circumstances a tribe was consider superior to another. The unjustice situation as the outcome of such condition was that people only be respected in the name of their tribe. The lower tribes will never get any privileges as much as the superior one.
The other bad custome that commonly done at the time was burying girls baby right after be borned. A daughter was regarded as a disgrace for the family even for the tribe itself. It was not because they like to do it but they were situated in such a cultural values that they could do nothing but accept it. Supposedly, by using their basic sense, they will now instantly whether they did something good or bad. This is the reason why that era was called the era of jahiliyyah that simply means darkness or stupidity era. The jahiliya here did not mean illiterate at all since there were so many poet contest that was held in front of kakbah. The society was called jahil because they followed and did the wrong behaviour or attitude or culture from generation to generation.
Islam itself in fact encourages a lot of peace building with its conceptions and approaches. In social justice Islam told people that all human are equal. No privilege granted based on race, etnicity, or tribal association. The only two criteria for judging human worth are faith (iman) and Good deeds (aml sholeh). This was against the culture of Arab society at the time. Islam put human being as the highest creation among God’s creations. Human regarded as the manifestation of God. Saving a human life, it would be as if he or she saved the life of the whole people (Qur’an 5:32). Islam regards assisting the poor and pursuing equality among all humans are the core of religious values throught out the Qur’an and Hadits.
In economy, Islam generate the concept of Zakat, Shodaqoh, infaq, waqaf, even alwasiayah (will), Muslims leave a third of their estate to charity. These concepts are aimed to give balance and equality in social live by reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. It also generates emphaty among people in the society. This is why Islamic principles and teachings are clearly compatible with contemporary notions of non violent activism that mobilize communities to resist social injustice.
Islam viewed peace as an outcome to be achieved only after full submission to the will of God. Thus peace has internal, personal and social applications, and God is the source and sustainer of such peace. The various Islamic principles and values of peace can not be full identified without revisiting the concept and understanding the value of jihad. (Esposito, 1988). Jihad, that is lately be misunderstood by western as the violent way to spread Islam through the holly war, is simply defensive in nature. There is also possibility of peaceful and non violent jihad, that is jihad against self desire, temptations and selfishness is actually the most difficult to achieve.
The information that I convey above is aimed to show and give a positive understanding of Islam. Islam used to come in uncivilized society, with very unequal way of life. The dominant group had the privilages from that kind of culture. That is why, the bigger the tribe there was, the hater they were to Islamic teaching. Islam has threatened their privileges and challenged to change the condition. The territory where Islam was borned, was rocky desert. As long as the eye could see was mostly rock and sand. Even the Roman empire which was geographically very close to Madina, did not want to have it, even just to take a glance over Madina. But after Islam with its all set of values which was operated very well by very dedicated and responsible personnels, the city of Madina now became the dream land. In my opinion, we should have imagination and bravery to develop the civilized society, since we have the model, that is Madina. A lot of examples that we could absorb and learned from what prophet Muhammad did in building the Peaceful society in the brutal and violence society. If he (Muhammad) could do that, why we do not, yet we have the reference and models to be followed.

Read More...

By Hatib Abdul Kadir
The idea of secularization in Indonesia faced with many challenging, that came from since in the beginning of the establishment of this country. There were several insurgents, for example, DI/TII that lead by Kartosuwirjo, since the rejection of Jakarta Charter by some nationalists and religious liberalists. The military had slowly expanded its power to doing battle against to what it called forces of the “extreme right”. The regional rebellions of the late 1950 had allowed the armed to forces to purge themselves of officers shympathetic to Islamic causes.
They assume that the separation between religion and state is not known in Islamic values. It is a Christian notion and Western tradition that separated between religion, state, and governmental system. For DI/TII the notion of secularization is equal to the individual freedom, capitalism, Christian enlightenment, and westernization. Kartosuwirjo did not agree with the people like Sjahrir. For Kartosuwirjo people like Syahrir has the rationality and negotiable self interest that required religious ideology be removed from public politics so as to become very private. Muhammad Natsir, also enforces the idea of Islamic state. He had skillfully argued that Islam has their own meaning of the democracy. He emphasized that Islamic democracy could not allow everything to be subject to the will of the people, because the ultimate sovereignty just lies with God, and the ethical imperatives provided by God in Shariah that must take precedence over man-made legislation.
Since the Old Order, the islamists who want to enforce Negara Islam has many troubles with the legal government. Therefore, to prevent the usurpations, secularization also conducted by the New Order regime. This regime assaulted on the party system and effort to depoliticize Islam. President of Soeharto also restricted some Islamic parties to fuse to one party that is Partai Persatuan Pembangunan. In the early New Order’s policy on Islam was buffeted by contrary winds. In the next chapter, the period from 1973 to 1985 was the low point in Muslim-government relations.
The different ideas between secularization and Islamic state have happened since this country was established. For some fundamentalist Islam, secularization cannot solve the entire problem in this world. Economic crises that occurred in 1997-1998 was considered as the failure of the secularization. To make it real, several Islamic organizations like Hizbut Tahrir, Majelis Mujahiddin and Islamic political party like Partai Keadilan try to establish the Islamic state. This organization, actually do the democratic way to go their aim. Nevertheless, there is also some individuals and organizations that try to do terror to establish an Islamic State. We can see in the Bali bombing that happened in 2002, a bombing in the Australian Embassy in Central Jakarta and Marriot Hotel in South Jakarta. In these terrorists mind, they are living in the wartime. They assume that their life is like in Muhammad Era, when he lived in Mecca, try to abolish, diminished, and eradicated Kaum Jahilliyah through the force way. Therefore they do the aggression to the people that assumed have no moral, secular and non-Muslim.
The notion of secularization has almost failed to be implemented in several Muslim developing countries, like Indonesia. After reformation 1998 (step down of Soeharto), some Islam radical groups criticized the idea of democratization for more than 50 year, since the independent of Indonesia. Islam as the religion cannot be depoliticized, since this religion assumes that has the values and systems to rule the daily activities, trading, social interaction, and political interests. Therefore, the idea of Islam cannot be domesticated, just in private sphere. Islam must be at the center of social life.
There have been many riots and rebellions because of the difference ideas, whether enforce the Islamic state or keep on the democratic track that is secularization. These occurrences mean that the notion of secularization sometimes does not compatible with the religious background in Muslim developing country, for instance Indonesia. The idea of democracy and secularization just fixed the Western societies, who have the Christian background as the dominant adherent.

Read More...

In building a culture of peace, religion plays a crucial role. Many teachings and rituals in religion express love, compassion, forgiveness, discipline, gentleness, etc. The role of religion to make a culture peace begins locally. Religious teachings of peace have to be strengthened in local community. It is because local community is part of their particular global faces of each of religious practices that can influence other community. It means that if every community in this world is in peace, the communities in global must be in peace.
The true adherent of religion is one who always creates, sustains, promotes, and maintains a culture of peace at a time when a culture of violence and war threatens to overwhelm many societies. The true adherent has to be an agent to change the violent and condition to peace condition.
In every society, there have been people who are aware of their society. They try to change their society that are full with violence to society that are full with peace an love, and they success in it. For example, Gandhi has succeeded changing the violence in India by a nonviolent act—“violence is fought by nonviolence”. Another example is Sillak Savaraksa helped by his many colleagues in the Network of Engaged Buddhist. They organized people in Cambodia during 1994 national elections to do peace march. In Islam, there are Ibrahim Rugova and Wangeri Maathai. The first is the building Muslim leader who has brought the Albanan population of Kosova into peaceful, nonviolent witness to the integrity of their society in the role of attempts at ethnic cleansing by a neighboring ethnic group, and the second is the Kenyan biologist and university Professor who helped rural women form the Greenbelt movement—an effort to transform deteriorating communities and the decaying ecosystem they inhabited into revitalized social bodies through the communal planting trees. Besides those, still there are many prominent figures that contribute to create the culture of peace.
As a religious adherent, there are many things that we can do to make a culture of peace. First of all is rebuilding a culture of peace. Religions have contributions to make peace in this world, because they love truth, are free, and have great spiritual strength. For example in Islam, according to the Kholoq-e-Azeem’s statement, there is abundance of natural wealth and human resources which ensure a bright future for the world of Islam, but the spiritual cultural and humanitarian values which form the very basic of Islamic teachings are sadly lacking everywhere.
Another activity that religions can do is training in conflict resolution. This training can help parents meet the needs of their children more fully and prepare children to behave nonviolently in environment where there may be considerable violence. Such training can also help local worshipers settle differences among themselves in mosque, temple, or church. And also there are many activities that religions can do to make and to create a culture of peace in the world.[]

Read More...