Jadi, di Indonesiapun aliran pembaruan Islam kelihatan cukup
giat...
Kabar bagus.
Kapankah ada perempuan Indonesia menjadi imam Jemmah yang ada
laki-lakinya dan laki-laki yang bersedia sembahyang berkaum yang
diimami perempuan?
Saya sendiri menganggap sembahyang itu sebagai perbuatan orang
bodoh, tapi adalah sebuah kemajuan buat persamaan hak antara
laki-laki dan permepuan, bila perempuan Islam telah berani
menjadi imam di jemaah yang ada laki-lakinya dan, sejajar dengan
itu, ada laki-laki yang bersedia di imami perempuan...
Persisnya saya kira generasi Islam Indonesia yang selama ini
dicekoki oleh al-Banna, Sayed Qutb dan Maududi atau Qaradawi
akan segera diikuti oleh generasi yang cakrawalanya diperluas
oleh pemikir seperti Na'im, Abu Zaid atau Arkoun...
Berita tentang referensi ke Tunisia di zaman Habib Bourguiba yang
saya baca beberapa minggu yang lalu - dan yang saya fwd kesini -
juga menunjukkan usaha beberapa pemikir Islam Indonesia untuk
keluar dari tindasan dan kungkungan ajaran al-Banna, Sayee Qutb
dan Maududi...
------------
Muslims told to focus on ethics not symbols
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Bogor
In the world of Western astrological prophecy, this new millennium is
an epoch of enormous change.
It supposedly marks a shift from the Age of Pisces (the fish), where
humans must be told what to do by higher powers, to the Age of
Aquarius (the water bearer), where humans will be able to think for
themselves and learn the "truth".
The previous age depicted a time of fervent religion, while now is a
period of enormous ideological shifts, astrologists say.
We are also, it seems from the rash of controversial publications
revisiting events in Christianity, in an age where people worldwide
have emerged to oppose traditionalist, conservative or patriarchal
religious teachings. Sometimes the reactions against the conservative
are scholarly, other times they are fanciful, or just downright
silly.
Most recently, the release of Dan Brown's best-selling novel The Da
Vinci Code explores an idea that Brown claims has been circulating
for centuries; that Jesus married one of his close confidants, Mary
Magdalene, and sired a bloodline, and how a "mysterious" center of
political and economic power has tried to hide the truth.
Prominent Catholic figures have attacked the book, calling it anti-
Catholic, dangerous, and saying it would only increase the ignorance
in non-believers about Jesus.
Meanwhile in the Muslim world, Amina Wadud, a professor of Islamic
studies at the Virginia Commonwealth University led a mixed Islamic
congregation of around 100 men and women at an Anglican church in New
York City.
Applauded by liberal Muslims as a breakthrough in the fight for
gender equality in Islam, Wadud's act created a stir among
conservationists and hard-liners who condemned it as heresy. Earlier
bomb threats had meant the ceremony was transferred from its planned
setting in a mosque.
These clashes between traditionalists and liberals, believers and non-
believers, is part of a wider war over what place religious teachings
have in the modern world.
Liberal Muslim scholars in Indonesia, the world's most populous
Muslim country, have urged a reinterpretation of religion that
emphasizes humanitarian ideals.
"In practicing our religion, superficial symbols often overshadow the
substance of faith, which then creates ideological differences. What
needs to be established is individual religiousness, that one's
religion is only for oneself," Muslim scholar Komaruddin Hidayat told
a recent workshop on pluralism and cross cultural understanding
sponsored by the International Center for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP).
Meanwhile, Islamic jurisprudence researcher and gender expert Siti
Musdah Mulia told the meeting that a religion should not encourage
discrimination among its followers toward peoples of other faiths and
cultures.
"The concept of diversity is somehow misleading. It's not enough that
we know we're all different from one another. A pluralistic point of
view must be developed to (make worshipers) realize that other
religions also have similar concepts," he said.
The problem with much current Islamic teaching was that it emphasized
only a narrow "legalistic" interpretation of the faith; the concepts
of heaven or hell and what was halal or haram (permitted or forbidden
under Islamic law), she said.
"Whereas Islam has many different aspects, such as politics, sufism,
arts and culture, but these are hardly ever elaborated on. In the
Koran, only around 6 percent out of over 6,000 verses deal with laws.
The rest is about religious morality, which is universal because it
talks about equality and justice," she said.
The other problem was a lack of intelligent interpretation, she said.
A literalization of the Koran ignored the metaphorical
interpretations possible and the era when the book was written.
Scholar Moeslim Abdurrahman from Muhammadiyah, the country's second-
largest Muslim organization, said if people dealt with religion
honestly, they should realize it was a matter of history.
"What remains is the human interpretation, not the words from the
holy books. Now, this creates a theological problem -- comprehending
that it's not just one's interpretation which is the most absolute."
This led to a lack of subjective awareness among believers, he said,
and a tendency to dismiss other religious viewpoints and objectify
those of other faiths.
This principle of otherness was illustrated in the concept of the
kafir (or infidel), which related to government policy on citizenship
and in Indonesia translated into interfaith conflict and identity
politics.
What was needed, Moeslim said, was the courage to put universal
values into humanistic concepts, which went beyond religious
identities.
"Dakwah is identical with the notion of spreading religious teachings
and converting people to other faiths. It has to be more about
teaching humanistic values and fighting the dehumanization that
occurs in the poverty trap. Otherwise dakwah would be mere
catharsis."
Social responsibility must come first before ritual, he said.
"If only people could detach from their religious identities and see
more objective problems such as poverty," he said.
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