Realizing The World

            The regulation of police uniform is debated not only in elite government but also in smallest group of society. This topic becomes interested to discuss because there are many groups which have the strong arguments to argue the policewomen for wearing hirable whereas a part of Indonesia namely Aceh province allowed.

            For very long time we get used to see the policewomen without headscarf to cover their hair although we know that the headscarf is a symbol of Muslim’s group. This is because of the Decree (SK) National Police Chief Pol No.: Skep/702/IX/2005 about police uniform where the police must wear the same one, means that police women is prohibited to wear hijab. This prohibition is believed that policewomen may work effectively and maximally without hijab For example, when a policewoman arranges a traffic jam, she will be more moveable without hijab rather than wearing hijab. Moreover Research shows that all that synthetic covering is not healthy especially in the humid tropics, as the body struggles to maintain homeostasis.

            Comparing to the agree group of banning hijab, Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) cited that the 2005 decree is a kind of discrimination for Muslim policewomen group because whether constitution or human right principle allows every citizen to express their faith, opinion, and creation. Human rights campaigners including the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and Impartial have slammed the ban, saying that it violates basic human rights.

            Let’s look at this problem in a bit more detail, in one hand; police institution has given a special regulation for Aceh with the reason that in Aceh province there is a special autonomy given by central government which regulates all women to wear hijab, so there is no reason to prohibit them to wear hijab. On the other hand, the decree of 2005 banned policewomen for wearing hijab is quite implausible because some reasons such as: by wearing hijab, the number of sexual arrestment will be more decreased. And the most important one is hijab is a part of religious obligation for Muslimah, so if the government banns hijab means that government slams the freedom of human rights.

            In conclusion, POLRI institution should consider the best way to solve this problem in order to reduce a number of debates in society so that the bad image of police could be changed. Police should show the justice, no more violence, intimidation, fraudulence, and even the discrimination.    

                                                                                    

                Islam commands person strictly to choose leader to live because if someone lives without any leader means that his or her life is haram. Because of the importance of leader in Islam, the criterion of leader becomes interesting to discuss, whether a leader must be a Muslim or non Muslim is eligible. This writing will examine that a Muslim leader does not guarantees that he or she has capability or integrity, and non Muslim leader can be a good leader for Muslim society.

                It has been claimed that a Muslim leader is better than non Muslim one. This is because of the assumption that a Muslim leader will bring people close to Allah. By applying syari’ah or Islamic law public will live in a harmony. For example, in the era of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), citizens in Medina whether believer on non believer lived together in one constitution so-called the charter of medina. Then, next generation, the generation of prophet’s friends continued the way prophet Muhammad lead and the result was Islam spread around the world. Therefore, people said that the most ideal period ever in the world is the period of prophet and two next generations after him. Because of his achievement, Michael H. Hart, a western writer puts this last messenger of Allah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) on the top level of the most influential person in history. So, now Muslim must live under the rule of God, syari’ah, and in the name of Islam Muslim must choose the Amirul mu’minin, the leader of believer. 

                However, non Muslim leader can be a good one for Muslim society. One day in history, prophet suggested some of his followers to go to a city which was led by Christian leader. Abyssinia, the name of that city was led by king Negus, a good king because he led justly and indiscriminately. This indicates that even though the leader is not a Muslim but that person may lead the society well, he or she is eligible being leader. Furthermore, some Islamic counties nowadays which are guided by a Muslim leader are not really better than some advanced counties led by non Muslim. What happen in MENA (Middle East and North Africa), Arab spring is proof enough that Muslim does not guarantee a good quality, capability and integrity being leader, king or president. Moreover, because of dreadful condition in MENA such as war In Syria, violence in Iraq, bloody coup d’état in Libya and demonstration protesting government in Egypt and Turkey, some citizens immigrate to European and American countries to live like England, French and U.S.A. So, whoever the leader, when he or she may lead well, the leader is justifiable.

                I personally think that the consideration to asses a leader does not depend on religion, race, sex, or any political background because leadership per se is a skill which can be mastered by anyone through some efforts including study. The leader must be integrated, trusted, and of course he or she must be strong.

Now, Beheading video of ISIS is a very hot news. All countries in the world react it differently. Some groups support this militant movement in order to threaten western coalition which is led by United States of America. However, protests come from many sides not only by liberal but also Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Qatar. In my view, the video will not frighten or stop Judeo-American alliance to bombard caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

Killing people by beheading or shooting violates the basic human right, the right to live. But it is believed by IS’ “jihadists” as one way to remind France government to stop its intervention in the war against Bashar El Assad and Iraq legal official. They think that, by beheading a French and recording it so that people all around the world can watch their cruel, France as well as U.S will stop their military aggression in Syria and Iraq. Other reasons are to show to the world that they really struggle fighting for the establishment of caliphate, and to invite other armies to join with ISIS, to empower the state.

Disturbing a slipping monster can worsen the condition. As a resul of the video, the political constellation in the world is getting worse because the act of ISIS wakes the giants up to get involved in the conflict. There are 50 countries working together to destroy caliph Al-Baghdadi. The idea to frighten people by committing violence does not make any sense, meanwhile, it precisely makes people more and more angry. Furthermore, violence to violence will never be successful to end the humans’ suffer, so the way to overcome this problem should be a peace and just way. Then, what the way is might be a diplomatic way. United Nations or such organization must role its function to keep the safe world.

            Before defining what “freelance monotheist” is, I would like to tell you little about Karen Armstrong’s spiritual adventure. Well, Karen is a former nun in one of Rome catholic churches in England. In a very young age, 17 years old, Karen decided to be a nun in the church. In contrast to the mainstream at that time when Britons especially in Birmingham were extremely secular, they didn’t care about religion, became materialists and even put money as “god”, Karen sank her life into religious obedience in 14^th September 1962. Seven years later, she surprisingly took a decision to stop her carrier as a nun and tried to be a common people. That was because of bad experience in the church, stiff regulation, seniority, and some systems that were not constructive. Moreover, she didn’t find “God” in every liturgy for seven years. Next, she went to Oxford University and took English literature as her discipline. Unfortunately, being academician was not better than being nun; she failed in thesis assignment, fired from campus and got some diseases including epilepsy.

            In short, Karen didn’t believe in god anymore, she thought that religion is a constitution that has been created by human, and the idea of god is only the result of neurosis so called neuro-theology, because she saw what a billion scientists in her environment that didn’t believe in god, on the contrary what a billion people who killed each other in the name of god. Obviously, she assumed that religions are ignorance and problem. But, her live changed when she decided to examine the same thing that exists in every single religion. She observed holy books and she came to the conclusion that every religion pray to one “God” and teach the good things. Karen finally wrote his work in a book entitled “a history of god”. The work of “a history of God” was the starting point she climbed out of the darkness and she returned to be a believer.

            Now, Karen believes in God, she feels closed to god more than she did in the past. But now she doesn’t declare herself as a Muslim, Christian, and Jew or other terms for believer, she becomes a freelance monotheist. “Freelance Monotheist” means a person who believes in god without bounding on specific religion.

                 However, God for those who involve in one religion believed that the only one way to experience the spirituality is by dealing with religious liturgy. For example Muslims believe that the right path to go is Islam. Being Muslims automatically people follow what Allah regulates in holy Qur’an and avoid what Allah forbids to do. As a consequence, Muslim must pray to Allah through the way prophet Muhammad do and instruct in strong Hadist.

            To be frank, I myself don’t have enough knowledge to criticize the idea of freelance monotheist because it deals with philosophical understanding, deep contemplation and complex research. Someone must take a long journey among religious diversity, think out of subjectivity, pray in a way other believer does in order to experience the ecstasy. But religion has been living in my life since I was born in the Islamic traditional environment, so religion cannot be separated from spirituality, because they come together and construct my understandings about God, human and Universe.

Note (paper money) is not money in Islam

By: Saddam Husain

            There is no doubt that money is very important for human beings’ live. Money is a medium of exchange and it is a measurement of value. In other words, it is used as a way to pay for goods and services and to pay people for their work. Since money is used to pay, it must have value in order to make a just transaction. However, based on Islamic perspective, note that people use as money today has no value in it, and therefore it is not money in Islam. The following arguments will explain the reason why “paper money is not real money” taken from Syaikh Imran Hossein’s teaching.

            Firstly, note is out of nothing. It is created by debt. In “the confession of economy Hitman” by John Perkins, it is explained how money created from nothing. Let us see the illustration. When government of U.S.A. wanted to develop its country, it needed much money. Then the government published the letter of debt called LOAN. The LOAN was sent to Federal Reserve as the central bank. Next, Federal Reserve took some papers, drew some pictures, and signed those papers in order to make them legalized. After that, those papers were given to the government with interest. Eventually, government used those papers called U.S Dollars to buy goods, to develop the country. But, the mysterious thing happened. Where did the value of those papers come from? The answer was, the value came from ex-factor, from Federal Reserve.

           

Secondly, note cannot be a measurement of value. This is due to note has no value in itself and it does not store value. Again, this paper shows you the illustration. A father worked a whole month in a company. He worked from morning until evening. When the last day came, the boss of the company gave him his salary Rp. 2.000.000. The salary was enough to buy a cow, but the father planed another stuff to buy which had higher price. So he had his wife save that salary under a pillow. A week later, inflation happened and the salary that was enough to buy a cow could not buy it anymore. The salary was only enough to buy a goat. Why, because paper money doesn’t store value. The condition would be different if the boss used gold or dinar as salary, because the value of dinar exists in dinar per se. That is why, even though it is saved a hundred years the value of dinar will never collapse.             

Thirdly, money in Islam is mentioned in holy Qur’an related to the story of Prophet Yusuf A.S., gold and silver (dinar and dirham). Both metals can be functioned as money because the value exists in the metals themselves. That is what we call “intrinsic value”. Intrinsic value must belong to money so that it can be saved and it can be used to measure good value or service value. Moreover, it the era of Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. what people used as money in Medina, in market, was gold and silver.

Prominent figure series: 1

Gusdur And Pluralism

By: Saddam H.

            One of the most famous figure in Indonesia is Abdul Rahman Wahid (well-known as Gusdur), he was called as father of pluralism in Indonesia. When we listen to his name, of course there will be controversial argument, it’s because Gusdur’s thinking, idea, concept, and statement. Moreover, our understanding about his thinking influences our point of view about him.

            The different view of this 4^th president of Indonesia happened not only when he was still alive but also after passed away (posthumous). As a father of pluralism, this biological and ideological son of K.H. A. Wahid Hasyim influences many aspects of life in Indonesia. For example, when he equated Confucious with other religion, and his protection for “ eks– tapol “ civilian ( former communist ) that assumed as a second citizen of Indonesia. In this short essay, let’s see Gusdur in a holistic view, not for his disability just like many people stigmatize his existence as disabled one.

            In term of pluralism, Gusdur had his own concept about it. That was quite different with MUI and other people knew. That was more identical with humanism rather than religious perspective. Firmly, he emphasized the only religion that in the right path is Islam. That’s understandable through three verses that he always used namely Al-baqarah: 256 “ there is no compulsion in religion “, Al-imran:19 “ truly, the religion with Allah is Islam”, and Al-kafiroon:6 “to you be your religion and to me my religion (Islamic Monotheism).

            In spite of those, in social context this Islam scholar spent his life with harmonious relationship with different ethnic, religion, race, and cultural society. He taught us that religion and humanity are inseparable things in humans. They must be balance instead dominating each other. When the religion dominates, it will humiliate humanity Like many wars that happened in the name of god. On the other hand, the worst thing will happen when humanity dominates the religion as well.

            In conclusion, by viewing Abd. Rahman Wahid holistically and systematically will be better than stigmatizing him because of our misunderstanding about his teaching and his controversial statements. As a human kind, he must have mistaken but it doesn’t mean that all of his teachings are wrong. Furthermore, it’s very forbidden to prejudge someone else without knowing the real facts. 

           

When The Religion “Institutionalized”

By: Saddam Husain

            In essence, spirituality is inseparable with mankind. Human wants happiness, peace, kindness, and pleasure. Besides that, human endeavors to avoid cruelty, chaos, and disintegration. Shortly, everyone wants to live in the world harmoniously.  For long time, with comprehensive understanding about religion is able to serve what human wants in life. Ironically, when the religion is institutionalized, the essence of religion transforms into an ideology, new axiom that bounds humanity in the numb rules.

            It has been believed for all of each adherent that religion promises the good thing for human kind.  “Islam” promises happiness, Christianity with its love, Hindu and Buddhism with their asceticism. Every religion, as the way of life expresses its teaching in the own way. In this essay, I would like to talk about the different ideology dynamics of Islam that creates the “institutions” and its effect in social context of life.

            It has been believed that, by organizing the people through some organizations can ease the government to manage the society. Because of organization of religion the structure in social context will e more arranged. We may see some organizations in Indonesia for instance, Muhammadiyah, NU, Wahdah, HTI and so on. Hey show their own characteristics so that the ordinary people may enter to them and then live in moral, value, and culture.

            However, the appearance of some organizations in Islam has been believed as the impact of different ideologies. Furthermore, when the religion institutionalized it creates two terms namely “insider“ and “outsider”. Insider means, the member of certain institution who see their friends bound with their own rule and tradition. On the other hand, “outsider” means the other people out of insider’s institution.

            Personally, I think that it’s not matter when religion appears in new face because that is kind of religious dynamic. As long as it can improve the integration of society everything is ok, but when it becomes new axiom, ideology, and alienation it causes disintegration for society.

            In conclusion, religion in essence comes to build a beautiful relation for human kind. When religion becomes the pretext to humiliate, alienate, and even destruct the people means religion lose its substance.