Diskusi dengan salah seorang ODHA

Wawancara tentang isu kebebasan beragama dengan aktivis JIL

Studi Kebangkitan Umat Khong Hu Cu di MAKIN Surakarta

Penelitian Keberagamaan Masyarakat di Klaten

Pendampingan anak-anak korban bencana alam

By

Erham Budi Wiranto

A. Background

Pornography Bill is a legal obligation that gives limitation in many aspects that relates to sexual notion. The content of this bill is controversial, it raises debate between groups of people who agree with the bill and people who refuses or objects it. People who support this bill, almost all of them are coming from Islamic mass organization like MUI, ICMI, FPI, MMI, Hizbut Tahrir, dan PKS. While, people who reject this bill are coming from feminist, artist, cultural figures, and academicians.

There are some controversies related to this Pornography bill. For many people, the controversy is regarding some ambiguous words and statements that were not quite clear in the bill. Some ambiguous words for example the word sexual, erotic, nakedness, indecent, aurat and so forth, were not defined clearly. Another problem is regarding the minority voice that defends their cultural values. The bill seems too deep in obligating human morality. But the most controversial to me is about the process of how the bill being sentenced. Perhaps the process is still unfair. We realize that Indonesia is a democratic society in which all citizens have their right of freedom and proposing their arguments.  The bill is about all citizens destiny, so it has to be accepted by everyone, every group, and every religion. If the measurement to decide this bill is only from the majority voice, Non-Muslim must be loose because there are very minority in this country. There are also some Muslim group that refused the bill, most of them are moderate and inclusive Muslim like Jaringan Islam Kampus (JARIK) activist and Jaringan Islam Liberal (JIL), of course it is also important fact to note although they just Muslim minority in this country.

The questions of how people in Indonesia should use their right, how religious or cultural values should be positioned, and how the bill should be discussed before be sentenced, rise before and after the bill sentenced. Many people think that pornography bill is a manifestation of Islamic jurisprudence or Shari’a. Therefore, people assumed that the bill is only certain group request, while other groups became the victim because their rights have been despised. It is the problem that still has not solved thoroughly. I think we need philosophical perspective to understand the possible and ideal way to solve this problem. In order to that, I will employ Ahmed An-Naim’s point of view.

B. Problem

How pornography bill should be discussed in public sphere before it sentenced according to An-Naim perspective?

C. Thesis Statement

Pornography Bill may not be sentenced only by certain groups demand; it must be sentenced after some fair dialog to make a consensus. In order to that, state must offer neutral media in which every element in this country can propose their reason freely. Every element also has to respect other reason. The intention of this effort is not to find who is the right or the best; however it is the effort to cover all opinions then discuss the best way for all. Therefore, if the pornography bill sentenced after apply civic reason that proposed by An-Naim, citizens will able to conclude is the bill really needed or not. If yes, people also will take any agreement regarding the best way to pursue it.

D. Arguments

The emergence of Pornography Bill in Indonesia cannot be separated from the rise of fundamentalist Muslim movements that try to assert shari’a as public order, especially to be legal code. Any effort to implement shari’a as a legal code is effect of two factors. First, secularization and globalization that bring bad effects in social life, especially in morality, and second, Muslim believe that shari’a is something unite in Muslim life, aqida (faith/belief) and shari’a cannot be separated, it is something unavoidable.

In this globalization era, freedom is often interpreted as free to do everything, including freedom to perform sexuality in public area. Fundamentalist Muslim really anger with this fact. Everyday many media expose sexuality in several ways. In television there are numerous programs, especially movie and music program that exposing sexuality. In some magazines and newspapers, the same way phenomena are also happened. Even, Some Muslims think that the plan to publish playboy magazine in Indonesia is the result of globalization. Therefore, globalization is seen as a hazard because some moral values have been broken by people who hold globalization up. Finally, some Muslims try to find another alternative solution to keep morality, and certainly, shari’a is the best choice for them after the state fail to protect the citizens from the attack of globalization effects.

Furthermore, shari’a is something unavoidable for Muslim. People cannot be said as Muslim if they don’t accept shari’a. Muslim believes that religion (al-din) consists of two things that both of them cannot be separated. They are belief / faith (iman or aqida) and shari’a that often interpreted as law. I think, fundamentalist Muslim in Indonesia also believe that shari’a doesn’t only regulate the private sphere like praying or worshiping, but also many aspects in social life including morality (pornography is inside it) and politics. Indeed, there is a jargon who said that Islam is ad-din wa dawla (religion and politics). Anyway, the most important point to note is the fact that shari’a is unavoidable matter for Muslim. Perhaps, shari’a will never be disappeared, but it is possible to be interpreted and reinterpreted again today and in the future.

An-Naim doesn’t deny this fact. He is not a man who anti-shari’a, even he wants to serve a place for shari’a in public area. He believes that religion can play role in public order because religion provides many moral values. Religion has right to be the source of public regulation as long as the value is reasonable and accepted by citizens. Therefore, the most important point that emphasized by An-Naim is the process or the procedure to implement values from shari’a to be the official regulation that can be accepted by other groups. Thus, An-Naim proposes his idea of ‘civic reason’ to overcome that problem. In civic reason, reasons can be publicly debated and contested by any citizen, individually or in community with others, in accordance norms of civility and mutual respect. An-Naim added that civic reason and reasoning processes are required for the adoption of public policy and legislation in democratic state because they are publicly accessible to and publicly contestable by all citizens.[1] Therefore An-Naim tries to maintain that the rationale of all public policy and legislation must always be based on civic reason. The word civic he used refers to the need for policy and legislation that can be accepted by public in large space, and also as the process of reasoning to open access for all citizens.[2] By civic reason, shari’a will not be enforced to other. Shari’a will be positioned equal as other source of values whether the values from other religions and some secular values. The next to do is engaging dialog to build a consensus between citizens. The dialog has to bears a statement that can be accepted by citizens. If finally the statement still incline to a certain group opinion, it doesn’t matter as long as citizens have notified that the statement is the best way for all at that time.

In the case of pornography bill, the process to decide the bill was not through sufficient dialog. We can see it in the process from draft until the bill sentenced as legal code. Muslim groups that really eager to formalize the bill sent the draft to the Council (DPR).  The council forms a committee called Panitia khusus DPR untuk RUU Antipornografi dan Pornoaksi. This committee led by Balkan Kaplale from Demokrat Party, and Yoyoh Yusron from Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) as the vice. Ali Mochtar Ngabalin from Partai Bulan Bintang (PBB) elected as the spokesman. However the first draft that addressed to president was just at August 24, 2007. In September 2008 president SBY gave command to Minister of Religion, Minister of Religion Communication and Information, Minister of Law and Human Right, and Minister of Women Enforcement to discuss this notion. In October 28, 2008 the draft of the bill is agreed and signed by some fractions in DPR. They are FPKS, FPAN, FPD, FPG, FPBR, FPPP, dan FKB. Finally, this draft is sentenced as legal bill at October 30, 2008. This bill supported by several religious movements MUI, ICMI, FPI, MMI, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, and PKS.

Although some elements refuse the draft, the process was going on. For example, Balinese coveted to bring this ‘scandal’ to Judicial Constitution (Mahkamah Konstitusi). Bali governor, Made Mangku Pastika and the chief of Regional Representatives Council (DPRD), Ida Bagus Wesnawa strongly condemn this bill. The rejection also comes from the Chief of West Papua Council, Jimmya Demianus Ijie, NTT governor Franz Lebu Raya and many more. However, they were just neglected by Council in Jakarta. Demonstration from many elements like feminists, artists, and students were useless. Even, some Muslim groups also disagree with the bill did the same demonstration; however they voice didn’t change anything.

Considering the facts above, I think the process to sentence Pornography Bill is unfair. The draft was proposed by some political parties that all of them strong related Islamic values; it was also supported by Islamic group. Moreover, they are also known as exclusive Islamic mass organization. On the other side, many critics and rejections from other group were neglected. In this case, there is no sufficient dialog among them. Therefore, the bill is far to be called a consensus. It is just certain groups agenda that using political power and exploit the weakness of government. In other words, there was no civic reason done here. The process of reasoning almost closed access to other entities, especially non-Muslim, moderate Muslim, and Artist. It is also clear that there are many citizens who disagree with the policy, therefore, it can be said that the bill were not accepted by public in large space.

The ‘egoism’ that was shown by some Muslim above, perhaps caused by their position as majority. Political parties who support the bill are big parties with a lot of adherents. They have great vote in election and will give great influence the 2009 election. Therefore, the representatives in DPR cannot against their members’ request. The government also just took a save position in handling this problem. The point here is that the bill is a form of majority arrogance.

However, their never count how many people who refused the bill. I think, in this multicultural country, there are so many people who disagree with pornography bill. But most of them feel inferior because they think that the demand for alleging pornography bill is supported by the most of Muslim. In fact, in Muslim community itself, there are so many differences. We have to realize that some nationalist, moderate, artist, feminist, and other groups in Indonesia most of them are also Muslim. Therefore, there so many kinds of Muslim in this country and perhaps they are different each other. People who disagree with pornography bill should not feel inferior, and those who struggle to defend the bill should release their arrogance.

An-Naim remains us that whether Muslim constitute the majority or minority of population in the state, the civic reason and the process of reasoning is always needed.[3] The purpose of reasoning in civic reason is not to elect the winner of the dialog, but to respect all aspirations even if the aspirations are really contradict each other. The result of civic reason will be ‘win-win solution’, not some win some lose. In order to that, we really need dialog to manage all reasons, therefore will be any consensus as the best solution. Actually, this kind of tradition has been appearing in Islamic tradition, but it seems to me most of Muslim in Indonesia neglect it. An-Naim mentions ijma’ (consensus), qiyas (reasoning by analogy), and ijtihad (juridical reasoning) as good examples for this.[4]

When President accept and forward the draft to his ministers, I think it is a form of indignity. State, in this context is government, may not use power to side with certain group. State must be equal to all citizens. An-Naim said that state must be secular. He doesn’t mean to secularize the society. He just wants state to be free from other influences and must be neutral. Therefore, state should not fear to other power.[5] Indeed, An-Naim claims that secularism can be use as mediation. An-Naim believes that secularism has ability to unite peoples although peoples have differences in religious and philosophical background. [6] He also realizes that secularism is not morally neutral; at least An-Naim said that in Indonesia secularism is often percept as anti-Islam according to a fatwa.[7] However, secular state is still more neutral institution than theocratic state.

Indonesian authority prefers to use an ambiguous position neither accepting nor rejecting secularization. Indonesia claims itself neither secular nor theocratic country,[8] although in fact Indonesia more practice secularization rather than theocracy. However the secular inclination has disturbed by Islamic activist since reformation era. The demand to apply regional regulation based on shari’a was appeared in many regions. And again, minority became the victim. I think the emergence of pornography bill as well as shari’a regional regulation are the evident that state still side with a certain religious group.

We need a neutral sphere to pursue civic reason, we afraid that state cannot do it, because since Soekarno era until today, state always has its own interest. Therefore, government has to free from religious tendency. It is important because, according to An-Naim, human beings tend to favor their own views, including their religious beliefs, over the views of others. He also maintains that believers will always assert their religious conviction politically.[9] If the government is free from religious (and also anti-religion) tendency, neutral sphere will be provided.

In Indonesia, that ideal is hard to be found. In contrary we find no media that neutral from any tendency. The media whether electronic or printed media are always have certain ideology, at least certain interest. On the one hand, we find so many magazines that support Islamic political agenda. Sabili, Hidayatullah, Republika, are examples for media that supporting Fundamentalist Muslim agenda. There are also abundant homepages or websites, and web-blogs, which walk in fundamentalist way. On the other hand, we found Kompas, Tempo, Jawa Pos, Metro-TV and Media Indonesia, and numerous online media that supporting liberation and pluralism. They are always against religious fundamentalism ideas.

When draft of pornography bill became hot issue, many mass media released their opinion and news. Media that agree with the bill defend their opinion, while media which disagree with the bill condemn it. It is difficult for us to find media which really neutral. The only we can do to get both of them are accessing different media which opposite each other. Although mass media often has their own tendency, however, at least mass media help us to know other’s point of views that different with ours.

But the problem is we almost never found any consensus that born from mass media. It is because mass-media only the tool to express idea. Many reasons can be brought by media, but media cannot hold effective dialog. We often watch debate or dialog about pornography bill in television, but again, the dialog only give us some reason, the consensus itself was never achieved.

Therefore, we need more effective media to gain any consensus. It must be the state that most able to hold any effective dialog. State has to become the media for this problem. But the problem is, government has chosen their position; to incline to certain group. I think it will be better if government go back to rethinking pornography bill with invite all different entities. State has to serve a media in which opinion from every group, whether accept or reject pornography bill, has to be listened and appreciated.

Another way that also important is to call every group to develop acceptable communicative language. Language is often become fundamental problem, however many people didn’t realize the danger. In contrary, language is a part of proud for certain group. Especially, religious language that often used to stigmatizes some social phenomena. Very often, religious language is also seen as religious symbol, when people call some phenomena with Arabic, it easily stigmatized as Islamic views.

When the idea to pursue pornography bill arise, it is neutral idea because most of eastern people has (more or less) the same perception about pornography. Therefore, it is not hard to find supporter to engage this agenda. However, the next problem came up when some Muslim activists to much eager in pursuing this agenda. Many Muslim elements enforce government to sentence pornography bill. Many Muslim organizations, including Islamic political parties pursue this notion. After this demand very often to be related to Islamic notion, many people feel curious why Muslim so eager to pursue pornography bill. People assume that this phenomenon is a part of  Islamization agenda that is not quite different with other agendas like alleging Khilafah Islamiyah or regional regulation based on shari’a.

Therefore, what we need is not only neutral public sphere but also neutral language. The most important in dialog is the message, not the symbol that brought with the message. It is significant to make other comfort with us; therefore other people will believe that our reason is for the goodness for all.

Conclusion

Pornography Bill is not only a response to moral decadence in this globalized era, but it is the evident that Muslim seen shari’a as something avoidable. It is because in Islamic belief, shari’a and faith cannot be separated. To An-Naim it is not bad to employ shari’a in public sphere, but he advice that people who will apply shari’a in public sphere has to follow some rule that he covers in the term civic reason. Therefore, pornography bill in Indonesia has passed wrong way because it is sentenced only by certain groups demand. Moreover, the state has play unfair role in pornography bill. An-Naim remains us that state has to take neutral position. State has to offer neutral media to accommodate all diversities in Indonesia, because in civic reason all opinions need to be respected.

Minority has the same right as majority in proposing their interest according to civic reason.  Majority should not be arrogance in discussing pornography bill, because Islam in Indonesia is vary. Every Muslim group has the right to interpret shari’a. We also have to realize that there are many Muslim who doesn’t agree with the bill. Therefore, in civic reason, every citizen has the same right whether they religious or not.

Further we need also neutral media that help us to gain any consensus, we also need communicative language to make dialog more comfort. Finally, I think it will be better if government want to revised pornography bill by employing civic reason theory, because the pornography bill today has been sentenced only by accident, not by normal reasoning process.

Jaringan Islam Liberal dan Perannya dalam Dialog Lintas Agama

serta Demokratisasi di Indonesia.

Dialog antar agama dan demokratisasi menjadi kajian utama bagi Jaringan Islam Liberal (JIL) karena lembaga ini memang dibentuk guna merespon kebutuhan tersebut sebagai salah satu gerbong dari rangkaian kereta reformasi di negeri ini. Hal tersebut terungkap dalam wawancara Erham Budi Wiranto dengan Novriantoni, koordinator program pada Jaringan Islam Liberal, yang dilaksanakan di kantor JIL, Utan Kayu Jakarta, 27 Maret 2009 lalu. Berikut ini petikannya:

Erham : sebenarnya, apa latar belakang dibentuknya JIL, mungkin bisa diceritakan sejarahnya?

Novriantoni: Sejak 8 maret 2001 ketika website JIL dibuat. Program kerja yang dilaksanakan waktu itu sederhana saja, seperti sindikasi media di Koran Tempo dan talkshow radio tentang agama dan toleransi. Awalnya JIL berdiri dibawah ISAI (institute studi islam Indonesia)

Erham: Mengapa memililih bentuk  jaringan

Novriantoni: karena alasan praktis atau pragmatis saja, ya biar lebih mudah dikelola dengan resources yang terbatas, dengan sumber daya yang tidak memada. Selain itu JIL tidak berhasrat untuk menjadi ormas seperti Muhammadiyah, Nahdhatul Ulama, Hizbut Tahrir, Front Pembela Islam dan sebagainya. JIL lebih sebagai lembaga pemikiran untuk menghimpun kawan muda yang punya pemikiran mencerahkan. Selain itu ya karena kesiapan kita cuma itu.

Erham : Apakah secara kelembagaan JIL saat ini masih dibawah ISAI?

Novriantoni: Sejak 2005 sudah tidak lagi, sekarang sudah dibawah yayasan yang kita buat sendiri “Yayasan Kajian Islam Utan Kayu” walaupun antara ISAI dan JIL masih satu komplek. Komunitas utan kayu kan banyak; ada teater, radio, galeri, ISAI, kedai Tempo, dan lain-lain.

Erham: Jaringan JIL saat ini sudah seluas apa?

Novriantoni: Tidak terlalu luas. Ada beberapa rekan di NTB, Medan, Lampung, Sumbar, untuk daerah Kalimantan dan Sulawesi malah belum ada. Tapi memang fokus kita saat ini baru di jawa. Terutama masyarakat menengah keatas terdidik, seperti anak-anak muda di dunia kampus. Jadi memang tidak langsung ke grassroot, kita sadar bahwa membawa gagasan liberal ke kalangan grassroot memang tidak mudah. Perlu intermediary atau perantara antara grassroot dan elit. Mahasiswa kan kalangan elit. Maka biasanya kita kerja sama dengan kalangan BEM, underbound, dan sebagainya.

Erham: Adakah obsesi ke depan untuk lebih melebarkan jaringan?

Novriantoni: Ada. Kita pernah mengumpulkan temen-temen dari beberapa daerah. Ada 40an orang saat itu. Beberapa rekan pernah mengajukan diri untuk menjadi cabang JIL di Jogja, Bandung, dan sebagaianya.  Tapi kami ingin JIL ini non-formal saja. Sebenarnya bisa saja (menjadi formal) itu dilakukan, ya tinggal bikin kode etik dan sebagainya. Tapi kita menyadari bahwa tantangannya juga besar. Kita sih sudah biasa dengan ancaman, dan terror. Nah, teman-teman di daerah apakah siap dengan segala resiko itu. Lagipula kita juga tidak punya dana untuk kunjungan ke daerah dan sebagainya. Relasi kita dengan daerah biasanya cuma di penerbitan bulletin dan diskusi kampus. Sebenarnya mas Ulil juga punya obsesi besar. Tapi kan mas ulil lagi belajar di Amerika. Jika dia sudah kembali bisa jadi ia berani mengambil langkah ini. Untuk sementara gini dulu. Tapi kalau sudah membengkak jadi organisasi formal kan juga jadi akan lebih susah bergeraknya. Semakin tambun tubuh semakin berat melangkah, he he.

Erham: Jadi JIL menyebut simpatisannya sebagai apa?

Novriantoni: Mereka sebagai partner, bukan anggota Karena kita tidak punya kartu anggota JIL, bukan pula kader dan sebagainya. Nah, sebenarnya yang menghadapi masalah riil seperti fundamentalisme, wahabisme dan sebagainya itu kan teman-teman di daerah masing-masing. JIL Cuma memantau dari kejauhan. Jadi peran JIL ya hanya memfasilitasi cara pandang atau cara menghadapi persoalan, memberikan amunisi wacana.

Erham: Secara keorganisasian JIL ini bagaimana?

Novriantoni: Kita juga ada ketua, sekretaris, dan bendahara, dsb, hal seperti itu kan mau tidak mau tetap harus ada kan. Tapi di kami istilahnya koordinator, dulu koordinatornya mas Ulil, terus Hamid Basyaib, Luthfi Assyaukani sampai sekarang, saya sendiri coordinator program.

Erham: Bagaimana system rekruitmen untuk masuk jadi aktivis JIL?

Novriantoni: Tergantung kebutuhan, JIL tidak perlu bnyak orang untuk mengurusya, aktifis JIL tidak pernah lebih dari 10 orang, sekarang juga Cuma 6 orang. Rekruitmen sesuai kebutuhan, misalnya kita butuh officer untuk diskusi kampus. Saidiman di rekrut karena program officer untuk diskuis kampus itu sudah pindah ke tempat lain, Anik pindah ke ICRP. Jadi JIL memberikan kebebasan untuk pindah ke tempat lain yang lebih baik, misalnya mas Anik ada tawaran jadi direktur ICRP ya kita persilakan beliau aktif disitu. Karena JIL tidak menjanjikan apa-apa, tidak ada jenjang karir dsb. Sekedar honor salary bulanan sich ada. Kita ga perah buka lowongan terbuka, kita cuma ambil orang yang kita ketahui track recordnya.

Erham: darimana JIL membiayai kegiatannya?

Novriantoni: Dulu dari The Asia Foundation dari tahun 2001-2005. Pertengahan 2005 tidak dapat lagi dari TAF. Jadi sekarang JIL dananya dari voluntary. Misalnya Kang Goenawan Mohamad saweran buat JIL perbulan, dan beberapa orang lain. Funding asing tidak kita pakai lagi, kecuali ada yang mengajak kerjasama, misalnya keduataan ajak kerjasama program diskusi kampus, pengadaan buku dsb. secara umum bukan funding yang menentukan program kita, mereka mau support oke, tidak mau juga gak apa apa. Kita yang menentukan program, bukan funding. Donatur domestic kecil-kecilan juga ada. Ada yang ngasih sejuta perbulan ada tiga juta.

Jadi, silakan cek, mana NGO yang paling aktif dengan dana paling minim. JIL itu NGO yang berdana kecil tapi kerjanya banyak. Hanya dengan 400jutaan JIL bisa bikin 50an diskusi dalam setahun. Dibandingkan lembaga lain yang dapat dana milyaran tapi kerjanya tidak tampak.

Erham: Bagaimana JIL memandang kultur interreligious dialog di Indonesia saat ini?

Novriantoni: Kita sudah banyak kemajuan, di zaman Orde Baru dialog itu lebih sebagai state control. Ada disertasi kawan kita di Leiden yang menyimpulkan bahwa yang terjadi di Indonesia adalah saling curiga antar agama. Meski Departemen Agama sejak Mukti Ali sudah punya progam dialog tapi itu hanya kebutuhan pemerintah akan stabilitas, bukan dari keinginan saling memahami antar umat beragama.

Jadi di zaman orba masih ada api dalam sekam. Orde baru kan sangat anti percekcokan. Saya kira pasca reformasi dialog itu sangat digalakkan. Dan coraknya agak beda dengan zaman Orba atau oleh pemerintah. Interfidei, ICRP. Apalagi setelah terbukti “api dalam sekam hubungan antar agama” itu teryata menyala setelah reformasi.

Sekarang sudah tampak lebih giat adanya dialog antar agama, dan live in antar agama, dsb. Kita selama ini kan dialognya Cuma co-eksistensi bukan proeksistensi atau kooperasi. Kita hidup saling kenal dan hormati tapi sekedar sama-sama hidup aja. Bukan, misalnya, kenapa Hindu nyepi – apa yang bisa saya lakukan- itu baru proeksistensi. Apalagi kalo harus sampai ke kooperasi, masih langka.

Di era reformasi ini koeksistensi mengalami hambatan ketika ada konflik antara agama seperti di Poso. Jadi, terasa bahwa sekarang Ini kebutuhan ini bukan lagi state oriented tapi society oriented dan community oriented biar kita hidup berdampingan secara damai

Erham: Jadi untuk saat ini dialog macam apa yang perlu ditekankan

Novriantoni: Selama ini simpul dialog itu sudah ada di masyarakat awam. Selama ini asumsi kita dialog itu Cuma di kalangan elit. Padahal sebenarnya di kalangan awam sendiri sudah punya bekal sendiri. Kedua, mungkin isu utama sudah berubah, tapi saya tidak setuju jika dikatakan bahwa dialog teologis sudah tak lagi penting, sebab ini fundamentnya. Ga mungkin kan kita dialog tanpa memahami dasarnya. Aksi kan dibentuk oleh paradigma/persepektif kita. Kalo persepktif kita masih salah atau tidak memuat unsure mutual understanding ya akan susah saling memahami. Makanya yang kita kembangkan sekarang semisal live in antar agama agar mereka saling emamahami. Islam ke gereja krsiyen ke majid agar mereka saling emmahami. Masyarakat yang saling terbuka saling mengerti justru menjadi masyarakat yang lebih imun dengan profokasi. Ketiga, ya seperti hanskug itu, kita butuh etika bersama. Tak perlu melihat agama apa, asal ada kemiskinian ya kita selesaikan bersama. Keempat, crtisisme ke policy pemerintah itu perlu. Kebijakan sat ini bias berkembang ke anti demokrasi atau state driven lagi, karena setiap ada konflik kita serahkan ke pemerintah. Apdahal pemerintah punya agenda sendiri yang penting gimana kekuasaan mereka bias langgeng, jadi bukan kepentingan salaing memahami antar agama. Pemerintah Cuma berupaya mengontrol semua kemlomok civil society, kelmpk agama dan kelompok kritis dsb. Misalnya UUKUB, keputusan untukkelomok minoritas, dsb. Kekangan yang menimpa satu kelompok kan menjadi jalan bagi pemerintah untuk pengekangan yang lain.  Jadi kritic dari kawan2 perlu diarahkan ke state policy: bagaiaman penerintah menghadapi gejolak antar agama, bagaimana menghadapi fenomena social baru, sebenarnya masalah ini kan sudah ada sejak zaman orba, Cuma d masa kini kan lebih terekspos, lebih bebas orang memperbincangkannya, dan lebih mudah orang menghakimi maupun membela.  Jadi gad a yang baru sebenarnya, Cuma leih terekspos bebas.

Erham: Menurut JIL bagaiamana peran pemerintah saat ini, apakah pemerintah masih terlalu lemah?

Novriantoni: Pemerintah belum punya formula, mereka masih bingung juga, bagaiamn meghadp kasus antr agama dan fenomena sos-ag baru. Karena kita kan lama, bahkan sejak masa sukarno pemerintah berperan secara determinan dalam segala perkara. Sekarang kita menghadapi masyarakat civil society dan agama yang lebih otonom dari pemerintah dan memunculkan banyak perkara. Kita mengaharap pemerintah punya standar kelompok apa yang bias ditoleransi dan kelompok mana yang tidak.  Tapi selama ini memang kelihatannya belum ada standar itu. Taruhlah misalnya kita lihat SKB untuk ahmadiyah, apa logisnya. Pada satus sisi kita meloihat cukup moderat, tapi pemerintah masih belu pnuya standar apa yang bias ditoleran dan yang tidak. Pemerintah kita saat ini sangat rentan terhadap pressure. Ketika SBY bilang, “Negara tak boleh kalah”, mengapa dia bilang gitu, kalo dilihat mafhum mukhoalafah-nya bias disimpulkan bahwa ada perasaan bahwa selama ini pemerintah kalah.  Kaen sudah lama terbiar kasus pembakaran pengusiran dsb itu. Harsunya pemerintah bilang “oke anda beda, tapi sekali anda membakar mengusir  ricuh anda akn berhdapan dengan yang diatas (hokum Negara)”. Yang kita liat kan sebaliknya, anda lihat orang ahmadiyah di  NTB  mereka tidak boleh pulang krumah.. Bayangkan betapa susahnya mengumpulkan uang untuk beli rumah, kendaraan dsb. Mereka terlanggar hak eko-sos nya. pelanggaran ini malah dikukuhkan keputusan bupati dsbnya. Harusnya kan pemerintah melindungi hak ekososbudpol selurh warga Negara ind tanpa kecuali. Selama ini kita tidakmelihat adanya standar semcam itu, jadi selama ini gak jelas apa standar yang diapakai  pemerintah saat ini

Erham: Termasuk merebaknya perda bernuansa syariat, menurut anda apakah ini sebagai sebuah kecolongan bagi pemerintah?

Novriantoni: Ini lebih rumit lagi, kita merasa, kadang itu sifatnya politis karena bupati yang incumbent ingin merebut simapti masa. Tapi disisi lain kita melihat masyarakat kita rentan juga untuk terbuai mmpi otoritrianisme, mimpi sebauh order semuanya teratur, dsb, dengan cara membuat perda jilbab, ga boleh peremuan keluar malem, jum’at khusu’ dsb. Ini berbahaya sebab sejarah kinta menunjukkn bahw wahabisasi masykt itu bukan sporadic, dia berlangsung sstematis meskipun dikerjakan secara sporadic di tempat yang mungkin seperti di daerah di yang jauh dari pusat pemerintahan, seperti di bulukumba dsb. Pemerintah pun bingung, missal anda Tanya gimana sikap kementrian dalam negeri mnghadapi perda2 bermasalah, apakah mereka berani menganulirnya. Jadi masih ada kegamangan antara euphoria democrasi dan keinginan menympaikan aspirasi primordial dengan kehendak pemerintah untuk meregulasi apresisasi yang sangat liar ini. Mendagri ga berani mengatakan “jangan terapkan ini, ini wewenng pusat bukan bagian dari otonomi”. Saya berharap suatu saat nanti masyarakat jenuh dengan hal semam itu.

Mengapa kita bersuara lantang gini. Semua hokum yang tidak didasrkan keilahian lebih gampang direvsi ketimbang hokum yang didsarkan atas keilahian /sacral, itu akan sulit diubah jika ternyata keliru. Meskipun hokum itu dilaksanakan serampangan tetap akanada orang yang siap mati mempertahankannya. Kalo hokum sekuler, terbukti keliru kita akan lebh mudah merubahnya. Jadi reltivisme itu sangat perlu dalam demokrasi.kalo kita keliru kita mengubah, sementara absolutism bias jadi sangat tidak compatible dengan demokrasi.  Sekarang ada orang yang bilang, meskipun ada hokum seperti itu tapi tetap ga jalan. Ya Alhamdulillah kalo ga jalan, dan nau’udzubillah kao sampe berjalan. Tapi problemnya adalah, mereka akan menunggu pressure group yang lebih kuat ehingga menemukan momentumnya untuk  dijalankan seperti di Aceh. Mungkin orang bias bahagia karena Indoensia dangat plural, Talibanisasi mungkin tidak akan terjadi di Indoensia. Tapi kita perlu waspada, sejarahnya talibanisasi dan wahabisasi di Indoneia pertama suda terjadi di Sumatera Barat tahun 1800an.

Jika dibandingkan dialog agama dan demokrasi di Indonesia dengan Negara lain, apakah Indonesia tertinggal?

Novriantoni: Indonesia tergolong maju, anda akan kesulitan menemukan dialog antar agama  di Negara lain dengan participant yang lebih variatif dengan intensitas yang cukup tinggi dan kerjasama yang cukup baik. Mesri islam dan Kristen koptik aja. Di Indonesia diiringi oleh demokrasi dimungkinkan terlkasan dengan lebih damai dan terbuka. Di Malaysia sangat terbelakang., orang Kristen aja ga boleh menyebut Allah, yoga dikharamkan, banyak hal yang masih terbelakang di Malaysia, walaupun mereka masyarakat yangsangt rentan muslimnya Cuma 60%, kalo sedikit saja terjadi chaos, seperti ang dialami Indonesia 1998, konflik rasial dan konflik agamanya bisa lebih dahsyat daripada Indonesia. Sinagpore, Negara yang undercontrol oleh pemerintah sehingga dialog bisa diakatakan tidak terjadi. Yang agak baik ya turki. Ya Indoesia memang punya keunikan /khas. Makanya ada crcs kan.. ha…ha..

Program Jil sendiri yang focus ke Interreligious Dialog apa saja

Hamper semua program kita sensitive interreligious dialog. Yang rutin ya diskusi, artikel website, talkshow radio, dan anda jangan lupa, saya rasa hanya tlkshow kita yang secara bebas memperbincangkan semua agama kita undang mereka untuk bicara. Semua program kita punya dimnesi dialog antra agama, puny keinginan meningkatkan pemahamn antar agama.

Kalo advokasi bagi minoritas etnis dan gender?

Minoritas Gender tidak langsung, minoritas etnis tidak nyata, tapi kalo minoritas agama iya. Kita advokasi ahmadiayh, lia eden, kelompok penghayat, advokasi kelompok yang dikriminalkan karena pandangan keaagamaannya. Tapi untuk masuk ke inoritas gender dsb memang agak riskan bagi kita, mungkin memnag bukan porsi kita, intinya kiita mendukung hak setiap orang untuk punya otonomi individunya sepanjang tidak menrecoki orang lain, prinsipitu kita dukung

Tahun 2009 ini, JIL mau focus ke mana?

2009 kita mau focus ke capacity building. Kita merasa setelah 8 tahun ada banyak kelemahan dalam SDM. Kita tak punya capasiti building yang baik. Jangan lupa, kadang sejarah islam indo mengalami modrasi karena ada individu atau kelompok yang senagaj atau tak senagaja disiapkan untuk berani bersuara melawan konservatisme, fundamentalism, kalo ga ada caknur, gusdur, dawam, syafii maarif, johan effendi, ahmad wahib, ayng [unya pengaruh di level organizational dan akar rumput dsb, islam di Indonesia itu bisa gawat. Jangan lupa, funding arab Saudi itu besar sekali, jauh lebih besar dari funding dari TAF 1 milyar setahun. Arab Saudi bisa ratusan milyar. Kalo anda bca sejarah betapa dahsyatnya funding Saudi untuk DDII natsir. Funding itu sekarang larinya ke DDII, PKS beberapa, FPI, Laskar Jihad, HTI enggak. Jadi kita terselamatkan oleh orang2 yang saya sebut tadi.

Karena itu perlu kita tak bisa mengharapa n gudur terus menerus, kita perlu mencetak gusdur, caknur, wahib baru. Tak perlu dominan, tak perlu jadi mayoritas, minoritas saja dah cukup tapi jangan sampai ga ada sama sekali.

Kalo jadi mayoritas mau ga ke pol praktis

Bukan kapasitas kita mas, yak arena orangnya ga ada… JIL dalam beberapa hal bisa bertemu partai2 nasional. Dalam hal politik kita ini konservatif lho. Dalam arti mengkonservasi apa yang dirumuskan founding father kita, Bhineka tunggal ika dsb. Kita menggagap itu sejarah yang perlu dilajutkan, dn pada titik itu kita bisa saja punya titik temu dengan parpol yang konsern dalam platform yang sama.

Ada anggapan bahwa JIL merupakan lembaga yang “liberal eksklusif”. Dalam arti bahwa JIL jaga jarak dengan kelompok lain yang tidak sepaham. Apakah hal itu benar?

Dalam beberapa hal memang benar.

By Erham Budi W., Ahmad Asroni, Fikry*

I. Introduction

A. Background

The movement of Islamic purification is recently still alive. Islamic purification movements usually based on spirit to have Islam in kaffah (wholeness) so that man would become a perfect man (insan kamil). Therefore, one of requirement to fulfill it is returning to primary source and authentic in Islam, they are Qur’an and Hadith. Under the cloak of returning at two the sources, Islamic purification movement tries to parry all orthodox Muslim traditions which are regarded against Qur’an and Hadith. As a result, culture and local belief is often seen similar with jahiliyah (savage civilization) which is so far from God’s guidance (hidayah). Such point of views, in turn, leads to a contradiction between Islam with local tradition.

Meanwhile, local tradition followers believe that local tradition is a requirement to have harmonious in social life. Local tradition confessed as wisdom inherited by ancestors from old generation to the next generation. Therefore, today’s generation has responsibility to look after its existence. Otherwise, the local tradition would hit of two radical evolution, those are global modernization and a stiff religious purification.

Majlis Tafsir Al-Qur’an (hereafter MTA), an organization of Islamic puritan, is consistent to maintain the jargon “back to Qur’an and Hadith”. Organization which has a base camp in Surakarta always does mission (dakwah) as effort to propagate a “truly” Islam as they believe. The members of MTA are recognized very militant in preaching. Their militancy can be seen from bravery of MTA’s members to resist local tradition where they live. On the contrary, they exactly dare to judge that local tradition is not true. That is why traditional society regards their behaviour as an insult for local tradition.

For traditional people, the most important thing is to make harmonious life. Solidarity of traditional society is in the form of mechanical solidarity which focuses on togetherness and unity. In this solidarity, ritual is as unifying forces to the united society. In the case of Javanese society, selametan[1] not only has vertical dimension but also horizontal dimension which is unifying all over society at various social level.

Considering that the importance of the unifying and togetherness in traditional society, it would became appropriate if this traditional society did not like when there are members who violate togetherness and separate from the group or organize a certain group and certain principle. Some members of MTA do outspokenly this thing. They separated from the interest of group and found a certain group. What MTA did is not merely regarded to break up the existence of local tradition; indeed, truth claim believed by MTA has indirectly judged local tradition values as heresy and deviant.

As a result, local tradition inheritor, including Muslim which is practicing Islamic faith culturally feels offended. Therefore, they think that it is necessary to have a resistance to all mission (dakwah) efforts of MTA. In fact, the resistance often generates a horizontal conflict among people in society.

B. Research Questions

a.    How does type of MTA’s theology look a like?

b.    What are kind of theological conflicts which occur between MTA and Javanese society?

C. Theoretical Framework

Most traditional Muslim in Java lives in rural areas. In rural area, it usually applies the mechanical solidarity. This term came up from Germany Sosiolog, Emile Durkheim. Mechanical solidarity is a form of social unity based upon the similarity of individuals who share a uniform way of life and has identical beliefs.[2] It can be said that the most important in mechanical solidarity is togetherness and uniformity, including togetherness and uniformity in the system of belief.

In mechanical solidarity, it is very sensitive to all deviant types in Javanese term; it is often called as ora lumrah (unusual). All inappropriately thing at society would be considered unusual and need to be avoided even is removed.

When the firmness of traditional society is still keeping up of the solidarity and Islamic Puritanism uses the truth claim, it is right to say that it will generate a conflict. The conflict between traditional Islam and Puritan Islam can be analyzed by Robinson’s conflict theory. Robinson maps various conflict dimensions based on threat types. One of such threat is a threat to value, norm, achieve, and policy.[3] In Robinson’s thought, most of group is inclined to defend their existence based on space and time as a border of physic and also social based on their belief. It is very often that what some people do it, are considered to be the best and the only way towards truth. Feeling more confident to their group, leads to their arrogance to other groups. From this theory, it can be said that superiority in a group over its truth claim is inclined to be a threat for other groups, especially for group who has an opposite value.

Georg Simmel, quoted by Lester R. Kurtz, confessed that religious conflict can extraordinarily bitter, however, and is often destructive because the parties to the dispute view themselves as representatives of supra-individual claims, of fighting not for them but only for a cause. Simmel explains that antagonism on the basis of common kinship tie is stronger than among strangers. Thus the most intense form of religious conflict may be that between heretics and religious authority, i.e., conflict within a tradition.[4]

Furthermore, the phenomenon of heresy is important to our understanding of religious conflict. Looking at heresy as social construction can be useful in understanding the relation between belief systems and social organization.[5]

II. Method

A. Research Location

This research focuses on MTA activities in Central and East Java where the most of their members live. Central and East Java are also regions in which several conflicts between MTA and local tradition frequently occurred. The office center of MTA is in Surakarta, Central Java.

B. Resources

The subjects of research include MTA chairmen, MTA members, Javanese traditional Muslim, and those who do not agree with MTA idea.

C. Collecting Data

Collecting data included in-depth interviews, FGD (focus group discussions), observation, and documentation. Interviews were done both formally and informally. The material of interview about the chronological sequence of the conflicts and it was not unformatted. However, in-depth interviews explored and verified informations. The problem with interviewing victims was that they have experienced trauma in the conflict, therefore the information tends to be biased.

In addition, to seeking objective information, the writer used FGD (focus group discussions), to explore information. Moreover, the writer stayed in two communities, to feel, hear, and observe the activities for a week.

D. Data Analysis

The process and data analysis are limited, to a week in the field and three weeks observation. After the data have been collected, the writer classified the primary and second data. The primary data was taken from in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and observations, while secondary data was taken from literature, mass media, and the internet.

After the primary and secondary data have been collected, the writer makes comparison based on triangle principle, where checking and rechecking data is done. As a result the writer has objective data from the field. The data is interpreted and analyzed based on the primary and secondary information, to seek the roots of the problem and the conflict resolution.

In presenting this report paper, we use descriptive analysis. In descriptive analysis, the aim is to make complicated things understandable by reducing them to their component parts as well as explanative analysis for providing requested information, justifying action, giving reason, supporting a claim or making a causal statement.[6]

E. Validity

Research used a certain approach did not free reduction and tend subjectively by the writer. However, Jennifer C. Greene maintained that with evaluation of qualitative research it is important to reflect and study. Greene suggested four questions: (1) how can case studies be used clearly in context? (2) how can case studies created a new construct? (3) how can case studies motivate a researcher to explore a new paradigm? (4) how can case studies contribute continued research?[7] Based on Greene’s opinion, the writer applied them in this research. The primary and secondary data according to Greene opinions were valid (objective). The validity of this thesis was verified through processing, collecting, and analyzing data.

III. Profile of MTA

MTA foundation is an education and Islamic mission organization located in Surakarta. MTA was built by the late Ustadz Abdullah Thufail Saputra in 19 Septembers 1972 in Surakarta as a mean to invite Muslim back to Qur’an. In according to the name and its goal, the study of Qur’an concerning at understanding, comprehending, and implementing Qur’an becomes main activity of MTA. In this case, MTA claimed that it does not interpret Qur’an, but studies interpretation books of Qur’an (tafsir) taught to the followers.[8]

The establishment of MTA was surrounded by the condition of Muslim society in Indonesia in the end of 1960’s and early 1970’s decade in which they had struggled to fight since the Dutch colonialization period to have emancipation, either in politics, economics, and culture. Ironically, they are precisely marginalized. Ustadz Abdullah Thufail Saputra believed that the unpleasant condition covering Indonesian Muslim was caused they were unable to comprehend Qur’an. According to him, Muslim would only have the emancipation if they returned to Qur’an.[9]

Furthermore, he stated that Muslim in Indonesia had deviated from Islamic teaching. In his perspective, bid’ah (heresy) and khurafat (superstition) had been colorful to Muslim. He believed that the main factor of those deviations are because of Muslim in Indonesia do not quite understand Islamic teaching, particularly lack of understanding of content of the Qur’an. He thought that back to Qur’an and Hadith is the best way to get successful life.[10]

In 23^rd January1974, MTA has become formally organization with notary’s document of R. Soegondo Notodiroerjo. MTA has been grown in various towns and provinces in Indonesia. In the early times, after founding MTA in Surakarta, Ustadz Abdullah Thufail Saputra opened branches in some sub-districts around Surakarta. Then, new branches and bureaus grown in various areas in Indonesia, so that MTA has a structure of organization like nowadays, that is center of MTA, located in Surakarta; bureau of MTA, located regency; and MTA branch at sub-district. After Ustadz Abdullah Thufail Saputra passing away in 15^th September 1992, central leadership went to Ustadz Ahmad Sukina. Recently, MTA has 31 bureaus and 163 branches which spread all over Indonesia.[11]

Main activity in MTA is studying Qur’an. Study of Qur’an divided into two, they are special and public lecturing. Special lecturing held for registered participant only. This special lecturing was carried out once a week, either in central office or also in representatives and branch offices, with instructor teacher who are sent from central office or approved by the central office. The material is given in this special lecturing is Tafsir al-Qur’an published by The Ministry of Religious Affairs and interpretation books, either Indonesian ulama or ulama from other Islamic World, both ulama salafi (predecessor ulama) and also ulama kholafi (contemporary ulama). Interpretation books that are recently being studied are Tafsir Ibnu Katsir which has been providing on the translation and also Tafsir Ibnu Abbas. Tafsir Ibnu Abbas is specially studied by members of MTA which have Arabic competence.[12]

Teaching and learning process in this special lecturing employs the discoursing and question-answer. An ustadz (teacher) presents a material then participant is following with questions. From this point, study of tafsir can develop to study of faith (aqidah), study of Islamic law (sharia), study of ethics (akhlak), study of Islamic history (tarikh), and study of Islamic contemporary issues. Though the main material in this special lecturing is tafsir, it does not mean that other theology branches are not studied.

Even, study of tafsir only presented once in a month and if it is needed, it can be replaced with the other studies which are more urgent. Study of tafsir in MTA automatically covers up the study of Hadith. Ustadz Yoyok Mugiyatno, the secretary of MTA, says that MTA does not interpret Qur’an, but it studies of interpretation books in order that Qur’an to be practiced and implemented in daily life. While public lecturing is opened to public. The material of lecturing is more concerning on basic need in everyday life. This public lecturing is carried out by the central office of MTA once week at Sunday morning.[13]

MTA also manages educational organization, both formally and non-formally. Formal education covers up kindergarten, junior high school, and senior high school while non-formal education covers up Arabic courses, automotive courses, sewing courses, learning guidance, and various incidental course like writing and journalism course. Besides managing educational organization, MTA also has activities in the field of social like blood donor, social service, and sympathetic care in the form of helping daily needs, clothes, and drugs for society. In the field of economics, MTA has financial institution in the form of saving and lending service.

MTA also carries out health service in the form of clinical centre and maternity hospital, motorcycle show room, printing house, and book store. MTA has monthly magazine, so-called “Respon”, but this magazine is not developed enough. Beside magazine, MTA has also published various religious books. In addition, MTA published bulletin “Uswah Hasanah” and monthly magazine “Al-Mar’ah Shalehah” to woman followers and children. To support the mission activity, MTA has created website and built local television and broadcasting. Related of financing, nowadays the source of MTA’s fund comes from self-supporting of members.[14]

IV. MTA’s Theology among Islamic Purification Movements

It can be said that theology of MTA is conflict theology because MTA’s theology has been adopting Salafism theology recognized as strict theology and did not compromise to religious traditions practiced by traditional Muslim. In consequence, MTA’s theology is potentially inclined to get conflict. It is proved that many conflict cases occured between MTA and traditional Muslim in some areas in Indonesia, especially in Central Java and East Java.

The base of conflict theology of MTA comes from absolutism of truth claim declared by MTA to interpretation books as its reference, implemented in rigid, literal, and absolute interpretation. Absolutism of truth claim believed by MTA definitely ignored the existence of the plurality of religious interpretations embraced by other Islamic group. That is why MTA’s theology can be said very exclusive. Thus, MTA’s Theology contains a potency of conflict with other traditional Islamic groups.

A. The Heir of Salafism Theology

As explained above, the establishment of MTA was surrounded by condition of Muslim (especially Javanese) that still is practicing local traditions likes selametan, ziarah kubur (grave pilgrimage), mitoni[15] , 7^th day ceremony after passing away, 40^th day ceremony after passing away, and various other traditions which are so far from Islamic teaching. In perspective of MTA, those Javanese traditions are heresy because they are not stated in Qur’an and Hadith. Therefore, MTA asks every Muslim to leave and avoid the traditions. Instead, MTA invites Muslim back to Qur’an and Hadith. “Back to Qur’an and Hadith” has become this group’s jargon.

By observing their ideology which does not compromise with a local traditions which are “not accommodated to Islam” and a jargon saying “back to Qur’an and Hadith”, the type of MTA’s theology is actually closer with Islamic theology of puritan introduced by group of Salafi or Wahhabi[16] which was appearing and growing first time in Middle East continent. The well-known figures claimed as pioneer of this school is Ahmad bin Hambal and Ibn Taimiyah. In the further development, it can be said that this school developed a little bit radical by Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab with the Wahhabism.[17] His spirit to purify religious teaching made him refuse all things relating to heresy and superstition. In his hometown, Nejd, he fought against religious practices were frequently applied by traditional Islamic group, like ziarah kubur (grave pilgrimage) and tarekat (sufism). He also refused philosophy and logic which are regarded as “blind sciences”. He explained that each Muslim is obliged to return to religious teaching as practiced by Prophet Muhammad SAW and his contemporaries. This is regarded as pure and rightness. The Wahhabi refuses every effort to interpret Qur’an contextually. For them, interpreting Qur’an contextually will not be able to find spirit of truly Islam. Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab even made up a list of belief and heresy deed.

Conspiracy Wahhabism with Sa’ud family has resulted political religious movement to open up a reform. Their views were divided into two and what they see as being ugly and good, faith and unfaith, Muslim and non-Muslim.[18] Wahhabism was recognized as being very despicable and intolerant. John L. Esposito, as quoted by Oliver McTernan, says that Wahhabi frequently shatter even killing the opponents in the name of Islam, either Muslim or non-Muslim. The Puritanism movement practiced by Wahhabi has destroyed venerated sites and increased tension and hatred to Muslim community.[19] Violence and intolerance of Wahhabi also addressed to worship pious leaders, house of worship, and orthodox sects professed by Muslim.[20]

In the end of 18^th century, family of Saudi Empire which was trying to build up the power by fighting against Ottaman Empire at that time, combining the power of Wahhabi with political movement of Saudi Empire. However, in 1818, they are successfully shattered by Ottaman Empire. In the end of 19^th century, they successfully set up their power. In the early of 20^th century, under Abdul Aziz bin Su’ud, Wahhabism was officially to be school of thought of the Saudi Arabia Empire.[21]

The movement of Wahhabism or Salafism of transnational started to grow after Arab Saudi established Muslim World League (Ar. Rabitat al-‘Alam al-Islami, hereafter the Rabitah) in 1962 in which finally continued at an intellectual conference of Muslim in Mecca. In short, the Rabitah took a crucial role in institutionalizing its influence at cultural and religious activities in Muslim World.[22]

Spreading of Wahhabism ideology to the Islamic World reached to the climax point was happening around the middle of 1970. At that time, the price of oil was rising up. Rising in price of the oil brought an advantage and made Arab Saudi be the one of richest country in the world. Supporting a real big finance, Wahhabi or Salafism ideology was exporting massively to the Islamic World. The Rabitah moved actively in many ways such as giving scholarship, building mosque and Islamic education institutes, and also published of Wahhabi ideology books. In Indonesia, this can be seen in establishment of The Institute of Islamic Science and Arabic language (LIPIA), a higher education institute sustained fully by government of Arab Saudi. The government of Arab Saudi also was funding a dollar billion for scholarship every year distributed through Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) for Indonesian students to study in Middle East.

In the case of Indonesia, the Rabitah had close relationship with the Dewan Dakwah Islamiyyah Indonesia (DDII), the Indonesian Council of Islamic Missions, which functioned as the representative of the Rabitah since 1967. DDII had struggled to fight against aggressive project of Christianization. Since the beginning of the 1980’s DDII has sponsored in campaigning against the Iranian revolution and its influences. While countering the alleged proliferation of Shi’i influence, DDII was also campaigning against the “liberal” model of Islam propagated by intellectuals such as Nurcholish Madjid and Abdurrahman Wahid. As result of such cooperation, many Indonesians have had the opportunity to study in Wahhabi centers in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. Upon their back, they have become more active in the dakwah (mission) activities sponsored by the Rabitah, they organized teaching circles and published hundreds of books.[23]

In Indonesia, historically, the roots of Salafism could be seen in the movement of Islamic purification preached by a number of reformers in West Sumatra pioneered by Haji Sumanik and Haji Piambang in 18^th and 19^th century. Both of them do not tolerate religious practices accomplished by traditional Muslim like ziarah (grave pilgrimage) and tarekat (Sufism). Islamic purification movement further continued Paderi led by Imam Bonjol. Puritanism then is continued Muhammadiyah in the beginning of the 20^th century. Muhammadiyah frequently categorized as modernist Islam. Nevertheless, this movement also has theology root of Salafi developed by the Egypt reformer, namely Muhammad Abduh and Muhammad Rasyid Ridha. But on the other side, Muhammadiyah also influenced by idea of Ibnu Taimiyyah’s Salafi.[24]

Slogan launched by Muhammadiyah is rather similiar as slogan of MTA that is “back to Qur’an and Hadith”. In this case, MTA likely wants to follow the successful of Muhammadiyah which has a big population of Muslim in Indonesia. Interestingly,         although Muhammadiyah has been influenced by idea of Ibnu Taimiyyah’s Salafi which are radical, yet, it is unique that Muhammadiyah successfully develops Islamic discourse which is inclusive and tolerant. Besides Muhammadiyah, other Islamic organizations that can be categorized as Puritanism movement are Persatuan Islam and Al-Irsyad. Generally, it would be concluded that all Salafism movements threaten traditional Muslim groups regarded deviating from Islam. They also fight against religious traditions practiced Arab like taqbil (kiss hands) and kafa’ah[25] in wedding. In addition, they do not admit sayyid as title or honor and superiority.[26]

B. Truth Absolutism of Theology of MTA

In sites and booklet of MTA as mentioned above, MTA claimed that MTA does not interpret Qur’an, but only studies interpretation books has been provided. This claim justified by Ustadz Yoyok Mugiyatno, secretary I of MTA. He says that MTA does not interpret Qur’an, but studies of interpretation books of Qur’an in order to be understood and implemented.[27]

Interpretation books studied and referred by MTA are Tafsir Al-Qur’an published by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Tafsir Ibnu Katsir, Tafsir Ibnu Abbas, and Tafsir Al-Maraghi. Actually, there is no problem with those interpretation books because they also are used by many other Islamic groups. The problem is truth claim absolutism practiced by MTA which only confesses and refers to interpretation books regarded as the best reference. In other word, MTA ignores the existence of another interpretation books. Whereas, in fact, other Islamic groups use another interpretation books as reference which should be appreciated.

Thereby, MTA automatically, can be said that MTA denies an existence of plurality of religious interpretation. It can lead this Islamic group claims the only truth. Truth claim acknowledged that MTA’s religious practices are the most correct, meanwhile other Islamic group practices are wrong. Truth claim of theology of MTA definitely leads to conflict, particularly to traditional Muslim which its ideology is contrary to MTA.

MTA’s theology of conflict, indeed, is contrary to Islamic pluralism.  However, Islam is a polyintepretable religion. Although Islam may seem to be monolithic, its form and expression vary from one Muslim individual to another and from group to group. Islam could not and should not be perceived as monolithic. Thus, Islam, as it actually exists, because of “the divergence in the social, economic, and political context”, has meant different things to different people.[28]

Related to jargon “back to Qur’an and Hadith” which is frequently lauched MTA (and other puritan Islam organizations) is basically problematical. Jargon “back to Qur’an and Hadith”, of course, has an assumption that Qur’an and Hadith is a fundamental principle for Muslim life and infallible. However, it is likely to say that Qur’an and Hadith are “past text”, while every Muslim has its life historicity; it is not surprisingly that there would be multi interpretation and understanding among Muslim. These frequently trigger a conflict. Other implication of using slogan “back to Qur’an and Hadith” reflects that other Islamic groups which are not using the jargon are Islamic groups that are not guided by Qur’an and Hadith. That is why debate, truth claim, and conflict among Muslim related to this problem frequently occured. Therefore, it is important thing to be understood especially for MTA and other Islamic puritan groups.

V. Theological Conflict in Grass Root Level

A. The Root of Conflict between MTA and Traditional Muslim

Since its early years, MTA has been resisted and rejected by many members of society. Even in recent time some people keep the same objection and stand to oppose MTA. Yoyok Mugiyatno recognizes that clash of understanding repeatedly crops up between MTA and local people whenever MTA firstly came to certain region to launch a local administrative center. Most of unbefitting between them turns to be dispute, even conflict.[29]

The root of society’s objection to MTA is laid on the less dialogical approach that MTA used to perform. MTA has less conciliation to local culture as well as to Islam which is intermingled with local belief and culture. In fact, in Indonesian context, collaborating Islam and local culture is something accustomed for centuries. Central Java, in which most of MTA members live, is a region with strong Javanese culture that spent centuries under Hinduism-Buddhism civilization.

Interfaith and intercultural acculturation in Javanese daily life is exactly the uniqueness of Javanese which is recognized as very tolerant society (tepo seliro). This tolerant easies up them to find model of social life that is full of harmony and peace. Therefore, solidarity of two cultures cannot be told as a stupidity (jahiliyah), but on the contrary, it can be said a local genius because it is proved that acculturation of different cultures has born a harmony life.

In the course of history, Islamic culture could develop in Java after Sultan Agung was bravely collaborating old Javanese traditions influenced by Hinduism-Buddhism and Islamic tradition. These period are a transition process from Hinduism and Buddhism period (zaman kabudan) to saint period (zaman kewalen) signed by coming up mysticism literature combining Hinduism-Buddhism mysticism with Islamic sufism including in producing Walisongo mythology. It can be said that it is effected Islam in Javanese society. Simuh said that the other implication is that Javanese used to manekung (samadi; meditation) which is no longer expected to God, they confess that is such kind of divine inspiration from a certain wali (spiritual leader), particularly from Sunan Kalijaga.[30]

During transition, there were various religious ceremonies of Hinduism-Buddhism traditions started to get Islamic influence. Selametan, for example, started to have Islamic nuance through sending up prayers to God replaced mantra (magic formula) in Hinduism-Buddhism, though in the case of selecting time for ritual still follows Java calculation tradition like 7 days, 40 days, 1000 days, and so forth.

Religious life of traditional Javanese society recently is inherited from that transition period; therefore it is properly that some traditions as a part of acculturation from culture and religion can be seen. Because of previous tradition influence, most of Javanese Muslims express their unique religiosity. Geertz proposed a triadic view of the Javanese religious life, and suggested that we understand it in terms of abangan, santri, and priyayi (Jav.) forms of religiosity. Geertz regarded the abangan variant to be that of the true (syncretism, unorthodox, etc.) religion of the Javanese. He viewed the more “orthodox” Muslims (santri) as a minority in Java. The religion of Java was perceived by Geertz as not really Islam though this idea was not new at the time. According to van Leur, as quoted by André Möller, Islam in Indonesia constituted only a “thin, easily flaking glaze on the massive body of indigenous civilization”.[31]

By means of Clifford Geertz’s typology, MTA can be categorized as santri, the term that addressed to puritan Muslim. Therefore, what actually happen in that case is disagreement between santri and abangan. Puritan Muslim calls traditional Muslim’s custom as heresy and should be avoided.

According to Mark Woodward, the prevailing view following colonial scholarship was that to be a ‘real Javanese’ was quite different from being a ‘real Muslim’.[32] Therefore, in most recent Indonesian context, being real Muslim is often understood as get away from Javanese culture and move toward purified Islam.

In proposing their idea, MTA activists do have such confident and brave. Their truth claim mainly sounds that their idea is absolutely based on Qur’an and Hadith only, while traditional Muslim is still linger on other sources beside the two. MTA challenges traditional Muslim to confirm the ground of their tradition whether it based on Islamic jurisprudence or not. As the result, the traditional people suppose that their identity is condemned by MTA. Therefore, in several places they refuse MTA mission and expel MTA activists from their village.

B. Conflicts in Several Places

Conflict MTA versus traditional Muslim is understandable when we regard to that Javanese people accept tradition as a good value, indeed as principle that has maintained society to be united. The essential for most of Indonesian local culture is solidarity, because it is a condition for unity and peace. In this case, unity and peace is the highest purpose for society’s life, therefore the truth is the second one. Although MTA’s members propose an idea which they acknowledged as the truth, Javanese society will reject it when the idea is not in favor of peace and unity for whole members of society.

There were several incidents in which MTA and Javanese society engage in conflict. For instance, 58 members in Blora has been driven out from their own because of their disobedient to traditional Islam’s ceremony; in Klaten, traditional Muslim rejects puritan Islam, including driving out MTA’s members from mosque of the village; in Magetan, MTA’s religious gathering was banned by society who perceived such threat of MTA’s mission; while in Sukoharjo, a psychological conflict occurred where society disagrees with the messages brought by MTA through their preaching.

Bl

1. Blora; 57 MTA Members Driven Out from Their Own Homes

In October 2001, 22 people of Balong village, Kunduran, Blora, Central Java has been driven out from their own homes by other villagers because they were no longer joining society to practice some customs such as selametan, tahlilan[33], sedekah bumi, and other traditional Muslim’s ceremonies.

One of victim in this tragedy was Wakidi, a member of MTA. He was main figure in MTA and speaker for 57 other victims. Wakidi said that expulsion to him and the other members of MTA were very illogical. Wakidi did not oppose local belief, Wakidi only did not longer want to involve or take a role in traditional ritual.

One of ritual by whom Wakidi is regarded as unmatched to Islamic teaching is sedekah bumi. It is traditional ceremony aimed to thanks to God over his blessing which is received in the form of farming product. Therefore, every harvest season, villager holds sedekah bumi. This ceremony is practiced under the big tree in the countryside. Although they use Islamic term of shadaqah (alms) but for Wakidi, this ritual does not fit in with Islamic teaching. This ritual tends to practice of animism because practiced under big tree.

Because sedekah bumi and selametan were no longer followed by Wakidi, hence Wakidi was dissipated from his village by other members. Of course, Wakidi was not alone, at least there were seven families consisted of 22 people who was dissipated by having the same opinion with Wakidi. According to Wakidi’s statement, this expulsion also was accompanied physical violence. Finally, they looked for protection to central office of MTA in Surakarta. They were permitted to stay in FKUIS’s building (Forum Komunikasi Umat Islam Surakarta; Surakarta Muslim Communication Forum). In 2002, some members of MTA which still stayed in Blora also were evicted because they did not want to return to follow local tradition over there. There were 10 families consisted of 35 people moved to central office MTA in Surakarta.[34]

Concerning to Wakidi’s case, it seems that traditional society focuses on togetherness either agree on value system or implement the value in daily life. Typical of mechanical solidarity still seems clear in this case. As Durkheim said that mechanical solidarity is a form of social unity based upon the similarity of individuals who share an uniform way of life and has identical belief, so that the difference or unusual either in a style or in a belief will bring a problem.

Because MTA brings ‘new’ way of life which refuses sedekah bumi, selametan, tahlilan, and other traditional Muslim ceremonies, MTA is regarded as deviant group by society. Although it comes from the same source in Islam teaching. For traditional Muslim, MTA has been out from habit and uniformity watched over the society for centuries.

2. Klaten: Wong Maleh and Traditional Muslim Vie for a Mosque

Many Mandong villagers in Trucuk, Klaten, Central Java do not fairly recognize MTA. However they observe some members of which they consider as wong maleh (man who has changed). According to Mbah Mangun’s view, some members of Mandong regard MTA as wong maleh who has “new religion” which differ from Islam believed Mandong society. Mandong society believes that selametan, tahlilan, yasinan[35], and ziarah (grave pilgrimage) are a part of Islamic doctrine, so that whosoever refuses the tradition which has changed and has a new religion is not Islam anyway.[36]

Some people who have changed and had ever joined became takmir (board of mosque) and stayed longer at mosque of al-Fajr, the mosque of Mandong village, for two years. When the mosque of al-Fajr under management of those wong maleh, some figures affiliated to cultural Islam was no longer getting respect. For example, each month of Ramadan some figures of cultural Islam in Mandong only was given opportunity to become imam (leader of communal prayer) and gave a lecture only once. In the past, they gave lecturing on the society during Ramadan about four to eight times in a month. On the contrary, the takmir even invited fourty jamaahs (members) from Solo. Jamaahs from Solo dressed “odd” because wore long gamis (Arabic clothes) and short pants. The outside jamaahs also was regarded arrogant because always fulfilled the front line every prayer, whereas the front line was usually placed for cultural Islam figures. Besides, takmir also invited the MTA preachers in the area of Trucuk to give a lecture.

Besides, the disorder in management of mosque, society also appeared anxious of asking to leave tradition likes selametan, tahlilan, and yasinan as a tool of unifying in society. At least, they have never participated in every event. For society, this behave indeed has injured the existence of society and menaced the orderliness of society in the village.

Local society thought that takmir’s behavior of al-Fajr mosque was inappropriate. The disappointment of society was not only about the worse management of mosque, but also their behavior in everyday. Some members of society that disagreed to the changing in this mosque might not go to mosque. Some of them moved to new mosque which located in north of their village. Moreover, some old fellows started to forbid their children going to TPA (Taman Pendidikan Al-Qur’an; Islamic elementary school for studying Qur’an) in the Al-Fajr mosque.

Finally, society blamed some people in takmir committee alleged has changed or embraced Islam regarded different from Islam believed by society. Then, some Islamic cultural figures came to gather and took over takmir of mosque al-Fajr. Some people of takmir that were considered as wong maleh finally scored out from the takmir. Ustadzs from MTA which have preached for years in that place would never invite again to mosque of al-Fajr to give a lecture.

Mbah Mangun’s view almost represents public opinion of Mandong about Islam. Some respondents give a similar opinion. They think that selametan, tahlilan, and yasinan are part of Islamic theology and not deviant. Whereas, the members of MTA who live in the area think in contrary. It is true on what Simmel said that the parties of the dispute view themselves as representatives of supra-individual claims.[37]As a result, each party feels that their group is the most correct and leads to fight for the truth.

Therefore, vie for mosque between Puritanism Muslim and traditional Muslim in Mandong, Klaten can be seen in three things. First, as result of the difference of perception to the definition of Islam. Second, as result of supra-individual feeling owned by Puritanism Muslim which felt to have truly Islam and look down to traditional Muslim. Third, vie for mosque because of mosque is one of social basic and as authoritative place in Muslim society.

3. Magetan: Local Tradition Vs Puritan Islamic Movement

Conflict between MTA and traditional Muslim group also has occured in Ringinagung village, Magetan, East Java, in 23^rd March 2008.[38] The conflict was in the form of breaking up a lecturing of MTA practiced in house of Sabar Santoso, a local villager. Villagers thought that teaching of MTA confronted with Islamic teaching which they embraced and made social unrest. According to Wasis, one of the villagers of Ringinagung, most villagers could not receive teaching of MTA. He further said that restlessness of villagers begin from a pamphlet designed by MTA members. The pamphlet contained prohibition to tahlillan, selametan for people dying, funeral ceremony, and other traditional Islam traditions.

The same explanation was said Suyadi, one of the local figures. According to him, besides it came to social unrest, the lecturing could be not allowed from villagers either at the head of RT (Rukun Tetangga: neighborhood association), head of RW (Rukun Warga: administrative unit at the village) or village headman goverment. Because of pressure from villagers and a recommendation of local security, weekly lecturing was forced to stop. Whereas the number of MTA’s member was hearing lecturing from Ustadz Ahmad Sukina, the leader of MTA from Solo broadcasted online through internet.

Suyatno, a head of MTA Magetan, argued that society’s accusation that MTA prohibited member of society practicing tahlilan and selamatan. He added that in MTA’s perspective, tahlilan, yasinan, and selamatan for people dying is not stated in the Qur’an. Suyatno also explained that he has asked permission to village headman. He told that MTA was legal organization and has spread all over Indonesia, even abroad.

4. Sukoharjo: Psychological Conflict

Another case of theological conflict between MTA and the society could be seen in Joho Baru Residence, Sukoharjo, Central Java in 2008. The theological conflict was not occured in the form of physical violence, but only psychological conflict. In this case, there was ‘psychological war’ between members of society and activist of MTA. Some members of society regarded members of MTA as odd trend. Consequently, they yelled out to MTA members with impolite words and not ethical. They also frequently talked about MTA negatively. On the contrary, MTA through its lecturing labeled them who practiced kejawen Islamic traditions as heresy. Psychological conflict actually came from hatred of some members of society to the lecturing delivered by MTA in the mosque of An-Nur perceiving that religious traditions like Yasinan, selametan, and tahlilan was wrong traditions.

According to Nur Hamid, a member of Joho Baru Residence, Sukoharjo, the lecturing of MTA brought to be uncomfortable in theology among member of society because its contents condemned religious traditions which are believed and practiced most of society. Further Nur Hamid told that at the beginning, many members of society were adequately enthusiastic to follow the lecturing of MTA practiced routinely every Sunday. Nevertheless, after hearing lecturing from the ustadz (teachers) of MTA condemned religious traditions which they believe,  many members of society withdrew from lecturing of MTA. Some members of society viewed the ideology of MTA negatively and would cut off traditions which they believe. Because it did not get response from society, the lecturing finally was breaking up.[39]

Many theological conflicts involving MTA with a number of groups of traditional Muslim is also confessed by followers of MTA in a number of places. One of them is Budiono, treasurer II of MTA Grobogan, which says that in Grobogan has ever occured conflict between MTA and traditional Muslim especially the members of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).

Budiono tells further that traditional Muslim especially member of NU often disturbs lecturings of MTA. For instance, they intentionally go to the place where lecturings of MTA held and then they make a noisy when lecturing takes place. In addition, government of the village frequently may not give a permission to have a lecturing of MTA to even prohibit it. Responds to the problems, Budiono can tolerate it because the parties who are opposing MTA do not understand about MTA’s teaching definitively. For him, MTA teaches truth because refers to Qur’an and Hadith.[40]

VI. Conclusion

Theologically, MTA has adopted Salafism theology which is recognized as very strict and does not compromise to religious traditions practiced traditional Muslim groups. In short, theology of MTA can be said as theology of conflict. Such kind of this theology, of course, is so potential in creating conflicts. In fact, MTA often involves conflicts with other Islamic groups, especially traditional Islam groups. Efforts to purify Islam from influences of kejawen traditions make this organization found in 1972 getting resistance overwhelmingly from traditional Muslim in Javanese society.

As a result, in several places in Central Java and East Java, for instance in Blora, Klaten, Magetan, and Sukoharjo, MTA is very often having conflict with traditional Muslim. Those conflicts are psychological conflict, physical conflict, expulsion, and conflict in vying for a mosque.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

André, Möller, “Islam and Traweh Prayers in Java: Unity, Diversity, and Cultural Smoothness”, Indonesia and the Malay World Journal, Vol. 33:95, 2005.

Elmirzana, Syafa’atun, “Freedom of Religion, Pluralism, and Interreligious Dialogue (Islamic Perspective)”, Al-Jami’ah, Volume 38, Number 2, 2000.

Faiz, Fahruddin, “Perkelahian Pemaknaan Seputar Jargon Kembali Kepada Al-Qur’an-Hadis: Sebuah Pembacaan Hermeneutik”, Jurnal Esensia, Vol. 5, No. 1, Januari 2004.

Gibb, H.A.R., Aliran-Aliran Moderen dalam Islam, Jakarta: Rajawali Pers, 1992.

Greene, Jennifer C, “Qualitative Program Evaluation: Practice and Promise” In Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by Norman K. and Yvonna Lincoln Denzin. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1994.

Hasan, Noorhaidi, “Between Transnational Interest and Domestic Politics: Understanding Middle Eastern Fatwas on Jihad in the Moluccas” in Noorhaidi Hasan, et. al. Moving with the Times: the Dynamics of Contemporary Islam in a Changing Indonesia, Noorhaidi Hasan&Moch. Nur Ichwan (ed.), Yogyakarta: CISForm UIN Sunan Kalijaga, 2007.

Hefner, Robert W., Hindu Javanese, Tengger Tradition and Islam, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1985.

Huberman, M.A., and Matthew B. Miles. “Data Management and Analysis Methods.”In Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by Norman K. and Yvonna Lincoln Denzin. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1994.

Jawa Pos, 24 March 2008.

Kurtz, Lester R., Gods in the Global Village: The World’s Religions in Sociological Perspective, California: Pine Forge Press, 1995.

McTernan, Oliver, Violence in God’s Name: Religion in an Age of Conflict, London: Darton-Longman-Todd Ltd, 2003.

Noer, Deliar, Gerakan Moderen Islam di Indonesia 1900-1940, Jakarta: LP3ES, 1980.

Ritzer, George, Encyclopedia of Social Theory, London: Sage Publication, 2005.

Robinson, Jerry W. Jr., Roy A. Clifford, “Conflict Management in Community Groups”, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, North Central Regional Extension Publication No. 36-35, 1974.

Simuh, Keunikan Interaksi Islam dan Budaya Jawa, Simuh, Keunikan Interaksi Islam dan Budaya Jawa, a paper for the seminar entitled “Pengaruh Islam terhadap Budaya Jawa”, Yogyakarta, 31 November 2000.

Woodward, Mark, Talking Across Paradigms: Indonesia, Islam, and Orientalism. In Mark R. Woodward (ed.), Toward a New Paradigm: Recent developments in Indonesian Islamic Thought, Temple: Arizona State University, 1996.

Booklet

Booklet of Majelis Tafsir Al-Qur’an Profile

Website

Fadl, Khaled M. Abou El “Islam and Theology of Power”, http://www.Is lamfortoday.com/elfadl01.htm.  Retrieved in 4 December 2009.

http//www.forum.apakabar/ws.com. Retrieved in 27 November 2009.

http//:mta-online.com/v2/sekilas-profil/. Retrieved in 1 December 2009.

mtapct.wordpress.com. Retrieved in 1 December 2009.

Interview

Interview with Mbah Mangun, 5 December 2009.

Interview with Budiono, 6 December 2009.

Interview with Yoyok Mugiyatno, 6 December 2009.

Interview with Nur Hamid, 7 December 2009.

Di penghujung tahun 2007, mata masyarakat dunia tertuju ke Indonesia. Betapa tidak, pada tanggal 3-14 Desember 2007 bertempat di Nusa Dua Bali telah diselenggarakan Konferensi Internasional tentang Perubahan Iklim Global (International Conference for Global Climate Change). Konferensi internasional yang diikuti delegasi lebih dari 100 negara peserta tersebut membahas isu pemanasan global (global warming) yang menjadi ancaman sekaligus kekhawatiran banyak kalangan dunia.

Sebagaimana diketahui bersama, perubahan iklim sangat dipengaruhi oleh pemanasan global. Pemanasan global adalah kejadian meningkatnya temperatur rata-rata atmosfer, laut, dan daratan bumi. Pemanasan global disebabkan diantaranya oleh greenhouse effect atau yang populer dengan sebutan efek rumah kaca. Efek rumah kaca sendiri disebabkan karena naiknya konsentrasi gas Karbondioksida (CO²) dan gas-gas lainnya di atmosfer. Kenaikan konsentrasi gas C0² ini disebabkan oleh kenaikan pembakaran bahan bakar minyak (BBM), batubara, dan bahan bakar organik lainnya yang melampaui kemampuan tumbuhan-tumbuhan dan laut untuk mengabsorbsinya.

Laporan Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) menyebutkan bahwa suhu rata-rata global pada permukaan bumi telah meningkat 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) selama seratus tahun terakhir. IPCC menyimpulkan bahwa sebagian besar peningkatan temperatur rata-rata global sejak pertengahan abad ke-20 disebabkan oleh meningkatnya konsentrasi gas-gas rumah kaca akibat aktivitas manusia melalui efek rumah kaca. Kesimpulan dasar ini setidaknya telah dikemukakan oleh 30 badan ilmiah dan akademik, termasuk semua Akademi Sains nasional dari negara-negara G8.

Meningkatnya suhu global diperkirakan akan menyebabkan naiknya permukaan air laut, meningkatnya intensitas fenomena cuaca yang ekstrim, serta perubahan jumlah dan pola presipitasi. Laporan IPCC menyebutkan bahwa manusia sebagai biang utama pemanasan global. Emisi gas rumah kaca mengalami kenaikan 70 persen antara 1970 hingga 2004. Konsentrasi gas karbondioksida di atmosfer jauh lebih tinggi dari kandungan alaminya dalam 650 ribu tahun terakhir. Rata-rata temperatur global telah naik 1,3 derajat Fahrenheit (setara 0,72 derat Celcius) dalam 100 tahun terakhir. Muka air laut mengalami kenaikan rata-rata 0,175 centimeter setiap tahun sejak 1961.

Diperkirakan sekitar 20 hingga 30 persen spesies tumbuh-tumbuhan dan hewan berisiko punah jika temperatur naik 2,7 derajat Fahrenheit (setara 1,5 derajat Celcius). Jika kenaikan temperatur mencapai 3 derajat Celcius, 40 hingga 70 persen spesies mungkin musnah.  Meskipun negara-negara miskin yang akan merasakan dampak terburuk, perubahan iklim juga akan melanda negara maju. Diperkirakan pada tahun 2020, 75 juta hingga 250 juta penduduk Afrika akan kekurangan sumber air, penduduk kota-kota besar di Asia akan berisiko terlanda banjir dan rob. Di Eropa, kepunahan spesies akan ekstensif. Sementara di Amerika Utara, gelombang panas makin lama dan menyengat sehingga perebutan sumber air akan semakin tinggi.

Selain itu, kondisi cuaca ekstrim akan menjadi peristiwa rutin. Badai tropis akan lebih sering terjadi dan kian besar intensitasnya. Gelombang panas dan hujan lebat akan melanda area yang lebih luas. Resiko terjadinya kebakaran hutan dan penyebaran penyakit meningkat. Sementara itu, kekeringan akan menurunkan produktivitas lahan dan kualitas air. Kenaikan muka air laut akan memicu banjir lebih luas, mengasinkan air tawar, dan menggerus kawasan pesisir.

Dalam konteks Indonesia, sebagaimana dikemukakan oleh Masnerliyati Hilman, Deputi Menteri Lingkungan Hidup bidang Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam dan Pengendalian Kerusakan Lingkungan, salah satu indikasi pemanasan global yang begitu jelas dirasakan di Indonesia misalnya, kenaikan suhu yang cukup tinggi beberapa waktu belakangan ini. Suhu di Kalimantan yang biasanya sekitar 35 derajat Celcius naik menjadi 39 derajat Celcius. Di Sumatra, tambahnya, yang biasanya berkisar pada 33-34 derajat naik menjadi 37 derajat, dan di Jakarta yang biasanya 32-34 naik menjadi 36 derajat Celcius. Selain itu, menurutnya, pemanasan global mengakibatkan bergesernya musim di Indonesia secara ekstrim.

Dampak terbesar dari pemanasan global tentu saja adalah mencairnya “benua es” yang ada di kutub utara dan selatan. Apabila hal itu terjadi, maka daratan di bumi akan digenangi air dan tenggelam. Tak dapat dibayangkan jika bumi tenggelam, maka secara otomatis eksistensi kehidupan umat manusia beserta peradabannya akan lenyap pula. Kesimpulannya, dampak yang akan ditimbulkan oleh pemanasan global sungguh-sungguh mengerikan.

Harapan masyarakat dunia untuk mencegah dan mengurangi pemanasan global banyak disandarkan kepada Indonesia. Hal ini lantaran Indonesia merupakan salah satu paru-paru dunia yang memiliki hutan yang terhampar luas. Namun, harapan tersebut tampaknya sulit —kalau tidak mau dikatakan tidak bisa— terwujud mengingat kerusakan hutan yang akut. Salah satu indikator kerusakan hutan di Indonesia dapat ditilik, misalnya, dari banyaknya kebakaran (atau tepatnya pembakaran) dan pembalakan hutan yang terjadi akhir-akhir ini. Menurut data terakhir yang dicatat Departemen Kehutanan misalnya, pada tahun 2005 saja luas kebakaran hutan di Indonesia telah mencapai 13.328, 15 hektar.

Selain mengakibatkan kerugian ekonomi yang tidak sedikit nilainya, perusakan hutan akan mengganggu keseimbangan ekosistem dan tentu saja memicu terjadinya pemanasan global. Hutan yang sejatinya dapat mereduksi pemanasan global malah banyak dirusak dan dieksploitasi. Kian hari, hutan di Indonesia kian rusak. Tangan-tangan tak bertanggungjawab bebas bergentayangan ke mana-mana membabat habis hutan di negeri ini. Pemerintah pun tak berkutik menghadapi para penjarah hutan. Bangsa yang kaya dengan kekayaan hayati ini seolah-olah tak memiliki etika lingkungan. Sungguh aneh tapi nyata, perusakan ekologi ini terjadi di sebuah negeri yang diklaim demikian religius. Pertanyaannya adalah apakah ada yang salah dengan religiusitas di negeri ini? Bukankah negeri yang dihuni lebih dari 220 juta jiwa ini mengaku beragama dan bukankah sekitar 85 persennya beragama Islam?

Islam dan Pelestarian Ekologi

Profesor Graham Parkes dari Universitas Hawaii (Shihab, 1999: 158-159) mengatakan bahwa pandangan keagamaan suatu kelompok masyarakat sangat berpengaruh dalam menentukan sikap dan perilaku terhadap alam dan lingkungannya. Dalam konteks ini, ia banyak mengkritik ajaran Kristen-Yahudi yang menempatkan alam dan ekologi pada posisi yang lebih rendah dari martabat manusia. Hampir senada dengan Parkes, Lynn White, Jr. salah satu pakar ekologi dalam esai pendek bertajuk: The Historical Root of Our Ecologic Crisis, di jurnal Science (1967) menuturkan bahwa krisis ekologi yang tengah terjadi sekarang ini adalah akibat kesalahan manusia menanggapi persoalan lingkungannya.

Menurutnya, apa yang dilakukan oleh manusia terhadap lingkungannya bergantung dengan apa yang mereka pikirkan tentang diri mereka sendiri dalam hubungannya dengan apa yang ada di sekitar mereka. Lebih lanjut dikatakannya, bahwa akar dari sumber krisis lingkugan ini sangat erat dipengaruhi oleh keyakinan manusia tentang alam dan takdirnya yang semuanya itu bermuara pada agama.

Barangkali, apa yang dikatakan kedua pakar ekologi tersebut ada benarnya. Sejauh yang penulis amati, selama ini kebanyakan umat beragama (Islam) kurang memiliki kesadaran dan kepedulian terhadap pelestarian lingkungan. Bahkan, tidak jarang sebagian kalangan umat Islam yang masih menempatkan alam secara subordinatif dan karenanya menjadi objek yang memang sudah sewajarnya dieksploitasi. Pelestarian alam dipandang seakan-akan terpisah jauh dari ajaran Islam dan tidak dipandang sebagai ibadah. Tentu saja, mindset keagamaan semacam ini pada gilirannya akan mengantarkan umat Islam bersikap eksploitatif dan destruktif terhadap alam.

Islam sesungguhnya menawarkan banyak doktrin yang menempatkan alam secara terhormat dan mengajarkan pada manusia untuk melestarikannya. Menurut Fazlur Rahman (1983: 95-116), al-Qur’an tidak semata-mata berbicara tentang hal-hal yang bersifat metafisis-eskatologis, tetapi dia juga berbicara tentang alam semesta yang dihuni oleh manusia dan makluk-makluk lain. Dalam Q.S. al-Baqarah: 164 misalnya, disebutkan bahwa semua (baca: alam) yang diciptakan Allah adalah untuk kepentingan manusia. Allah berfirman:

“Sesungguhnya dalam penciptaan langit dan bumi, silih bergantinya malam dan siang, bahtera yang berlayar di laut membawa apa yang berguna bagi manusia, dan apa yang Allah turunkan dari langit berupa air, lalu dengan air itu Dia hidupkan bumi sesudah mati (kering)-nya dan Dia sebarkan di bumi ini segala jenis hewan, dan pengisaran angin dan awan yang dikendalikan antara langit dan bumi; sungguh (terdapat) tanda-tanda (keesaan dan kebesaran Allah) bagi kaum yang memikirkan”.

Penjelasan yang hampir sama juga terdapat dalam Q.S. al-Baqarah: 22. Allah berfirman:

“Dialah yang menjadikan bumi sebagai hamparan bagimu dan langit sebagai atap, dan Dia menurunkan air (hujan) dari langit, lalu Dia menghasilkan dengan hujan itu segala buah-buahan sebagai rezeki untukmu; karena itu janganlah kamu mengadakan sekutu-sekutu bagi Allah, padahal kamu mengetahui”.

Allah memposisikan alam beserta ciptaan-Nya secara terhormat. Hal ini dapat dilihat dalam Q. S. al-Jumu’ah: 1 yang mengabarkan bahwa semua makhluk hidup di langit dan di bumi senantiasa bertasbih kepada Ilahi. Dalam Q.S. Fushshilat: 11 dijelaskan betapa Allah menyejarkan manusia dengan alam dalam kaitannya dengan perintah verbal-Nya. Dalam perintah Allah yang ditujukan kepada alam untuk tunmduk kepada perintah Allah, al-Qur’an sejatinya ingin menunjukkan bahwa alam memiliki kepribadian yang patut dihormati. Bahkan, dalam Q. S. al-An’am: 38 disebutkan bahwa Allah menganggap burung yang terbang dengan kedua sayapnya serta binatang yang ada di bumi merupakan bagian dari umat-Nya juga, seperti halnya manusia.

Doktrin bahwa alam diciptakan untuk kepentingan manusia dapat pula dilihat dalam Q.S. Yunus 31, Q. S. al-Nahl: 14, Q.S. al-An’am: 99, dan Q.S. Ibrahim: 32. Bahkan, Allah mengecam terhadap segala perusakan di muka bumi. Hal ini dapat dilihat dalam Q.S. al-Qashash: 77, Q.S. al-Baqarah: 60, dan Q.S. al-A’raf. Dalam Q.S. al-Qashash: 77 misalnya, Allah dengan tegas berfirman:

“Dan carilah pada apa yang telah dianugrahkan Allah kepadamu (kebahagian) negeri akhirat, dan janganlah kamu melupakan kebahagianmu dari (kenikmatan) duniawi dan berbuat baiklah (kepada orang lain) sebagaimana Allah telah berbuat baik kepadamu danjanganlah kamu berbuat kerusakan di (muka) bumi. Sesungguhnya Allah tidak menyukai orang-orang yang berbuat kerusakan”.

Rasullullah SAW memberikan apresiasi dan mengabarkan pahala bagi mereka yang mau melestarikan ekologi. Dalam sebuah Hadis, beliau bersabda: ” Barangsiapa yang menanam sebuah pohon dan pohon itu berbuah, Allah akan memberikan pahala kepada orang itu sebanyak buah yang tumbuh dari pohon tersebut”.

Dalam sejarah Islam, tidak pernah ada bukti bahwa Islam merusak lingkungan, sekalipun dalam peperangan. Menurut Muhammad Imaduddin Abdul Rahim (2002: 35), peperangan yang berlangsung di zaman Nabi Muhammad SAW tidak pernah mengakibatkan ketidakseimbangan ekologi, sebagimana pertempuran yang pada abad-abad mutakhir.

Tindakan memelihara kelestarian ekologi merupakan manifestasi perintah syukur manusia kepada Allah. Bahkan disebutkan dalam sejarah Islam, ketika perang pun, khalifah seperti Abu Bakar dan Umar bin Khatab senantiasa memperingatkan terhadap pasukannya untuk memelihara alam:

“Jangan tebang pohon atau rambah tanaman, kecuali jika akan digunakan atau dimakan, dan janganlah membunuh binatang kecuali untuk dimakan. Hormati dan lindungi semua rumah ibadah manapun, serta jangan sekali-kali mengusik mereka yang sedang beribadah menurut agama mereka masing-masing. Janganlah membunuh orang yang tidak bersenjata (yang tidak terlibat langsung dalam peperangan)”.

Sejak Islam hadir di muka bumi, Islam sesungguhnya sangat care terhadap pelestarian alam. Nabi pernah memperkenalkan dan mempraktikkam konsep pelestarian lam, yakni Hima’ dan Ihya’ul Mawat (Mangunjaya, 2005: 54). Hima’ atau kawasan hutan lindung adalah kawasan yang khusus dilindungi pemerintah atas dasar syari’at guna melestarikan kehidupan liar dan hutan. Nabi pernah mencagarkan kawasan sekitar Madinah sebagai hima’ guna melindungi lembah, padang rumput dan tumbuhan yang ada  di dalamnya.  Ketika itu, lahan yang beliau lindungi luasnya sekitar enam mil atau lebih dari 2.049 hektar. Sementara konsep Ihya’ul Mawat adalah usaha mengelola lahan yang masih belum bermanfaat menjadi berguna bagi manusia.

Terkait dengan pelestarian ekologi, ada cerita menarik yang dapat dijadikan teladan bagi umat Muslim. Catatan sejarah Islam menyebutkan bahwa sesaat setelah Amr bin Ash menaklukkan Mesir, seekor burung merpati membuat sarang di atas tendanya. Padahal, mereka segera akan berangkat meninggalkan Mesir. Sebenarnya Amr bin Ash dapat memerintahkan para prajuritnya untuk membongkar tendanya. Namun, ia tidak melakukannya sebab ia tidak ingin mengusik sang merpati yang sedang mengerami telurnya. Tenda itu pun ia tinggalkan (Badri, 2007: 134).

Tidak cukup dalam medan peperangan saja, ajaran Islam akan pentingnya melestarikan alam dapat dilihat dalam ranah ibadah, yakni ibadah haji. Dalam ritual haji, orang yang sedang ihram dilarang membunuh binatang dan mencabut pohon..  Bahkan, jika jamaah haji melanggar ketentuan tersebut, maka ia akan dikenai denda. Melihat realitas doktrinal, historis, dan ritual di atas yang demikian kaya akan dimensi pelestarian ekologi, terpampang jelas bahwa Islam sungguh-sungguh merupakan rahmatan li al- ‘alamin.

Urgensi “Fikih Ekologi”

Doktrin pelestarian ekologi yang diintroduksi Islam yang demikian adiluhung tersebut hanya akan menjadi “doktrin sampah” jika para pemeluknya tidak mampu atau enggan menerjemahkannya dalam kehidupan praksis. Sudah saatnya, praktik dan pemahaman keagamaan yang melulu bersifat ritual-formalistik, yang hanya menekankan aspek hubungan vertikal Kawula-Gusti (hablum min Allah) semata tanpa dibarengi sikap peduli terhadap nilai-nilai humanitas dan ekologi harus disingkirkan jauh-jauh.

Kewajiban untuk “menghijaukan bumi” merupakan tanggungjawab seluruh umat manusia sebagai khalifat Allah fi al-ardl, “wakil Tuhan di bumi”. Dalam konteks ini, terutama para elit Islam (baca: ulama) harus lebih sering mendakwahkan doktrin Islam yang memihak dan care terhadap permasalahan ekologi. Doktrin Islam tentang pelestarian ekologi sudah semestinya mendapatkan porsi yang lebih banyak dalam perbincangan keberislaman umat Muslim. Barangkali, sudah saatnya, saat ini para ulama perlu men-design “fikih ekologi” (fiqh al-bi’ah).

Fikih ekologi adalah fikih yang concern dan peduli terhadap permasalahan-permasalahan ekologis. Tidak jauh berbeda dengan fikih-fikih yang lain, fikih lingkungan bersumber dari teks-teks suci (al-Qur’an dan Hadis) dan oleh karenanya bersifat normatif. Selama ini, diakui atau tidak, literatur-literatur fikih klasik hanya berkutat seputar mu’amalah, ibadah ritual, dan munakahah an sich. Memang benar bahwa fikih banyak berbicara tentang etika, namun itu hanya terbatas pada etika interaksi manusia dengan sesama, atau paling banter etika berinteraksi dengan binatang. Bangunan etika dalam Islam selama ini masih terbatas pada “etika kemanusiaan” (ethic of humanity), belum menyentuh tentang “etika lingkungan” (ethic of environtment).

Tujuan agama (maqashid al-syari’at) selain melindungi, menjaga, serta merawat agama (hifdz al-din), kehidupan (hifdz al-nafs), akal budi dan akal pikiran (hifdz al-aql), anak cucu (hifdz nasl), serta properties (hifdz al-mal), adalah menjaga dan melestarikan lingkungan (hifdz al-bi’ah). Jika situasi lingkungan kian terus memburuk, maka pada gilirannya nanti kehidupan tidak ada lagi, properties tidak ada lagi, dan tentu saja agama pun akan lenyap pula (Wasim, 20005: 78). Dengan kata lain, kerusakan lingkungan dapat membuyarkan tujuan-tujuan dari maqashid al-syari’at. Kehancuran ekologi menghalangi terpenuhinya konsep manusia sebagai “wakil Tuhan di bumi”, sehingga eksistensi kemanusian akan mengalami kemacetan.

Mustafa Abu–Sway (1998) mendedahkan bahwa menurut fikih ekologi, upaya memproteksi properties akan gagal lantaran lingkungan yang sangat tercemari, dan dihayati sebagai padamnya signal yang menuju ke arah Tuhan, manusia, dan alam semesta, yang ketiga-tiganya berekosistem. Dari sini memunculkan pandangan bahwa agama (Islam) mampu memproteksi lingkungan dan memunculkan peradaban. Artinya, ada pandangan bahwa Islam mampu menawarkan konsep utama perengkuhan ekologi. Fikih ekologi menggunakan kerangka berfikir bahwa Islam dipandang sebagai suatu falsafah hidup yang komprehensif, yang ajaran-ajarannya melingkupi setiap hubungan manusia, termasuk hubungan dengan lingkungannya.

Kajian fikih ekologi merupakan upaya untuk menunjukkan bahwa pandangan dunia keagamaan cukup komprehensif dan kontekstual terhadap problematika yang mengitari kehidupan umat manusia terkait hubungannya dengan alam. Dengan adanya fikih ekologi diharapkan setiap Muslim akan memandang alam sebagai entitas yang “sakral”, yang diposisikan sebagai ibadah sama halnya dengan ibadah-ibadah mahdloh lainnya. Seorang Muslim yang merusak ekologi, ia akan merasa bersalah, berdosa, dan menyesalinya sama seperti ketika ia meninggalkan kewajiban ibadah agama. Fikih ekologi dalam ranah praksis dapat dimasukkan dalam kurikulum dan diajarkan di institusi-institusi pendidikan dari taman kanak-kanak hingga perguruan tinggi, sehingga peserta didik secara dini diharapkan memiliki pengetahuan dan kesadaran terhadap kelestarian lingkungan. Last but not least, Dalam konteks global, kehadiran fikih ekologi pada akhirnya akan dapat memberikan kesadaran hukum kepada umat Islam untuk senantiasa menjaga kelestarian alam.

Akhirul kalam, jika setiap Muslim memiliki kesadaran ekologis, maka penulis yakin benar bahwa bukanlah perkara yang sulit bagi umat Islam (terutama Muslim Indonesia) untuk memulai dan mewartakan pentingnya pelestarian ekologi ke segenap penjuru dunia. Namun kalangan umat Islam saja tidak cukup, semua manusia di dunia –apapun agamanya dan negaranya, termasuk negara-negara kapitalis-industrialis yang banyak menyumbangkan emisi gas Karbondioksida yang memicu global warming— bersama-sama berkomitmen untuk menjaga kelestarian ekologi. Dengan demikian, pemanasan global di muka bumi bisa dihentikan. Allāhu a’lam  bi al-shawāb.

DAFTAR PUSTAKA

Badri, M. Abdullah. “Membangun Lingkungan Berbasis Kasih Sayang” dalam Ahmad Asroni. 2007. Kajian Islam Kontemporer. Jakarta: Lembaga Penelitian UIN Syarif Hidayatullah.

Mangunjaya, Fahruddin M. 2005. Konservasi Alam dalam Islam. Yogyakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia.

Mustafa, Abu Suway. 1998. Fiqh al-Bi’ah fi al-Islam: Towards an Islamic Jurisprudence of the Environtment. di download dari http://hompages.iol.ie/-afifi/Articles/environtment.htm. pada 17 April 2008.

Rahim, Muhammad Imaduddin Abdul. 2002. Islam Sistem Nilai Terpadu. Yogyakarta: Gema Insani Press.

Rahman, Fazlur. 1983. Tema Pokok Al-Qur’an. terjemahan Anas Mahyuddin. Bandung: Pustaka.

Shihab, Alwi. 1999. Islam Inklusif: Menuju Sikap Terbuka dalam Beragama. Bandung: Mizan.

Wasim, Alef Theria. 2005. Harmoni Kehidupan Beragama: Problem, Praktik, dan Pendidikan. Yogyakarta: Oasis Publisher.

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1.       Konsolidasi Organisasi

Tawangmangu, 26-27 Maret 2011

2.       Workshop Agama dan Bencana

Ruang Teatrikal Perpustakaan UIN Sunan Kalijaga, 10 April 2011

3.       Seminar HIV/AIDS dan LGBTIQ dalam perspektif agama-agama

Puri Indah Inn, 24 April 2011

4.       Seminar Laporan Penelitian “Perempuan dan Bencana Alam”

Grage Hotel, 21 Mei 2011

A. Latar Belakang

Globalisasi bagaikan pisau bermata ganda. Di satu sisi membawa kemajuan yang luar biasa bagi peradaban manusia. Hal ini ditandai dengan pesatnya perkembangan teknologi yang semakin memanjakan umat manusia. Di sisi lain, globalisasi membawa efek negatif yang tidak jarang memunculkan berbagai masalah baik social, ekonomi, politik, agama dan budaya. Globalisasi tak ubahnya seperti “Buldozer” yang setiap saat dapat melindas nilai-nilai budaya yang established. Disadari atau tidak, sesungguhnya globalisasi mempunyai agenda untuk menyeragamkan budaya yang menggiring manusia untuk bergaya hidup hedonis dan konsumtif. Sekedar contoh, orang akan merasa lebih bangga apabila belanja di mall-mall daripada di pasar tradisional. Kaum muda akan merasa lebih prestisius makan di restoran siap saji a la Amerika ketimbang makan di warung. Seperangkat nilai yang ditarik oleh gerbong globalisasi semisal sekularisme, liberalisme, kapitalisme dan seterusnya, oleh sebagian kalangan agama dianggap sebagai sebuah ancaman. Mencuatnya radikalisme agama tidak dapat dipungkiri, merupakan salah satu respons terhadap derasnya terpaan globalisasi. Dalam konteks Islam, menjamurnya gerakan-gerakan fundamentalisme Islam seperti Front Pembela Islam (FPI), Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI), Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), Forum Betawi Rembuk (FBR) dan seterusnya dapat dibilang merupakan salah satu respons terhadap globalisasi dan seperangkat nilai yang dibawanya yang menurut mereka telah dan akan meracuni sakralitas agama. Mereka berusaha untuk membentengi diri dari pengaruh ideologi Barat yang “nakal”. Bahkan, mereka tak segan-segan melakukan pengrusakan dan penutupan terhadap tempat-tempat yang dianggap maksiat, semisal club-club malam, diskotik, tempat prostitusi dan sebagainya. Menurut Peter L. Berger sebagaimana dikutip Abdul Mun’im DZ, mereka yang berhaluan Islam fundamentalis mengukuhkan diri sebagai masyarakat tauhid (homogen) yang bersifat puritan, oleh karenanya mereka memiliki kecenderungan eksklusif. Masyarakat tauhid bukan hanya berarti masyarakat yang tidak menyekutukan Tuhan, namun juga masyarakat yang tidak berbaur dengan komunitas lain diluar komunitas Islam. Tauhid sosial akan mengarah pada homogenitas sosial yang pada gilirannya akan menolak pluralitas dan multikulturalisme.[1] Pada level berikutnya sikap mereka dimanifestasikan dalam ranah politik yang berujung pada cita-cita tegaknya daulah Islamiyah. Dalam konteks Indonesia, keinginan sebagian umat Islam untuk menegakkan daulah Islamiyah menemukan momentumnya pasca tumbangnya rezim otoriter Orde Baru. Digaungkannya daulah Islamiyah oleh pengusung Islam Politik[2] merupakan respons terhadap carut marutnya kondisi sosio-politik-ekonomi yang mendera Indonesia. Menurut mereka, kondisi tersebut menuntut sebuah solusi yang mampu mengatasi krisis multidimensi. Solusi tersebut tidak lain dan tidak bukan adalah syari’at Islam. Maka tak heran, keinginan formalisasi syari’at Islam yang ditandai dengan maraknya Perda-Perda bernuansa syari’at Islam semakin menggejala di berbagai daerah di Indonesia.[3] Syari’at Islam yang diyakini oleh penyerunya sebagai problem solver ini justru berpotensi menimbulkan berbagai masalah di berbagai lini kehidupan masyarakat Indonesia yang majemuk, termasuk pada aspek budaya. Pakaian adat yang beraneka ragam kian terberangus dengan semakin meningkatnya penggunaan identitas Arab terutama jilbab. Pakaian adat hanya sesekali muncul pada acara pernikahan dan momen tertentu yang dianggap perlu. Demikian pula dengan kesenian adat, norma-norma adapt hamper telah didominasi aleh norma Islam dalam ekspresi Arab, sementara yang selain Arab tidak lagi dianggap Islam. Ekspresi Arab dianggap sebagai ekspresi tunggal yang paling absah dalam beragama dan berkebudayaan. Akibatnya, Arabisasi yang semakin dominan terus menghegemoni tradisi lain sehingga mengakibatkan tradisi tersebut kian pudar, bahkan mati.[4] Berangkat dari keprihatinan di atas, ada beberapa pertanyaan yang dapat dijadikan rumusan masalah: 1. Sejauh mana implikasi Islam politik terhadap eksistensi budaya? 2. Solusi apa yang bisa ditawarkan untuk menjaga eksistensi budaya seiring merebaknya ancaman Islam politik?

B. Pembahasan

Budaya memiliki ruang lingkup yang sangat luas. Menurut Melville J Herskovits, unsur budaya meliputi alat teknologi, sistem ekonomi, keluarga dan kekuasaan politik. Sedangkan Bronislaw Malinowski menyebut unsur-unsur kebudayaan mencakup system norma, organisasi ekonomi, alat-alat dan lembaga pendidikan serta organisasi kekuatan.[5] Sementara itu, antroplog C. Kluckhohn mengkategorikan unsur kebudayaan dalam tujuh kelompok, yang sering dinamakan cultural universals, yakni meliputi: peralatan dan perlengkapan hidup manusia, mata pencaharian dan sistem-sistem ekonomi, sistem kemasyarakatan, bahasa, kesenian, sistem pengetahuan dan religi (sistem kepercayaan).[6] Ringkasnya, kebudayaan tidak hanya sebatas seni dan adat istiadat. Dalam konteks Indonesia, ruang lingkup budaya yang sedemikian luas tersebut termanifestasikan dalam berbagai ragam budaya yang demikian kaya. Namun kekayaan budaya Indonesia tersebut, kini tengah terancam oleh keberadaan Islam politik. Doktrin Islam politik yang menghendaki ke-eka-an menebar ancaman terhadap kelompok atau komunitas lain yang tidak sepaham dengannya. Ada semacam kekhawatiran jika ideologi Islam politik ini berkuasa, maka akan meminggirkan atau tidak memberi ruang yang cukup bagi eksistensi dan berkembangnya ideologi lain. Mungkin kekhawatiran ini cukup berlebihan, namun bangsa ini dapat bercermin pada sejarah bangsa-bangsa lain yang telah lebih dahulu menerapkan ideologi Islam politik ini. Ketika sistem Islami diterapkan, maka secara otomatis akan membuat mereka yang tidak beragama Islam berada di bawah kedudukan warga negara beragama Islam, alias menjadi warga negara kelas dua.[7] Bentuk “pemerintahan Islami” yang kerap diimani sebagai solusi terhadap semua krisis ini tidaklah “maksum” dari cacat dan cela. Ideologi politik mereka yang mengharamkan adanya ideologi lain memunculkan wajah perpolitikan monolitik yang menegasikan keberagaman dan tentu membuka peluang lebar bagi munculnya otoritarianisme. Sekedar contoh, rezim Ja’far Numeiri di Sudan yang menerapkan hukum hudud terhadap 50 lawan politiknya adalah contoh yang masih bisa dibilang baru dari cacatnya praktik Islam politik di dunia.[8]Kekhawatiran lain adalah kemungkinan akan melunturnya nasionalisme anak bangsa seiring menguatnya Islam politik di daerah-daerah pasca digulirkannya otonomi daerah. Ketika pada suatu saat ada kepentingan daerah yang merasa tidak direstui oleh pemerintah pusat atau tidak sejalan dengan kepentingan pusat, maka tidak menutup kemungkinan akan melahirkan gerakan separatis dengan dalih mewakili suara mayoritas masyarakat daerah. Taruhlah misalnya, jika salah satu daerah menuntut pemberlakuan syariat Islam dan tidak direstui negara dengan alasan bahwa Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia (NKRI) bukan teokrasi, maka akan menimbulkan kekecewaan bagi para pengusung formalisasi syariat Islam. Rekaman sejarah menunjukkan bangsa ini telah berulang kali dirongrong oleh gerakan separatis yang berlabel sentimen keagamaan, sebut saja misalnya pemberontakan Darul Islam/Tentara Islam Indonesia (DI/TII).[9] Jika daerah yang memiliki kehendak semacam ini semakin banyak bukan tidak mungkin integritas bangsa ini akan terancam. Penghuni negeri ini tidak boleh menutup mata atau mengingkari bahwa fenomena perjuangan Islam politik ini telah merambah ke berbagai daerah dan telah meraih beberapa target yang cukup signifikan. Kemudian, jika kursi daerah-daerah sudah dikuasai Islam politik dan jika ini merata hampir di seluruh negeri ini (terutama daerah yang mayoritas muslim) maka agenda Islam politik yang selama ini diperjuangkan benar-benar bisa terwujud. Dus, Indonesia yang dikenal publik dunia mampu mengemong kebhinekaan ini bisa berubah menjadi teokrasi yang akan mengancam pluralitas agama dan budaya sebagaimana yang pernah terjadi dalam panggung sejarah umat manusia. Pertanyaan yang akan muncul, jika suara yang mengusung Islam politik ini telah mendominasi di seantero negeri, maka bagaimana nasib minoritas yang mempunyai ideologi berbeda? Selain memberikan ancaman terhadap non-Muslim, pemberlakuan Islam sebagai ideologi negara tentu juga akan mengancam sekaligus memunculkan ketakutan terhadap Muslim abangan atau Muslim nominal. Menarik menyimak pernyataan A. Syafi’i Ma’arif, mantan ketua umum PP Muhammadiyah berkenaan formalisasi syariat Islam.[10] “ Saya yakin, akan banyak orang Islam marginal, atau kelompok masyarakat yang selama ini masuk dalam kelompok Islam pinggiran, yang justru akan lari dari Islam. Bukankah hal ini justru akan merugikan upaya dakwah Islam itu sendiri. Saya cuma berpikir, sebenarnya kenapa kita menggantungkan harapan soal syariat Islam kepada negara. Apakah kita memang sudah sedemikian tak berdaya, sehingga penerapan syariat Islam ini pun harus diatur negara. Pertanyaan ini penting sekali, tapi kebanyakan dari kita tampaknya tidak paham. Masyarakat tentu masih ingat perlakuan Islam politik terhadap kelompok Islam lain, seperti Ahmadiyah yang kerap mendapat tekanan psikis bahkan fisik lantaran mereka dianggap sesat. Mungkinkah pemerintahan teokrasi yang mengusung jargon “lâ hukmu illâ Allâh” ini mau melindungi ideologi lain seperti mereka? Jika jawabannya tidak, maka bagaimana keragaman akan dihargai, bagaimana kebebasan beragama, berpikir, dan berekspresi akan dijamin? Tak ayal lagi, minoritas akan berbondong-bondong mencari suaka politik negara lain, atau malah memperjuangkan negara sendiri yang lepas dari dominasi Islam politik di negeri ini. Dengan kata lain yang terjadi adalah disintegrasi. Formalisasi syariat Islam tidak memberikan penyadaran kepada umat Muslim untuk beragama secara tulus. Penerapan syariat Islam ternyata juga tidak mampu menghilangkan patologi sosial. Aceh adalah salah satu contohnya. Kendati provinsi yang akrab disebut “Serambi Mekkah” ini relatif telah lama menerapkan syariat Islam, namun praktik prostitusi tetap marak terjadi. Bahkan, para pelaku seks komersial (PSK) mengenakan busana Muslimah untuk mengelabui aparat.[11] Hal ini membuktikan bahwa formalisasi syariat Islam justru menggiring umat Muslim untuk bersikap hipokrit. Formalisasi syariat Islam hanya mengantarkan umat Islam menjadi Muslim simbolis, yakni Muslim yang terjebak pada formalisme (dan simbolisme) Islam an sich. Sangat mungkin, mereka menjalankan syariat Islam lantaran takut terhadap sanksi pemerintah, bukan didasari sebuah ketulusan hati untuk beribadah kepada Sang Khalik. Islam politik kerap menawarkan “konsep ideal” yang demikian melangit, namun tidak pernah menyentuh akar atau substansi permasalahan yang dihadapi umat manusia. Praktik prostitusi misalnya, tidak dapat diatasi hanya dengan mendakwahkan syariat Islam. Karena kemunculan praktik prostitusi sesungguhnya sangat terkait dengan problem ekonomi. Oleh karenanya, jika hendak menghapus praktik prostitusi, maka mau tidak mau, suka tidak suka, terlebih dahulu harus mengatasi kesulitan ekonomi yang dihadapi oleh para pekerja seks komersial (PSK).

C. Kembali Ke Islam Kultural: Sebuah Tawaran Solusi

Dalam doktrin Islam, baik al-Qur’an maupun al-Hadits tidak ada keharusan untuk mendirikan negara (berideologi) Islam. Nabi Muhammad SAW sendiri tidak pernah memproklamasikan negara Islam.[12] Hal ini secara implisit mengindikasikan bahwa umat Muslim diberi keleluasaan untuk memilih sistem politik yang matching dengan kondisi sosio-politik-kultural masyarakatnya. Islam hanya menekankan pentingnya moralitas dalam bernegara sehingga pada gilirannya dapat mewujudkan kemaslahatan bagi warganya (rahmatan li al-‘alamîn). Semua orang Muslim tentu sepakat bahwa Islam adalah agama paripurna dan setiap Muslim berkewajiban untuk mewartakan keparipurnaan tersebut kepada seluruh penghuni bumi. Akan tetapi, kewajiban itu tidak harus diformalisasikan dengan mendirikan negara Islam. Dengan menjadikan Islam sebagai ideologi, menurut hemat penulis, justru akan mereduksi nilai-nilai substansial dan universalitas Islam. Hal ini dapat dilihat dari pengalaman negara-negara lain yang telah menerapkan syariat Islam, namun lebih banyak menuai kegagalan dalam memaslahatkan warga negaranya dan telah gagal pula dalam mendakwahkan nilai-nilai Islam yang adiluhung. Terlebih dalam konteks Indonesia yang terkenal akan pluralitasnya, baik etnis, budaya, bahasa maupun agama. Oleh karena itu, (umat) Islam harus dapat mengawal sekaligus merawat kebhinekaan yang telah tumbuh dan berakar kuat dalam kehidupan masyarakat Indonesia. Islam politik yang menghendaki ke-eka-an, ketunggalan, dan uniformitas yang berujung pada pemberangusan terhadap pluralitas tidaklah cocok dengan karakter bangsa ini. Islam politik juga tidak cocok dengan karakter bangsa ini lantaran mempropagandakan proyek arabisasi yang terkenal tidak kompromistis dengan budaya lokal. Dalam konteks inilah dibutuhkan Islam kultural, yakni Islam yang mampu bertegur sapa, berdialog, dan bersanding dengan komunitas atau agama lain serta menjauhkan diri hiruk pikuk ideologi politik. Azyumardi Azra mendedahkan Islam kultural sebagai Islam yang mewujudkan dirinya secara substantif dalam lembaga-lembaga kebudayaan dan peradaban Islam.[13] Islam kultural lebih viable dengan kondisi sosio-kultural bangsa Indonesia yang plural. Kalau ditelisik secara historis, penyebaran Islam di Indonesia pada fase-fase awal dilakukan dengan upaya kultural yang humanistik. Upaya kultural ini misalnya, dilakukan oleh Walisongo. Dalam menyebarkan Islam, para wali tidak secara frontal membabat habis kultur dan tradisi masyarakat lokal, namun membiarkannya tetap hidup sembari mewarnainya dengan ajaran Islam. Nurcholis Madjid[14] mengemukakan bahwa kedatangan Islam tidak mesti “disruptif” atau memotong suatu masyarakat dari masa lampaunya, tetapi juga dapat ikut melestarikan apa saja yang baik dan benar dari masa lampau itu dan dapat dipertahankan dalam ajaran universalitas Islam. Sunan Kalijaga misalnya, menggunakan wayang sebagai media berdakwah. Wayang ia gubah dengan sentuhan Islam, baik dari segi fisik maupun dari segi “lakon”. Contoh lain adalah gamelan, yang dalam gabungannya dengan unsur-unsur upacara Islam populer menghasilkan tradisi Sekatenan, yang berkembang di pusat-pusat kekuasaan Islam semisal Cirebon, Demak, Yogyakarta, dan Solo. Dalam konteks ini, terjadi asimilasi kebudayaan antara Islam dengan budaya lokal. Islam dapat merasuk dalam relung hati masyarakat tanpa mencerabut akar budaya lokal. Upaya kultural ini terbukti sukses dan diterima dengan baik oleh masyarakat luas. Masyarakat pun bersimpati dengan Islam, lantas mereka berbondong-bondong memeluknya. Dalam konteks kulturalisasi agama, menarik mengutip pendapat A. Bakir Ikhsan. Ia mengatakan bahwa ketika agama disampaikan tidak melalui media budaya masyarakat, ia akan memicu munculnya ideologisasi “semu” terhadap agama. Akibatnya, akan melahirkan suatu sikap keberagamaan yang berlebihan secara fisik, namun tidak berpijak pada ruh dan nafas kehidupannya. Agama hanya menjadi bendera atau lambang dari sebuah eksistensi.[15] Tanpa diformalisasikan dan dilegalisasikan pun, sebenarnya syariat Islam telah mendarah-daging dalam denyut nadi kehidupan masyarakat Indonesia. Jauh sebelum diterapkannya syariat Islam, masyarakat Aceh misalnya, sudah dikenal sebagai masyarakat yang relijius. Sekali lagi, Islam tidak perlu diformalisasikan, namun cukup menjadi spirit dan fondasi moral-etik kehidupan berbangsa dan bernegara. Dalam konteks negara-bangsa, spiritualitas Islam sesungguhnya telah built-in dan menginspirasi Dasar Negara Republik Indonesia, Pancasila. Pancasila —meminjam istilah Azyumardi Azra[16]— adalah common platform atau integrating force yang ampuh mengintegrasikan berbagai keragaman, sesungguhnya sarat dengan berbagai aturan moral-etik yang compatible dengan ajaran-ajaran substansial dan universal Islam, semisal; keadilan, HAM, toleransi, kejujuran, demokrasi, dan sebagainya. Apabila semua penghuni negeri ini, terutama umat Muslim, bisa mengimplimentasikan nilai-nilai Pancasila dengan baik, maka dengan sendirinya bangsa ini telah mengimplimentasikan “syariat Islam”, kendatipun tidak ada stempel atau kata syariat Islam. Last but not least, sungguh indah mengutip pernyataan Romo Sindhunata[17] yang menyerukan bahwa Islam jangan hanya menganggap diri sebagai agama saja, tapi juga sebagai kebudayaan. Oleh karena itu, Islam tak perlu berupaya menyatukan negara dan agama. Biarkanlah agama hidup sesuai dengan kebebasan dan hak asasi sebagaimana dicita-citakan oleh setiap kebudayaan. Sebagai realitas kebudayaan Islam tak perlu mengecualikan kebudayaan lain.

D. Refleksi

Tuhan menciptakan dunia ini penuh warna, sehingga sejauh mata memandang, keragaman yang ada akan senantiasa tampak sebagai cerminan keindahan wajah Tuhan. Namun ironisnya, ada orang-orang yang mengatasnamakan Tuhan justru ingin menjadikannya satu warna dengan mencoba menghapus warna-warni yang telah Tuhan anugerahkan. Islam politik yang lekat dengan Arabisasi tak pelak lagi akan menghapus keragaman yang telah menjadi identitas bangsa ini. Sejatinya, Islam secara esensial tidak antipati terhadap budaya lain, justru Islam menerima keragaman sebagai rahmat. Maka tidak ada alasan untuk mempertarungkan antara keislaman dan kebudayaan. Adalah sebuah langkah paling bijak, jika seorang muslim mampu mensinergikan antara beragama dan berbudaya.

DAFTAR PUSTAKA

Azra, Azyumardi, “Merayakan Kemajemukan, Merawat Indonesia”, Makalah disampaikan pada Orasi Budaya yang diselenggarakan Institute for Multiculturalism and Pluralism Studies (IMPULSE), Yogyakarta, 30 Agustus 2007. ——————, 2002, Reposisi Hubungan Agama dan Negara: Merajut Kerukunan Antarumat, Jakarta: Kompas. Burhanuddin (ed.), dkk., 2003, Syariat Islam: Pandangan Islam Liberal (Jakarta: Jaringan Islam Liberal (JIL)-The Asia Foundation. Gatra, 6 Mei 2006. Hodgson, MSG, 1974, The Venture of Islam, Ghicago: The University of Chicago Press. Jackson, Karl D., 1990, Kewibawaan Tradisional Islam dan Pemberontakan: Kasus Darul Islam Jawa Barat, Jakarta: Grafiti. Kluckhohn, C., 1953, Anthropology Today, A.L. Kroeber (ed.), Chicago: Chicago University Press. Ma’arif, A. Syafi’i, dkk., Syariat Islam Yes, Syariat Islam No: Dilema Piagam Jakarta dalam Amandemen UUD 1945, Jakarta: Paramadina, 2001. Madjid, Nurcholish, 2000, Islam Doktrin dan Peradaban: Sebuah Telaah Kritis tentang Masalah Keimanan, Kemanusiaan, dan Kemodernan, Jakarta: Paramadina. Mun’im DZ, Abdul “Mempertahankan Keragaman Budaya”, Tashwirul Afkar, No. 14 Tahun 2003. Shihab, M. Quraish dkk., 1998, Atas Nama Agama: Wacana Agama dalam Dialog “Bebas” Konflik, Andito (ed.), Bandung: Pustaka Hidayah. Sindhunata, “Islam Sebagai Puisi”, Basis, No. 11-12, Tahun ke-51, November-Desember 2002. Sjadzali, Munawwir, 1990, Islam dan Tata Negara: Ajaran, Sejarah, dan Pemikiran, Jakarta: UI Press. Soemardjan, Selo dan Soelaeman Soemardi, 1964, Setangkai Bunga Sosiologi, Jakarta: Yayasan Badan Penerbit Fakultas Ekonomi Universitas Indonesia. Wahid, Abdurrahman, 2006, Islamku Islam Anda Islam Kita: Agama Masyarakat Negara Demokrasi, Jakarta: The Wahid Institute.

Direktur : Ahmad Asroni, S.Fil., S.Th.I.
Manager Program : Erham Budi Wiranto, MA
Koordinator Program : Fikry, S.Pd.I., S.Th.I

Divisi:
• Divisi Hubungan Antar Agama
Ketua : Agus Budianto, S.Th.I
Wakil : Indriyani Ma’rifah, M.Si
• Divisi Jender dan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Marginal
Ketua : Mukhlis Hidayat Rifa’i, S.Pd.I
Wakil : Yustin Dias Patriana, S.Sos
• Divisi Media dan Pers
Ketua : Rangga Agastya Amurwabhumi, S.Th.I
Wakil : Sri Suwartini, S.Sos
• Divisi Kajian dan Pelatihan
Ketua : S. Arif Widodo, S.Fil.
Wakil : Zadad Niami, S.Th.I
• Divisi Jaringan
Ketua : Gustin Zulaekha, S.Pd
Wakil : Deni Sudatika, S.Th.I