Letter

Opening The Eyes, Broadening The Horizon

Below, a letter from Jewish community called "Jewish Voice for Peace" voicing from another side.

Dear Abd A'la,

The news about the attacks in Gaza is beyond words. "Appalling" doesn't even come close.

U.S.-supplied Israeli F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters have fired missiles and dropped over 100 tons of bombs on dozens of locations in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip. Over 300 people are dead and at least 1,400 more are injured. Many if not most of them are civilians. Food and medicine were already in short supply in Gaza and all medical facilities have been completely overwhelmed by this onslaught. Access to Gaza has been cut off by Israel.

This is the most violent and heartbreaking situation that has happened to the Palestinians in recent history, and it must stop. In addition to calling for protests at Israeli consulates and federal buildings, as well as letters to the U.S. and Israeli governments, Jewish Voice for Peace staff and members are already putting together an aggressive campaign focused on Gaza. And, without a moment to waste, we call for an immediate end to attacks on all civilians.

I am Stephanie Roth and I've been an activist with Jewish Voice for Peace for many years, including serving on the board of directors. I've been involved with social justice issues my entire adult life - both in my professional life as an editor and fundraiser, and as a volunteer and activist. There is no issue I find more important or compelling than my work to end the Israeli Occupation. I am particularly saddened by this weekend's tragedy, occurring just a week after the uplifting days when the Shministim - the young Israeli conscientious objectors - caught the world's attention with their courage to say no to violence on December 18. I know that people in Gaza will stop dying when Israeli soldiers, like the Shministim, have the courage to say NO. NO, we will not target civilians; NO, we will not follow immoral orders; NO, we will not contribute to the destruction of Palestinian society.

Together with the Shministim, and with the 1,000 Israelis in Tel Aviv and thousands of others around the world who have already come out to protest the Gaza onslaught, we say YES. YES, stepping up to speak for justice and peace makes a difference; YES, we stand with the people of Gaza, of the West Bank, of Sderot in Israel and the innocent civilians everywhere whose lives are destroyed by cynical politicians and warmakers; YES, our voices together are stronger than the voice of any one of us alone; and YES, we are committed to the longterm goal of ending the Occupation and working for justice, peace and life.

Jewish Voice for Peace's goal - MY goal - of ending the Occupation is a long-term one. Today, I will be giving the biggest gift I can to insure that they have the resources for a swift and sustained response to this most recent atrocity.

We are in this struggle for as long as it takes, and we need your help. Please make the largest gift you can, today. Every gift is put right to work, and every gift makes a difference.

"If not us, who? If not now, when?"

Stephanie Roth

P.S. I know that Jewish Voice for Peace will be asking for help in a variety of ways over the next few days, weeks, months. Please, if you believe in peace, if you believe in the Shministim, stay tuned and help when you can. Thank you.

Photo Gallery

Settling Israel- Palestine Conflict

Indonesian Peace Delegation discussed seriously with some Palestinian figures and UN Peacekeeping Troop at different time and site to settle perpetual conflict of Israel-Palestine. Hostility and alike absolutely cannot solve the problem. Instead, a dialogue and mutual trust between two countries are prime medium to get the goal. Besides, the both countries should put gracious ethic-moral values in the front in which the substantive religious tenets could play significant role. Let us be committed to make no more hostility, violence, attack each other, and terrorism in the Middle East and all over the world.

Opinion

NO JIHAD IN BALI BOMBING

By Abd A’la

As can be read from the mass media coverage, the advent of Amrozi and Mukhlas corpses in the village of their birth in Lamongan on November 10, 2008 greeted by some or groups of Muslim communities there as a martyrs, mujahid.

Community who view those Amrozi at al as martyrs confirm the strong impression of supporting Amrozi at al bombing the region of Legian in Bali and killing hundreds of civil society on 12 October 2002 six years ago. They seem to view that terroristic attack on Bali is not terrorism, but holy war (qital-jihadi).

This reality shows there are some people who still do not understand the whole concept of jihad. They were trapped in the naive belief understanding religious teachings partially. They may believe, doing violence to –even killing –non-Muslim in any condition and at any time is jihad fi sabilillah; the holy war.

Such views certainly had to face with the concept of jihad as in the Koran, Hadith of the Messenger, the views of ulama, and with Islam the history. Through this dialogue, we expected not too hasty in using religious symbols, especially for things that would harm Islam, people and their life overall.

The Meaning of Jihad

In Islam, the term of jihad is not a synonym words qital and harb (war/ physical battle). Meanwhile qital in the Koran always refers to self-defense and physical resistance, jihad laden with various meanings that have become the theological basis since the Meccan period. This can be tracked such from paragraph 25 of the Koran, which directs people to “fight” Mecca idolaters through the Koran. Because of this paragraph came down in Mecca, jihad clearly is not physical attacks, but argues and the like.

In addition, the hadith in Musnad Imam Ahmad stated, who called mujahid is someone who struggled against her/his desire to obey God's teachings, and the Hadith in Imam Nasai declared, jihad for adults or other, male or female, and the strong and the weak one are doing pilgrimage (hajj and 'umrah). The meaning is clearly different with qital allowed when people fled to Medina with the goal solely for self-defense.

Related to the diversity of the meaning of jihad, Hossein Nasr (2005) argues, all of the effort in noble morality, including prayer (solat) and so is the jihad. Therefore, Khaled Abou El Fadl (2005:21) is not excessive when he states, jihad is a powerful symbol of perseverance, hard work, and all the success in Islam. history To certain degree, jihad has similarity with the ethics of Protestantism. Through this jihad, Islam and civilization achieve peak performance in the scholarly and sciences during the early to mid-century.

It must be recognized, jihad during the first generation of Muslims often be connotated with qital. This is because the world at that time, i.e. Arabs, Byzantium and the other were in the state of war. Such reality making the Prophet Muhammad (puh) and Muslims after flight to Medina were allowed to resistance against the polytheists. However, qital-jihadi (holy war or physically resistance) was allowed only for defense, and self-exemption from the fetters repression. More than that, connoting resistance with jihad means that it must be based on moral grandeur, and as last way when other efforts have been closed entirely.

In the next period, the fuqaha (Islamic legal experts) both the Sunni and Shi’ah formulated the requirements of qital-jihadi strictly. Based on the Koran and Sunnah of the Messenger, they assert that physical resistance by the people of Islam should never direct to the civilian population. In addition, only leaders have the right to declare the implementation and enforcement of resistance. In the context of the Sunni, the leader is the head of state, while of the Shi’ah is the priest.

If it is drawn to the contemporary context, when the world is no longer in the state of war, and conflict between two or more countries should be solved through international agencies, the requirement of qital-jihadi must be more closely strict. Conversely, jihad in comprehensive and humanistic perspectives, and with its morality meaning need to be disseminated.

No Jihad in Terrorism

Based on the meaning of jihad above, we believe the attack carried out by Amrozi et al has no relation, even contrary, to the true jihad. Moreover, the tourists to whom Amrozi at al targeted, according to al-Qardhawi, not only cannot be attacked, but also not to be disturbed. Furthermore, al-Jabiri (2003) asserts, the verses of the sword (qital), which is often used as the basis for certain Muslim groups to conduct terrorism is highly contextual, associated with the condition of Islam at that time. Even al-Faqih Ibn al-Arabi -quoted by al-Jabiri -states, the unbelievers (kafir or mushrikun) stated in the revelations is related to the unbelievers of Mecca in that time. Thus, the infidel, especially the other non-Muslims, nowadays, cannot be make simply the same as unbelievers of Mecca.

In this perspective, explaining jihad accordance with the substance of the teachings of Islam is very urgent to be done. Thus, the existence of Islam as a religion of peace and as grace for all (rahmatan lil alamin) is no more an apology, but as reality anchored in the life firmly. Through the ideals of jihad, Muslims charged hard to build and develop civilization in order to reach the welfare for themselves and the humankind as a whole. For that reason, sincerity, honesty, and building firm-commitment between Muslims and Western countries to achieve the goal are a certainty that cannot be ignored©.

Originally published in Indonesian on Jawa Pos daily, November 19, 2008

Photo Gallery

The Urgent of Peace and Justice

Cooperation among people with their various backgrounds to promote justice and peace in the world is no more we be able to avoid.

Photo Gallery

Jerusalem between War and Peace

How important do all of the nation and people in the world to engage in promoting conflict resolution and spreading peace in this area and rest of the world.

Opinion

MDGs, PESANTREN MAY COUNTER NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF GLOBALIZATION
By Abd A’la

Many people acknowledge that besides ushering in number of positive changes, globalization has also had negative impacts for humankind, especially for the people of Second and Third World countries. Sardar (2003), for example, is of the opinion that globalization exerts great pressure on those people as it follows the economic and culturally imperialistic path of the West.
Sardar further stated that globalization has developed a number of dominant cultural practices and value that are based on the concept that life should be pursued by causing damage to other parties. This concept produces serious consequences in that not only are local tradition and non-Western cultural practices destroyed, but also it also completely negates a future that that is non-Western oriented or affiliated. The only possible future available is that which must be moulded through a single line of pursuit.
This phenomenon is triggered not only by Western domination, but also more importantly by poverty and the rudimentary condition of education in most world communities, except in the West. Pertaining to this, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) a program to reduce the number of poor people in the world is, directly or indirectly, of great significance in decreasing the negative impacts of globalization.
Within this context, MDGs are expected to play an optimal role on the condition that this UN program truly extricates poor people from their deprived position, improve their education standards, and ultimately enable them to become responsible member of society. It is therefore important that this global project be developed along situations that really exist in society, and within the overall framework of community potential.
In time, the improved and enabled community would be able to address critically the on-going globalization process and thus would not become mere victims of the acquisitive transnational companies supported by Western countries.
Within the Indonesian setting, where the majority of poor and backward people live in the rural areas, pesantren (islamic boarding schools) that are widely scattered in the villages can definitely play an active role in the implementation of the program. These schools have always been close to the community because of their basic education philosophy, which is from, for and by community, and as such, they are great assets to support the MDGs program. Furthermore, the successes achieved by those Islamic schools in community development during the 1780s and 1980s certainly need to be recreated.
However, in order to achieve those ideal conditions again, pesantren need to upgrade themselves and make internal improvements because the fact of the matter is that currently pesantren are still facing an assortment of problems making it doubtful whether they could play an effective role in addressing globalization in critical manner. One pressing problem that must be taken care of immediately is the fact that the education curriculum of pesantren is trapped by one or other of the following two extreme poles. A number of pesantren still adhere to an education curriculum that is too inward-looking, limited and seemingly exclusive. Another group is entangled within network of aimless and copycat curricula, which undermine the very principle, and values of pesantren.
Both situations are equally disadvantageous, making it difficult for Islam Boarding Schools to respond positively to the developments and changes in social life especially because of globalization. Those pesantren that are sucked down by an archaic curriculum will definitely be mesmerized by historic romanticism, which would make them uncertain in pursuing and untangling the complexities of life.
Similarly, those pesantren with purposeless and copycat curriculum would lose their identity, and quite possibly lose their noble values, becoming trampled by pragmatic considerations and the like.
Another problem facing pesantren is the dissolution or diminishing of their independence, with more and more of them becoming increasingly dependent on outside institutions. Already quite a number of pesantren have been co-opted by the state causing these education institutions, which in the past played a significant role in developing and strengthening civil societies, to lose their courage and become powerless.
A number of pesantren, usually through their leaders, have also been observed to be actively involved in politics, causing the institutions to lose their ability to develop democratic and nationalistic policies and instead fall into the trap of primordial sentiments and sectarianism. The interests of the people and the nation, which had been one of the objectives of pesantren, have been traded for the interests of groups and cliques.
This current situation inhibits pesantren from making positive contributions to Indonesia and her people in critically addressing the transformation phase of globalization. It has become necessary to exercise an introspective reconstruction.
Reconstructing pesantren requires a number of unconditional prerequisites to be established. Such as to have a critical open mindset in which pesantren are expected to open up and be willing to observe all kind of development that are taking place. At the same time, pesantren need also to develop their expertise to select those useful items and events, which they should develop and absorb into their institutions, without prejudice, preconception, or apologies. It is upon such foundation that the educational and social reconstruction should be carried out.
The aforementioned reconstruction steps are expected to lead to pesantren, and ultimately also the community, to have a critical and creative retrospective attitude in observing, addressing and generating policies in response to the problems of life, particularly those that arise from globalization and its negative impacts. It is important that pesantren and the community should not run away from the facts of life, be dragged into a sea of difficulties or become trapped into an apologetic attitude that can never solve problems. Globalization as a reality can no longer be regarded as a threat, but should be accepted as a challenge that must be addressed. Islamic Boarding Schools and their respective communities should be able to control globalization and eventually render it into a more human, moral and truly welfare-generating lifestyle.
However, it should be noted that this all depends on the competence and readiness of pesantren to conduct self-correction followed by self-improvement. If they fail to do so, the ideal situation will remain Utopian, an unattainable dream, and instead of taking control of globalization, pesantren and their communities would become easy prey for negative impacts of globalization.

Published on The Point, Desember 20, 2006

Opinion

PESANTREN ANNUQAYAH AND EDUCATIONAL NETWORK WITHIN PESANTREN

Abd A`la

As actualization of what have got during Pesantren-ITD workshop at Amherst, Massachusetts on September-October 2002, Pesantren Annuqayah of Guluk-Guluk Sumenep Madura[1] has developed a program having the form of network within pesantrens in district of Sumenep. The network has been held periodically with its venue consecutively from one pesantren to other pesantren.

Its mission is to originate pesantren to its genuine values such as spreading self-sufficiency, appreciating of local wisdom, and affirming religious moderation, including empowering community. Besides, it focuses on maintaining education as process of transformation in three main aspects, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional quotient.

From this point, the network discusses how to anchor it in the life world changing time to time. It is very urgent to conserve and develop such these values since some pesantren tends to neglect them.Main activities of the network are both discourse and praxis putting into workshop, seminar and likewise, besides doing advocating of communities in facing educational problems, and solving them in turn. In some workshop having been held so far, the participants recognized urgency of reformulating the pesantren education based on noble pesantren principles on one side, and contextualization the ideals into concrete realities on the other side.

To some extent, its activities have been being enchanting. Within the pesantrens, there has been enthusiasm to criticize the recent teaching methodologies, curriculum, and the concepts in it[2] as well as to assess the state policy not supporting development of the real education. Parallel with it, in the 2004 regional general election the network held political education for people to vote only in accordance with their own preference. The impact is very wonderful since about 30 percent of the voter did not join in the election.

This phenomenon showed emerging of consciousness among the people to empower their own life. Next to that, it demonstrates strong effort to maintain pesantren's autonomous and community's tending disappear recently. Minimally, they have had more appreciation of education significances from which they hope they reach the better condition in all aspects of the life.

Anyhow, it does not tell all the condition. Beyond its limited successful, the network has some weaknesses. One of them is its strong dependence on key persons. Related to this, another problem emerges laying on its continuity of the network. The other thing is its inertia to respond some problem. Still another problem is that this pesantren network reached only territory of Sumenep and small part of Pamekasan.

Based on the description above, the network has to change the weaknesses as challenges to which the network would respond creatively. The network should arrange strategies and plan agenda holistically to make pesantren solid entities in developing education significantly for empowering rural communities to face contemporary life critically, but still in civility, and can appreciate the local wisdom. From this point, the communities can spread substantive Islamic values peacefully together with other groups and organizations, Muslim and non-Muslim, both in Indonesia and overseas©.

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* Presented at International Conference on Islamic Education in Contemporary Indonesia and the Philippines, University of Southern Mindanao, Kabacan, Cotabato, Philippines, September 11-14, 2006.

[1] Madura is an island, part of East Java Province. Madura its self consist of four territories, Bangkalan, Sampang, Pamekasan, and Sumenep. Sumenep lays in the eastern part of the island.

[2] The participants, for example, had a strong critique against meaning of akhlaq (ethic) being biased as mere such a courteous, even just lip service. They proposed to interpret to its genuine meaning covering justice, equality, maintenance of peace etc.

Photo Gallery

Genting Highland, Malaysia
Talking about Genting Highland, we do not to be captivated by the casino and the like, but the spirit of developing the country.