Religion, a bonding agents?<\/p>\n
Santi W.E. Soekanto, Contributor\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Place 10 Australian and eight Indonesian journalists on a bus to
\ntravel the length of Java Island to visit Islamic sites, such as
\nAbu Bakar Ba'asyir's Al Mukmin Islamic boarding school
\n(pesantren) in Ngruki, Solo, and you are bound to experience
\ntension.<\/p>\n
Suspicion, too, reared its ugly head in various directions.
\nSome of the Indonesian participants of the Journey Into Islam in
\nIndonesia study tour suspected the Australians of being \"spies\",
\nand out to \"gauge the Indonesian Muslim's strength.\"<\/p>\n
Some of the Australians, whose reading material included The
\nTrouble with Islam, suspected their Indonesian hosts of
\n\"concealing the truth\" about alleged terrorism in their midst.
\nSome aired their suspicion openly, others talked behind people's
\nbacks.<\/p>\n
What also resulted was laughter, and satisfying exchanges of a
\nwealth of insight and information between the two sides, so much
\nso that all participants overcame any discomfort that arose and
\nstayed to the end of the trip.<\/p>\n
The program ended with statements of goodwill and a greater
\nunderstanding of what really mattered -- such as peace and
\nfriendship, and a willingness to understand other people's
\npositions, even without compromising one's stance.<\/p>\n
Organized by the Melbourne-based Asia Pacific Journalism
\nCenter (APJC) in collaboration with various Indonesian partners
\nincluding the Liberal Islam Network (JIL) and its \"foe\", the
\n\"literal Islamic\" Jaringan Jurnalis Profetik (an association of
\nMuslim journalists many of whose members are affiliated with the
\nProsperous Justice Party), the tension was inevitable, simply
\nbecause of the involvement of \"polarized groups\" in the program.<\/p>\n
Ulil Abshar Abdalla, the leader of JIL, for instance, was
\noriginally reluctant to accept the idea of visiting Al Mukmin
\nbecause \"I don't have contacts there, only enemies aplenty.\"<\/p>\n
Al Mukmin, too, originally rejected the request for a visit
\nbecause \"they have been burned too many times\" by journalists
\nfrom the United States, Singapore and Australia.<\/p>\n
However, a special trip by the tour organizers to the Salemba
\nPenitentiary in Central Jakarta to meet Abu Bakar Ba'asyir in
\nperson resulted in the permission to visit Al Mukmin, thankfully.<\/p>\n
Darussalaam Modern Pesantren in Gontor, Ponorogo, East Java,
\non the other hand, openly rejected the request for a visit
\nbecause of the involvement of JIL, \"whose preaching against the
\nexclusive claim of truth\", they believe, ran counter to the
\nessence of the Islamic faith.<\/p>\n
Repeated pleading by the organizers finally yielded the
\ndesired permission to visit, but only under the condition that no
\nletters bearing the name of JIL be sent to the school.<\/p>\n
Despite the initial glitches, the trip took off nicely on May
\n21 in Surabaya with a visit to the office of Jawa Pos newspaper
\nand with its CEO Dahlan Iskan, where the Australian journalists
\nexpressed amazement at the scale of operation of one of
\nIndonesia's major media corporations.<\/p>\n
Next came the visit to Sunan Ampel Mosque, founded in the 15th
\ncentury by one of the earliest Muslim teachers, Sunan Ampel,
\nwhere participants witnessed an interesting blend of Islamic
\nworship and Hinduism\/mysticism.<\/p>\n
The following visit to Hidayatullah Pesantren, an urban
\nboarding school, won the Australian participants' approval, not
\nonly because they were greeted by smiling children bearing
\nsouvenirs and a table laden with fruits and snacks, but also
\nbecause the boarding school was run in a professional manner that
\nhas elicited support even from among local garbage collectors.<\/p>\n
Here, some of the Australian participants began what later
\nproved to be the main line of their interviews: \"What do you
\nthink of terrorism\/extremism\/fundamentalism? Do you support
\npesantren that teach radicalism?\"<\/p>\n
Here also, the Australians began to receive what later proved
\nto be the standard response to such queries: \"Islam teaches
\ntolerance. We teach our students to be tolerant to differences
\namong Muslim groups, and with other groups.\"<\/p>\n
Next came the visit to Tebu Ireng Pesantren, established more
\nthan 70 years ago by KH Hasyim Asyhari, the grandfather of former
\nIndonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid and the founder of
\nNahdlatul Ulama (NU). The current leader, Jusuf Hasyim, provided
\nhospitality and the opportunity for the participants to
\nexperience what it felt like to sleep in a pesantren.<\/p>\n
The trip to Gontor proved to be memorable for everybody.<\/p>\n
Syukri Zarkasy, the leader of the pesantren, which currently
\nhas 12,500 students in its 7 campuses, gave an efficient tour of
\nthe compound -- which impressed his guests -- but prevented
\nparticipants from interviewing students and was curt in his
\nresponses to the questions posed to him by the Australian
\njournalists.<\/p>\n
\"I am not a stupid kyai, interviews with students can be
\ntwisted,\" he said. \"Don't they have other questions?\" he mused to
\none of his staff, after repeating to himself over and over that
\n\"No, Islam does not teach violence, that Gontor abhors acts of
\nterrorism, and that Amrozi was a recruit of the United States\".<\/p>\n
On May 25 came the trip which, by their own admission, the
\nparticipants looked forward to the most: the Al Mukmin Pesantren.<\/p>\n
It went down quite well, with the Australian journalists
\nfiring questions (many about, well, terrorism) at Wahyuddin for
\nalmost two-and-a-half hours. Not once did Wahyuddin stop smiling
\nas he handled the \"interrogation,\" which was followed with lunch
\nat the house of a teacher.<\/p>\n
Later, an Australian recounted how during the meal he \"texted\"
\nhis friends back home just to tell them that he was having lunch
\nat the home of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir's adopted daughter.<\/p>\n
A short tour of the compound was conducted, which participants
\nlater said was disappointing because no student was willing to be
\ninterviewed, despite the permission given by the school leaders.<\/p>\n
\"They're simply wary, even traumatized, we used to receive
\njournalists almost every day and then they had their words
\ntwisted by the reporters,\" said one teacher.<\/p>\n
As the group returned to the bus, young locals in the areas
\nsurrounding the pesantren hailed the Australians with \"Hello
\nMister, don't twist your stories.\"<\/p>\n
\"I wonder ... in Australia I read accounts about Gontor, it's
\na modern pesantren and is quite well-known, but we had such a
\nhard time there, but in the \"heart of darkness\" that is Ngruki,
\nwe received such warmth, such hospitality,\" one Australian
\nparticipant mused.<\/p>\n
Another expressed suspicion that the group of youths
\npracticing a martial art in a corner of the school was part of
\nthe military training allegedly held by the pesantren. This was
\nreceived with laughter by several Indonesian participants,
\n\"That's silat, silly, and millions of people in Indonesia know
\nsilat.\"<\/p>\n
That particular day ended with participants in good spirits
\nand a visit to Al Muayyad Pesantren in Solo, where its leader,
\nMuhammad Dian Nafi expressed his belief that conflict can be
\nreduced if groups can reduce their \"claim of truth.\"<\/p>\n
Nafi, who was educated in public schools rather than in
\npesantren, spoke of how his institution is open to non-Muslim
\ngroups wishing both to learn and to teach.<\/p>\n
The group continued their trip with visits to Majelis
\nMujahidin Indonesia (the Indonesian Council of Mujahiddeen for
\nthe Implementation of Sharia) in Yogyakarta.<\/p>\n
The Australians asked its leader, Irfan S. Awwas, whether the
\norganization supported the ideals of Osama bin Laden because it
\nsold T-shirts bearing his picture.<\/p>\n
Interestingly enough, no question was asked in Daarut Tauhid
\non whether the pesantren of Muslim preacher Abdullah Gymnastiar
\nin Bandung, West Java, supported communism, despite a young man
\nthere who was wearing a T-shirt bearing the famous portrait of
\nChe Guevara.<\/p>\n
The program ended on May 29 in Jakarta with both sides
\nexclaiming, not only had it been worthwhile, but that more such
\nprograms are needed to overcome what, according to one
\nparticipant, had initially seemed to be an unbridgeable gulf
\nbetween Islam and the West.<\/p>\n
The writer is a journalist and was the project manager of the
\nJourney Into Islam in Indonesia program. She can be contacted at
\nsanti_soekanto2001@yahoo.com<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/religion-a-bonding-agents-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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