A breakthrough decision

A breakthrough decision

In a historic decision made at an annual policy-making meeting
in Bali on Sunday, Muhammadiyah, the country's largest modernist
Muslim organization, accepted pre-Islamic traditions as a
reality. Muhammadiyah chairman Dr. Ahmad Syafii Maarif said in
Denpasar on Sunday that the organization would now be more
flexible in accommodating local cultures. In the past the
organization has treated local cultures, which vary from one
ethnic group to another, as either anathema or nonexistent in the
Islamic domain. Muhammadiyah, which many regard as a "puritan"
group, has tried to purify Islamic teaching from local elements.
"In spreading Islam in an ethnic community, we should realize
that we cannot change the people's mind-set instantly," Dr.
Syafii said.

The decision looks like a switch in the way of thinking of
Muhammadiyah leaders. In line with other modernist Muslim
thought, this moderate organization has rejected all local
concepts and thinking, and even ways of life, which it deems to
be antagonistic, or not in line, with Islamic teaching. Since its
establishment in 1912, Muhammadiyah has proclaimed its puritan
and reformist ideas, and produced modern contributions to
religious thought in Islam.

In its daily workings since its foundation, it has proclaimed
its commitment to the Koran and the hadith. The last mentioned is
the second source of Islamic guidance and consists of documented
accounts of the teachings and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad
that are not found in the Koran but were recorded for posterity
by his close companions and members of his family.

Muhammadiyah has since watched and rationally opposed what
anthropologists term local genius. One of the features of the old
traditions is the commemorations marking the third, seventh,
40th, 100th and 1,000th day of the death of a family member. This
tradition, which Muhammadiyah leaders and members tend to frown
upon, is still widely found on the island of Java, and is said to
characterize abangan Muslims. (Abangan being a popular pejorative
word for those who fail to live up to strict Islamic precepts).

Those opposed to Muhammadiyah's mind-set say the organization
is too much influenced by the Western way of thinking, and
forgets local traditions and cultures. And in its religious
thinking, Muhammadiyah has been much too verbal and formal, and
tends only to refer to the interpretations and thinking of the
early Islamic era.

However, in reality, since 1912 Muhammadiyah has been regarded
by most Muslims here as a force for renewal and modernization in
the Islamic community. In an interview with the Post last week,
Dr. Syafii said the organization had left behind its conventional
approaches to religious, social and political problems so as to
adjust to a fast-growing, pluralistic society. If it is sometimes
involved in politics, it is "high-politics", a political movement
based on ethics, morality and independence.

Speaking about the current crisis, he said, "We are now living
in a period where people live in a situation of social, political
and economic imbalances. Everybody is already sick and tired of
seeing political leaders bickering with each other ... They are
like spoiled children."

He also assuages our fears about radicalism and extremism in
Muslim society today: "I can assure the outside world that
radical and extremist Islam is not the mainstream movement in
Indonesia. They are only small minority group within the overall
Muslim community in the country."

The members and executives of Muhammadiyah are called on to
widen their circles of communication and to open more dialogs
with people of different religious, social and cultural
backgrounds. They are asked to build better relationships, and to
share and seek solutions to the nation's problems with everybody,
even atheists.

Such far-reaching thinking will hopefully assist the efforts
of the organization, which works in the educational and
charitable fields, to overcome its old problems, such as concerns
over the quality of its 12,000 of schools spread across this vast
archipelago.

For the future, we may predict that the organization will be
more acceptable to increasing numbers of local ethnic groups as
it will no longer oppose their traditions.