Tolerant religion
Tolerant religion
Having waited in vain for more than a week for any reply from Mr. Mochtar Buchori concerning my comments (The Jakarta Post, Jan. 6, 1995) on his article, It looks now I have to address myself to a response from Ms. Rahayu Ratnaningsih who quickly came to his defense.
All of us Moslems are taught by our religion to be tolerant to others, but not in the demeaning way in which Mr. Buchori has been conducting himself. It therefore did not come as a surprise to me why Mr. Buchori, who so obsequiously announced in public that he was suffering from an inferiority complex about Christians, is admired by Ms Ratnaningsih and certain westerners who evidently have negative views regarding Islam. The important point is, since religious tolerance should be mutual in order to mean anything, what is the use of all the tolerance and good intentions of such subservient people like Mr. Buchori and Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid or other normally tolerant Moslems in the world if their tolerance is not reciprocated and if Moslems continue to be persecuted or discriminated against in various parts of the world.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, for instance, the appeal by the Moslem- led government for a tolerant multi-ethnic and multi-religious state was simply rejected by the Orthodox Serbs. They murdered hundreds of thousands of Moslems and destroyed hundreds of mosques, while the supposedly civilized Christian Europe has just looked on.
In the Palestine and the Middle East in general, it is admittedly true that excesses involving the killing of innocent civilians have been committed from time to time by both Israeli and Arab sides. But thousands of other Palestinians who put up the fight merely to try to regain their lands which had been stolen by the Jews have been denounced in the most intolerant manner by the Christian West as extremists, terrorists or fundamentalists.
In the case of Indonesia, I agree with Ms Ratnaningsih that it is probably one of the most tolerant countries in the world. Unfortunately, this tolerance has been abused by certain Christians, who in their overzealous efforts to spread their gospel, have built churches in residential areas or neighborhoods where the vast majority of the population are obviously Moslem. This is despite the Indonesian government regulation that no building permit shall be given under such circumstances and that no attempt shall be made to convert any Indonesian who has already professed one of the acknowledged religions. Perhaps some of our Indonesian Christians could learn something from the Islamic principle of religious pluralism and coexistence.
It is evasive of Ms Ratnaningsih to dismiss this issue and hide behind her words "What is the point in measuring who is most tolerant and who has committed most killings in the past." Indeed, acting like a self-appointed Christian apologist (she is not a Christian), she excused the Christians for having committed "humiliating and disgraceful" acts of intolerance in the past, and then continued with her preposterous suggestion that the Moslems are likely in the future to continue those disgraceful acts perpetrated by the Christians.
Of course no one knows what will happen in the future, but judging from the past and present records and the tolerant teachings of Islam, I would think that Moslems are the least likely to commit those shameful acts in the future. I am not saying that Christianity is necessarily an intolerant religion, but I think it is safe to say that many Christians, either in the past or at the present time, are a lot more intolerant than most Moslems.
I am certain that the real motivation of her keen defense of Mr. Buchori in the current discussion is not so much that she admires Mr. Buchori's views or Christian and Jewish cultures, but a deep-seated fear that the ascendancy of Islam in this country is perceived by her as a threat to the small minority to which she belongs. I can categorically assure her that her fear is completely unfounded.
MASLI ARMAN
Jakarta