Two worldviews of Islam and the impacts

Two worldviews of Islam and the impacts

Mochtar Buchori, Legislator, Jakarta

The Aug. 10 edition of Kompas daily and the Aug. 10-16 edition
The Economist weekly told two contrasting stories about Muslims
and Islam. Kompas featured a story about a very broad-minded and
tolerant Muslim, Darwis Khudori, an architect, born and raised in
Kotagede, Yogyakarta, and now living in Paris. The story in the
London-based weekly was about Muslim migrants in Western Europe
with serious problems in adjusting to the customs and cultures of
their new home countries.

Khudori is a Muslim with friends from different religions and
races. He considers himself a student of the late priest Y.B.
Mangunwijoyo (Romo Mangun), and at one time he helped the latter
in assisting the poor. Khudori was born into a Muhammadiyah
family and raised within a Javanese environment, and gained many
friends among the followers of Nahdatul Ulama. In 1999 he
received his doctorate from the University of Paris-Sorbonne,
studying the history of the Arab world and contemporary Islam.

The story of Muslim migrants in England and Western Europe
cited how they maintain a distinctly anti-Western attitude. The
article asked in its subheading: Is there something about Islam
that makes it impossible for Muslims to fit into western, liberal
societies?

Apart from Khudori, there are many other Muslims, both inside
and outside Indonesia, who have succeeded in adjusting to the
customs of the West, without abandoning or denying their Islamic
identity. The puzzle faced by many Westerners and non-Muslims in
witnessing this huge contrast is just what factors in Islam cause
such a great divergence among its followers.

The issue here is whether the core abode of Islam absolutely
rejects religious pluralism, which, according to professor of
Islamic studies Bassam Tibi, is "comprehensive mutual respect of
people differing in views and beliefs". More specifically, at
issue is whether Islam rejects European cultural modernity, and
therefore Westernization.

Muslims who position themselves within the cultural Islam camp
think that there is nothing in Islam that prescribes such an
anti-Western attitude. They refer quite often to the legacy of
reformers within Islam who attempted to establish Islamic
rationalism, which arose as a consequence of the rise of
Hellenized Islamic philosophy, or that influenced by the ancient
Greek.

On the other hand, those who consider themselves as proponents
of political Islam think that accepting religious pluralism is
secularizing Islam, which must be rejected by any means. This
rejection is based on several reasons, among others that "Islam
is the only right religion", and that Islam is "the Light" that
must be disseminated throughout the world.

Thus those who follow cultural Islam are often called homo
religious, whereas those following political Islam are referred
to as homo politicus. The former stresses the spirituality of
Islam, whereas homo politicus stresses the meaning of Islam as a
political ideology.

This divergence among Muslims has very far-reaching
consequences. We have Muslims who are actively engaged in
globalization, and have tried to correct its shortcomings; but on
the other hand we have Muslims who have tried to block
globalization.

This group of Muslims perceives globalization as a
superimposition of Western universalism. This must be rejected,
and in its place they propose to establish Islamic universalism,
which some scholars refer to as Islamism or politicized Islam.
Here we see a clash between two politicized universalisms.

In the opinion of some Islamic experts, globalization as a
format of Western universalism is primarily economic and
penetrative, whereas Islamic universalism is culturally defensive
and politically aggressive.

Many Islamic thinkers opine that such a great divergence could
only be caused by differing interpretations concerning the basic
meaning of "Islam". According to Muhammad Said al-Ashmawi, a
former Egyptian chief justice, initially Islam meant "obedience
to God (Allah)". And the "being" of God cannot be experienced
intellectually, but only spiritually. Therefore "cultural-Islam"
people emphasize the spirituality of Islam. To them theology is
the most important aspect in Islam, not jurisprudence, or fiqh.

This basic and literal meaning of Islam has been altered and
reduced by proponents of political Islam. They argue that the
meaning of Islam is not only obedience toward God, but also
obedience toward The Prophet as God's messenger.

Islam further came to mean obedience toward every ulema
(scribe) who understands the messages of God revealed to Prophet
Muhammad, and also toward every holder of state power. According
to al-Ashmawi again, it was in this way that Islam underwent
reduction in meaning, from faith in the oneness of God to "an
ideology in the service of worldly power-holders in their pursuit
of political objectives".

The politicization of Islam started, according to Bassam Tibi,
not in 1977, but in 1967 as a reaction toward the Arab defeat in
the June 1967 war. The birthplace of political Islam is thus the
Arab world, and not Iran. It is thus quite understandable if,
nowadays, political Islam or fundamentalist Islam or Islamic
terrorism is, in the minds of many, automatically linked to Arab
countries and their sympathizers.

Will this view bring a solution to the problem now faced by
the entire world? And is there the likelihood that this brand of
Islam and its militant expressions can be conquered or
"domesticated" by physical power?

I don't know! I am just an ordinary Muslim who would like to
see Islam contribute to the rise of a global civilization that is
more just and more humane than the one we now have. I would also
like to know what the future is of Islam in Indonesia, within the
larger context of Indonesia's future.

With a lifetime dedicated to education, I have repeatedly
asked myself in which direction is Islamic education in Indonesia
heading. All those engaged in Islamic education in Indonesia
should reflect on this question. We might then learn the essence
of Islamic education in Indonesia, within the context of
democracy building and creating good governance.