JIL English Edition

If Hezbollah has been accused for being the “proxy” of Syria and Iran to fight against Israel, isn’t Israel the “proxy” of US to maintain its interest in the Middle East? Why only US may have “proxy”?

Israel’s brutal attack to Lebanon (according to Israel military officials, the attack was very well calibrated), would make most of Arabs skeptical upon the democratization process in the Middle East.

Tragically, our problem becomes even more complicated due to the systemic and mutually-reinforcing “unholy alliance” between civil government and cleric. Civil government has adopted, without critical consideration, the fatwa of ulema that is intolerant toward religious freedom.

Briefly, religious struggle becomes the struggle of faith and society. It means that instead of becoming a political alternative for the common plural order, religion attempts to give spiritual insight for individual and community in the arrangement of plural life. Therefore, in daily life, religious organizing will lead to interfaith cooperation where benefit and quality of common life becomes the objective of those religious movements.

In the western history, renaissance refers to the 17th-18th century when the “truth seekers” were deeply involved in science, ethic and esthetic based on rationality. Immanuel Kant (What Is Enlightenment, 1990), an important figure in the renaissance, defined enlightenment as man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s reason without guidance from another.

I think that the democrat Muslim respects other Muslim’s belief although it is not in accordance with his own belief. Democrat Muslim dares to be different and defend the right of anyone for having different perception and opinion.

Prophet, Soothsayer, and Poet represent specific mental articulation in the history of human civilization. It is the expressive-performative articulation of civilization inherited by the Israel prophets (Islam is included in this category).

To ignore the impossible tales and regard Lia as “heretic and mislead”, is in vain. Next time, in certain condition, there will be many other who claim to listen (again) the heavenly voices.

All religions must be positioned equally to create a free dialog without any subordination. The objective of this pluralism as Quran described is this: to know and learn one another (li ta’ârafû), and not to fight each other (li takhâshamû), or to regard one another infidel (li takâfarû), or to kill each other (li taqâtalû)!

We sometimes fail to remember that many Muslims were no longer interested in building a social gap with others of different faith. They realize that congratulating non-Muslims on their holidays does not contain theological interest, but it is a way to build tolerance and respect among religious disciples.