Islam and Secularism

Teater Utan Kayu, Saturday, 7^th January 2003

Organizer:  Islam Liberal Network

Moderator: Goenawan Mohamad

Speaker: Abdullahi Ahmed Annaim Ulil Abshar-Abdalla

Detail report:

Since the invitation of an open discussion organized by Liberal Islam Network (JIL) under the title of “Islam and Secularism” was accommodated in daily Kompas on Thursday, 2^nd January 2003, the office telephone rang constantly. The program was held in JIL headquarters, Teater Utan Kayu, Jl. Utan Kayu 68 H East Jakarta.

On Tuesday, 7^th January 2003, people rushed to the JIL office. The parking area could not accommodate the participant’s cars. People like Munir, SH (Kontras), Johan Effendy (International Conference for Religion and Peace), Musda Mulia (Litbang Depag), Suzanne Siskel (Ford Foundation), Gretta Morris (American Embassy), Gadis Arivia dan Nur Iman Subono (woman’s Journal), Syafiq Hasyim (External Director of Rahima), Farid Wajdi (LKiS Yogjakarta), Lies-Marcoes (feminist), Rizal Mallarangeng dan Ahmad Sahal (Freedom Institute), Martin Sinaga (STT) and so on showed up.

The program started at 19.00 right after Goenawan Muhammad and JIL members dined with Prof. Dr. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im. The committee provided a screen at Tempo Canteen to cater to the size of the audience. Generally, the discussion was interesting, so that the participants requested the moderator to prolong the discussion. The discussion was closed formally by GM at 21.45 but as usual, many participants continued their informal discussions in the cafeteria.

To begin with, Goenawan Muhammad (GM), jokingly said that Ulil Abshar-Abdalla should be punished due to his being several minutes late. “Ulil should replace my position as the speaker.” GM said. The participants burst out with laughter. Finally, GM hosted the discussion by discussing the work of An-Na’im’s. GM reported what happened to Mahmud Muhammad Thoha, An-Na’im teacher. Mahmud Muhammad Thoha was sentenced to death by Ja’far An-Numairi’s regime with less than an hour of deliberation!

An-Naim began his presentation by saying that what is called Islam depends on what a Muslim understood it to be, since Islam does not talk. Talking about Islam and Secularism is problematic, he said, not due to the content of secularism’s substance, but from the things associated with secularism, colonialism, imperialism and the idea that to be secular is to be against religion.

This author of Toward an Islamic Reformation conveyed the fact that secularism is an integral part of the Islamic history. Islam is provided for human (hudan li-nnas), and therefore, no religious text is “purely” Allah’s revelation. The text is not present in a vacant space; there is always an extracting process between the divine and the profane. Furthermore, he said, the text talks about humans in the public discourse and hence there always has to be human interference. Secular, to An-Naim, who is recognized by Indonesian public through his book published by LkiS, is a perpetual negotiation between the ideals and the reality of society.

Ulil Abshar-Abdalla affirmed that AlQur’an contained secularist dimensions or elements. He supported his view with the argument that Al Qur’an has been revealed gradually in order to respond the historical and sociological events. Furthermore, in fact there are asbab al-nuzul (the reasons behind revelation) indicating a dialogical process between God’s and human’s needs. Many Qur’anic verses, if we analysed them semantically, would show the geographical, cultural, economic, politic and social setting of Arab society at that time. The Qur’an even contains non Arabic idioms or words which indicate that Qur’an is in part a multicultural expression.

(Translated by Lanny Octavia, edited by Jonathan Zilberg)