We Need Darussalam, Not Darul Islam

“The establishment of an Islamic state will confront with a sociological issue. Something that has not yet become a value in a society will be very difficult to become law in the society. If it is forced to be law in the society, it will be a deadlock. “
Semarang - A wave of information technology has been a phenomenon in everywhere. Similarly, many social networks are found. Inevitably, this globalization has the ability to bring a broad impact on the system of human social life, from profane areas (economic, industry, politics) to the most sacred area (religiosity). This fact requires religious people to seriously rethink how they perform religious duties in a changing world, or precisely, how to have a religion in the world which has become a universal “village” (global village).
This view was conveyed by a Muhammadiyah Young Intellectual, Zuly Qodir, on Friday (5/27/2011) morning, when he spoke in a discussion titled “Dissecting Ideology of Indonesian Islamic State (Negara Islam Indonesia/NII)” organized by Center for Political Studies and Human Rights (Pusat Kajian Politik dan Hak Azasi Manusia/PUSKAPOLHAM) in collaboration with the Liberal Islamic Network (Jaringan Islam Liberal/JIL) and the Institute of Social Studies and Religion (ELSA) Semarang.
Besides Zuly, there were also other speakers, i.e. Ghazali Abdul Moqsith, a coordinator of JIL and Abu Hapsin, a Lecturer of the Faculty of Sharia, Islamic State Institute (IAIN) Semarang, as well as approximately 120 participants from various backgrounds. Discussion held at the meeting room of Sharia Faculty is able to attract the curiosity of Walisongo IAIN students who want to know the development of the NII movement, especially in Central Java.
Zuly Qodir said that the problem of materialism and the lack of spiritualism becomes a very hard problem when globalization continues to catch. Religion is really only going to become an idolatry and to keep silent when it cannot be presented to answer serious problems of the post-modern world. Globalism is the progress of world towards post-modernism.
Globalism is a change that continues to move and can catch all aspects of life without compromise. Many people (religious people) will be alienated when they cannot face the very massive age of globalism. As religious people, Zuly said, we should not be negligent with the changing of era which is continuously entering the entire life of human beings, because the changing is a continuity of previous eras.
Another serious implication with great changes due to globalization is the emergence of the spirit of fundamentalism which tends to be closed, so that religion is presented as an entity which clashes with the growing social system. The spirit of fundamentalism becomes a part of religious life which does not infrequently lead to the seeds of conflicts among people from different religions. Fundamentalism which means fundamentally criticizing previous faith is not a problem, but fundamentalism that leads to a closed attitude and considers that only its own group is right, no communication, no dialogue and be suspicious to others is a kind of fundamentalism which will disadvantage religion itself. And such kind of fundamentalism will emerge when social change more aggressively hits religions.
According to Zuly, who gives lecturing at the University Muhamadiyyah Yogyakarta (UMY), one of causes of emerging the fundamentalist Islamic groups is that they assume that Islam in Indonesia does not get enough attention sociologically and politically. Besides, radical movement believes that democracy is outside Islam and the solution is the formalization of Islamic Shari’a.
During its development, Zuly said, the Islamic State of Indonesia has been reproduced with some doctrines, among them is the doctrine of “hijra”. This doctrine leads to consider that Pancasila, the foundation of the Indonesian state, is not ideology, but it is just the foundation of state which can be changed into another foundation and ideology, i.e. Islamic foundation. For this group, Islam is not only religion but also a set of rules.
The second speaker, Abu Hapsin, is slightly pessimistic about the NII could be eradicated totally, because NII is already included into the politicization of religion. “Therefore, I am wondering if this is a movement arranged by certain parties, or it is really a reflection of society’s needs, or on the contrary this issue is a part of the society’s reflection which is ‘intervened’ by certain interests” he asked. According to him, who is a Vice Chairman of the Board of Central Java Region Nahdatul Ulama, religion is a very easy mean to be “intervened”, because religion is the deepest realm in the hearts of human beings.
Responding to re-emergence of NII movement, Abu Hapsin talked about the importance of Pancasila. Abu viewed that if Pancasila is the ethics of the state, a reflection of all people who live in Indonesia, it will be very suitable for the Indonesian state. Therefore, in the Pancasila state, the state does not have a right to involve on personal matters. “It is impossible to punish people who do not pray. It’s a very personal matter,” he said.
In addition, the establishment of an Islamic state, according to Abu, will confront with a sociological issue. For Abu, something that has not yet become a value in a society will be very difficult to become law in the society. If it is forced to be law in the society, it will be a deadlock.
Hence, according to him, the most important thing is how Islamic values become a tradition in a society. Abu added that law must be a representation of values that are socially recognized. “My research (dissertation, red) showed that Indonesian society does not want Islamic law formally,” he explained. “This demonstrates that sociologically Islamic law is difficult to be accepted,” he added with a confident tone.
At the end of his presentation, Abu Hapsin said that we actually need Darussalam, instead of Darul Islam. “Since the Treaty of Medina (mîtsâq Medina) is not expecting the emergence of the Darul Islam but Darussalam,” Abu explained.
While the third speaker Abdul Moqsith Ghazali added that NII issues become very large resonance. “NII is truly the sexiest theme,” Moqsith said in his presentation. Since, he added, NII issue could be politically released by anti-SBY groups. Even, one of the efforts of anti SBY people is a package of bomb in a book that happened some time ago. “And they actually want to show the failure of SBY and also want him to be overthrown,” says Ghazali Moqsith. However, Moqsith admited, such kind of issue requires a large energy to be verified.
Outside that assumption, the fact of history shows that there were people who “sincerely” wanted to establish an Islamic state such as Kartosoewirjo in West Java and Daud Beureueh in Aceh. However, Moqsith criticizes that NII does not have a guide book as the work of Sayyid Qutb or Abul A’la al-Ma’dudi.
In Moqsith’s view, slowly but surely we are facing with the effort of “Islamization” in various regions such as shari’ah regulations that began appearing in various areas.
At the end of the discussion, Ubbadul Adzkiya, the moderator of the seminar, said that religious experience does not seem as pure as one might expect. Variety of phenomena can be included under the title of religiosity. “Religious experience can be mixed with other elements which are not from religion. In the history of religion, it seems that many religiosities are signed by no longer sacred. Religious experience can be mixed with the cosmic. Main power in the cosmos becomes the Divine, no longer a symbol of the Divine, “he said. This is where religion becomes idolatry.

* Active in the Institute of Social Studies and Religion (ELSA), Semarang