Interview

Imam Ali understood that Khawarij people (who rebelled against him) were seeking for the truth. This fourth Rightly Guided Caliph said that the truth seekers who did not find truth, is better than the evil seeker who find evil. We must respect their serious attempt instead of criminalizing them.

I am a reform-minded Muslim. Therefore, I acknowledge that the Quran does contain violent passages. Just like Christians and Jews have done with their respective scriptures, we need to reinterpret these passages to take them out of the 7th century - and into the pluralistic 21st century in which we are living.

My civilization as an Arab-Muslim laid not on the obligatory of wearing headscarf, furthermore niqab and burqa. I had left shallow perception about standard of civilization based on artificial matters. I dream about civilization that preserves morality.

In Palestine, there is a huge respect toward the fighters and there is a clear motive behind it, to back off the Israel soldiers. In Iraq, the terrorist’s motive is to drive the US aggressors out of the country. Ariel Sharon’s recent decision to pull Israel out of Gaza proves that these actions work. In Indonesia, the terrorist’s motive is unclear. However, I disagree with suicide bombing based on any motive, since its precedent cannot be found in Islamic teaching and the life of Prophet.

In the common Muslim perception, human rights should be subjugated to God’s rights. Thereby they neglect the rights of people who are condemned as heretical or who threaten the religious establishment. Is there an alternative Islamic interpretation?  The conversation Novriantoni and Ramy El-Dardiry, members of the Liberal Islam Network (JIL), had with Prof. Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl, Professor of Islamic law at UCLA, could shed some more light on this matter. The discussion took place at the Hilton Hotel in Jakarta on Saturday 24/7, during Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl’s visit to Indonesia.

Some Muslim women, however, tend to see the Quran as a libratory text which could actually free women from oppression. One of the scholars who try to offer a more emancipatory interpretation of the Quran is Dr. Asma Barlas from Ithaca College in the US. In her latest book, Believing Women” in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an, she closely examines the male oriented interpretations of the Quran and offers an antipatriarchal alternative.

Particularly in Saudi Arabia, women have to cover their body from head to toe including face and endure other restrictions as if they are disgusting. On the other hand, it is also a form of humiliation toward men because this assumes that whenever man meets woman, there is nothing else but sex affair.

On Tuesday, 7^th  September 2004, Indonesia lost a human rights activist whose integrity and dedicationa to justice is incomparable: Munir, SH. He passed away on a flight to Holland for study. As according to his name, Munir dedicated his life as a ‘light’ (munir) for the oppressed whose human rights are denied. Without any fear, Munir never gave up raising and defending the interests of the oppressed despite various threats.

In the contemporary study of Koran, the Koran is assumed as a product of culture (muntâj tsaqâfi). Meaning some contents of the Koran are a reflection of the social-cultural conditions in which the Koran was revealed. Therefore, besides being believed to be Allah’s universal teachings, the Koran also considered accommodating the local traditions in that time (Arab tradition). The problem arises when that tradition does not meet the spirit of the modern era, for instance regarding woman. Yet the holy books have compromised and even accommodated it. How can one analyze the relation between the holy book and this cultural element?

The discussion about various faces of Islam is common today. Not only in Indonesia, but also in several muslim countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Malaysia. On one hand, the fundamentalist-radicals tried to show the firm, rigid face of Islam that is full of enmity. On the other hand, observing violence in the world, the progressive and moderate muslims strive to raise their voice louder.