JIL English Edition

Why does America insist on going to war with Iraq while France opposes it? Indeed, the military solution to disarm Saddam Hussein’s regime of its weapons of mass destruction is opposed by the whole world. Though the UN will not authorize the use of force, America is going ahead. Why have France, Germany and other countries in the European Union, formerly America’s allies and heirs of the renaissance who adore the values of liberty, individual autonomy and democracy, been so against the war?

Especially in the Middle East, the US will implement this domination through Israel—the dominant power in the Middle East. Bush and his advisors calculate that the short term losses will be outwighed by the long-term benefits.

George W. Bush’s rhetoric on invasion upon Iraq is to liberate Iraqi people from the Saddam Hussein’s tyranny. American aggression upon that one thousand and one night country is called as “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” But why Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Arab Emirate Union and their allies in the Middle East, which were authoritarian, tyrant and despotic are not touched by America? What is Bush’s main problem in persisting to attack Iraq?

Democracy which is praised and adored as the best governmental system, when it is unified by Bush with the war machine, turns into a frightening spectre for other nations. If people were frightened before of chauvinism, that fear is only increased by a chauvinistic democracy: the authorization and occupation of other countries behind the veil of democracy. The result is a special kind of democracy: an American enforced democracy.

The prime theological challenge in the recent religious life is: How does someone religious define himself surrounded by another religions. Or in its contemporary theological terms: How to theologize in the religious context.

The attack upon Iraq indeed could be used as an excuse to improve the larger military budget. But it will be expensive for the fragile American economy. The military industry’s will increase the state’s budget deficit. Within a year of his supremacy, Bush has turned the budget surplus of US$405 billion into a budget deficit of US$157 billion. Moreover, according to Stiglitz, the last gulf war resulted in the American recession in 1991, which caused the senior Bush to lose his re-election bid.

The United States government has requested its citizens to abandon Iraq as soon as possible. In the past, foreigners might have been kidnapped by Iraq and used as human shields to protect a range of strategic places. If the military invasion of Iraq is executed, the US government does not want any of the bombs falling on Iraq to hurt its own people.

The main problem in current Islamic understanding is the dominant view regarding the text as something “supreme” such that the comprehension of the text often involves denying reality and concrete human experience. The effect is an alienation from experience.

The veil has also become a symbol of liberation and resistance. As a symbol of resistance, it extends far beyond Middle Eastern society and can be found in modern Muslim societies all over the world. Resistance is a strategy to fortify either individual or communal existence. Cudjoe and Harlow define resistance as an activity planned to liberate society from oppression, and involving all aspects of experience including aesthetics as discussed below (Cudjoe dan Harlow 2000).

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.