fatwa natal MUI
Fatwa MUI, Atribut Natal, dan Soal Kerukunan

Sejumlah catatan perlu diajukan terhadap isi fatwa MUI itu, terutama hal-hal yang tak disertai penjelasan yang nuanced dan memadai. Salah satunya ialah soal luasnya cakupan makna “atribut keagamaan non-muslim” More..
fasting ramadhan
Fasting and the ethics of reciprocity to ‘the other’

The time has come for Muslim preachers to prepare what they will deliver in the daily sermons during the coming Islamic fasting month of Ramadhan. Ramadhan is probably the only time in which Islamic sermons will talk more about ethics, morality, More..
musayawarah-ulama-mui-crcscrop
Fatwa MUI dan Tanggung Jawab Kewargaan

Sebagaimana mutakhir diberitakan, Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) Pusat hendak menyusun beberapa kriteria tentang ajaran sesat, khususnya ajaran yang “mencaci-maki Sahabat Nabi Muhammad SAW, menolak kepemimpinan al-Khulafa’ ar-Rasyidun, dan memperbolehkan nikah mut’ah”. More.. 
AL-QURAN
The Violent Verses of the Qur’an in Comparison between the Classical and Modern Interpretations

Among the challenges Muslims face when they are engaged in the recently overwhelming debate on whether Islam is a religion of violence/peace is the fact that the Quran contains many verses which, at least when seen at a glance, promote violence. Indeed, there are verses in the Quran that even encourage fighting and killing, More..
CRCS-JAYANDARU-SIDOARJO
Does Islam Permit Destruction of All Statues?

As the Islamic State (IS) organization destroyed ancient statues aged thousands of years at the Mosul museum in Iraq last month, almost at the same time some Muslims demanded that the Jayandaru statues in the Sidoarjo town square in East Java should be torn down too. Their reasons were similar More..
MAULID-NATAL
Maulid and Christmas: Time to Reinforce Both Common Ground and Self-Criticism

In two consecutive days of this week, the world’s two biggest religions commemorate the birth of their respective “founders”: Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (Maulid) and Christianity’s Jesus Christ (Christmas). This is certainly a rare event that will not happen for dozens of years to come. In Indonesia, More..
HUKUMAN-MATI-CRCS-UGM
Islam, Justice and the Death Penalty

Is it possible and necessary to have voices from Islam that are both against and for a moratorium on the death penalty? I think it is necessary, as what shapes discourse in the Muslim communities of Muslim-majority countries can influence policies in those countries. In Indonesia, for instance, an interpretation of sharia promoting a moratorium on the death penalty has been raised, More
Islam, Violence and the Ambivalence of Scripture

The book by Chaiwat Satha-Anand entitled “Barangsiapa Memelihara Kehidupan…” consists of a number of essays dealing with, as the subtitle of the book suggests, “nonviolence and Islamic imperatives.” The book seeks to propose theological arguments for nonviolent Islam. More..
Fasting is Personal Matter

Among the common debates within Indonesian Muslim society when it comes to Ramadhan (one of the Five Pillars of Islam) is whether entertainment centers, discotheques, restaurants and food stalls should be allowed to continue operating during the month, particularly in daylight hours. More..
Definiting Faith : Beyond The Contentious “Religion Column”

Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo has stated that followers of minority faiths can leave the religion column on their KTP (identity cards) blank. Yet the real problem beyond the debate of leaving the column blank or removing it altogether not only regards equality and civil rights for followers of aliran kepercayaan (indigenous religions or local faiths) More..
Elect Leaders Based on Competence, Not Religion

There are two reasons why some Muslims in Jakarta reject a non-Muslim governor, like Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama. The first is the literal interpretation of the scriptures. The second is the matter of majoritarian psychology. More..
Jilbab Phenomenon: Religious or Cultural?

The Jakarta Post (September 12, 2014) How do we deal with the so-called jilboobs, an Indonesian term for Muslim women wearing the jilbab (Islamic headscarf) while at the same time wearing clothes that emphasize their breasts (boobs)? The phenomenon of jilboobs would not be startling if we properly understood the case. More..