Situasi keberagamaan antar pemeluk keyakinan yang berbeda di Indonesia masih diwarnai saling kecurigaan, kebencian, bahkan konflik kekerasan. Oleh karena itu, pada segmen Interview kali ini kami akan menyajikan liputan wawancara yang dilakukan oleh Team Website CRCS dengan Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir (Direktur Program Studi Agama dan Lintas Budaya UGM) yang hadir sebagai pembicara pada Diskusi Buku “Dialog Antarumat Beragama: Gagasan dan Praktik di Indonesia”, diselenggarakan oleh Kementerian Agama, 18 April 2011 di Jakarta beberapa waktu yang lalu. Berikut petikan wawancaranya: 

Pluralism is often explained as a concept that approves of all religions, leading to the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) to issue a fatwa that identified pluralism as haram or forbidden. Yet for the members of the CRCS program that participate in collaborative effort with four countries called the “Pluralism Knowledge Program” (PKP), the definition of pluralism is much broader. In their view, pluralism is defined as the acceptance and valuation of diversity, and for people or groups from different backgrounds to endeavor to work together to accomplish something positive.
This was the definition of pluralism that was presented at the launching and book discussion of “New Directions in the Politics of Diversity in Indonesia” that was held by CRCS on the 25th of March 2011 in the Graduate School Building at UGM. Both a book entitled “Civic Pluralism” and a monograph regarding “The Politics of the Public Space in Schools” were introduced at the launching. Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir, acting director at the Center For Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies (CRCS) explained that pluralism should be understand as not just pertaining to tolerance, but as active efforts to understand difference. Central to the discussion was the explanation that pluralism is not the same as relativism, and that it does not call for groups to leave or lose their individual identities. While some definitions of pluralism focus on the idea of discovering similarities, here there is a stress on difference – or more specifically, on valuing difference.
Samsurizal Panggabean from the Peace and Conflict Resolution Master’s program (MPRK) at Universitas Gadjah Mada said that identity can become an issue through the rubric of diversity when it is conspicuous, exclusivist or forced. Mustagfirah Rahayu, a member of the book’s research team, explained the link between diversity and women, because the management of diversity offers an opportunity for transformative accommodation, as it is an area where the state and minority groups share jurisdiction over contested arenas, such as family law, criminal law, and education. Another member of the research team, Trisno Sutanto, elaborated the wide-scale politics of harmony that were undertaken by the New Order government. He demonstrated how the state was involved in creating problems between religious traditions in Indonesia. In the second session, speakers Alyssa Wahid, a consultant on youth issues, and Mr. Arifin, a teacher at SMAN Wonosari discussed their concerns about the growing religious conservatism among high-school students. According to Mr. Arifin, teachers who play a role in forming students’ religious behavior should initiate training on the subject of pluralism.
The discussion and book launching activities were part of a number events scheduled as part of this year’s Pluralism Knowledge Program (PKP). Indonesia cooperates with centers in India, Uganda and the Netherlands through this program. The program seeks to build and disseminate information that will improve understandings about the concept of pluralism in these four nations.

It was on the 6 April 2011 when the CRCS-ICRS Wednesday Forum had Abdul Hamid Robinson-Royal to be the presenter of the discussion. Bringing the title ‘Islam in America, from Hajj to Hip Hop and from Roots to Rap’ this Ph.D. student of the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, who takes the fellowship program in ICRS Yogyakarta delivered a presentation about the Muslims of USA, highlighting African-American Muslims, their history and identity.

Abdul Hamid who is also a musician and has a master degree of music used the term ‘hip hop’ and ‘rap’ to show the diversity of Muslim community in USA, and its history. But again, the issue of identity is still a problem so that Abdul Hamid must open his presentation with the scientific notion of such terms like ‘indigenous’, ‘authentic’, ‘pluralism’, authority, ‘panoptic’, the difference between ‘decolonial’ and ‘post-colonial’ and the introduction of the concepts of ‘double consciousness’ and ‘double colonization’.

Wednesday Forum CRCS-ICRS pekan pertama di bulan April (6 April 2011) menampilkan Abdul Hamid Robinson-Royal. Membawakan judul ‘Islam in America, from Hajj to Hip Hop and from Roots to Rap’ mahasiswa doktoral di Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California USA, yang sedang mengambil program fellowship di ICRS Yogyakarta ini menyampaikan presentasi seputar muslim di Amerika Serikat beserta sejarah dan identitasnya.

Abdul Hamid yang juga seorang musisi dan memiliki gelar master di bidang musik menggunakan istilah a ‘hip hop’ dan ‘rap’ untuk menunjukkan sejauhmana komunitas muslim Amerika Serikat berkembang seiring perkembangan historis. Namun lagi-lagi isu identitas tetap menjadi perhatian sehingga Abdul Hamid mesti membuka presentasinya dengan pembahasan ilmiah mengenai istilah-istilah semisal ‘indigenous’, ‘authentic’, ‘pluralism’, authority, ‘panoptic’, ‘decolonial’ sebagai pengganti ‘post-colonial’ dan juga ‘double consciousnes’ sebagai ganti ‘double colonization’.

Gde Dwitya Arief | CRCS, Batch | Article

This article analyses the event in which our Communication minister Tifatul Sembiring greeted first lady Michelle Obama in Jakarta. As a conservative Muslim, Tifatul has made a big point of declaring he will not touch any member of the opposite sex who is neither his wife nor part of his family. However, when the US first lady, Michelle Obama, warmly extended her hand to greet him at a state function in Jakarta last week, he responded eagerly by reaching out and taking her hand. Sharp-tongued Indonesian Facebookers and tweeters criticized him as being hypocritical.

Problems related to the Ahmadiyah community in Indonesia has recently taken center stage, with the violence toward the community in Cikeusik, Banten, on early February 2011. Responding to the issue, several governmental ministries (Ministry of Religious Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, Supreme Court) held a series of discussions, end of March 2011, which was expected to help the government to make a new, “permanent decision” on Jemaah Ahmadiyah Indonesia. CRCS was invited to present considerations on the issue. Based on the ongoing research that has been presented in the previous /Annual Reports on Religious Life in Indonesia/, Zainal Abidin Bagir, representing CRCS, presented an analysis of the issue and suggested some recommendations. Although the government was expected to announce its decision early April, it has not done so until now. The following is a revision of a presentation prepared by the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS), Gadjah Mada University, for the “Discussion and Advisory” meeting regarding the Ahmadiyah issue held at the Ministry of Religion, Jakarta, on March 22, 2011.”