Samsul Ma’arif | CRCS

Samsul Ma’arif

Jenne’ Telluka, Sambajang Temmattappu (hereafter JTST) is a local understanding and practice of Islam popular among Muslims of South Sulawesi, especially the Ammatoans. Many Muslims, however, misunderstand JTST to be invalid for one or another reason. JTST literally means that wudu (ablution) is never void and solat (prayer) is never paused. Conceptually, it implies that Islam is a serious and constant commitment and practice. Like all Muslims, the Ammatoans express their understanding and practice of Islam with their own uniqueness, which is reflected in their practice of JTST.

Many Catholics in Semarang Archdiocese are not familiar with the basic contents of Catholic social teaching. This is because the sources for the teaching are mostly abstract, dry, unattractive and include challenging topics. This finding revealed by ICRS’ PhD candidate, Joko Wicoyo in his WedForum presentation (21/9/1) entitled ”The Implementation of Roman Catholic Social Teaching in the Semarang Archdiocese”.

According to Wicoyo, the archdiocese, including the bishop and other hierarchy, is concerned with the claim about the Words of God and its role as the witness of the Words of God. In order to overcome worries, they issue basic direction and pastoral letters to strengthen and deepen the faith of Catholic communities in Semarang archdiocese. The basic direction include guidelines and pastoral letters similar to fatwa in the Muslim context. It compiles information from external views of different groups and on this basis it presents summary and discussion. One of the contents is called gandium et spes, which is one of the most important document of the Second Vatican Council. The Gandium et spes announces the duty of the people of God to scrutinize the ‘signs of the times’ in light of Gospel; it represents the opinion of the large majority of the world’s bishop; and it orders the Church’s solidarity with both those who suffer and those who live in comfort.

Victims of natural disasters and humanitarian activists do not always share theological views of the meaning of disaster, even though both have same religious tradition. The victims tend to see the disaster as something happened according to the God’s will and relief organizations tend see the disaster as related to the more complex factors. This difference effects the cooperation between the victims and the relief groups in the disaster management and mitigation.

This a research finding revealed by Professor Siti Samsiyatun in her WedForum presentation (16/11/11) entitled ”Embracing Merapi with Faith”. What made this differrence, according to Syamsiatun, is the fact that most of those working for relief groups ae from the elite level. In contrast victims are under heavy psychological pressure so they cannot more holding the social view they hold outside the catastrophic situation.

Terdapat perbedaan pandangan antara korban dengan para relawan terhadap bencana alam meski mereka memeluk agama yang sama. Korban cenderung melihat bencana sebagai takdir Tuhan. Sementara relawan memandang bencana sebagai kompleksitas humanis. Perbedaan ini berimbas pada relasi korban dengan relawan dalam proses penanganan dan penanggulangan bencana.

Pernyataan di atas disampaikan Dr. Siti Samsiyatun dalam Wednesday Forum CRCS-ICRS 16 November 2011 dengan presentasi ‘Merengkuh Merapi dengan Iman’ yang didasarkan pada penelitiannya di beberapa daerah di Yogyakarta yang terkena erupsi Gunung Merapi 2010 lalu.

Democracy provides both opportunities and challenges for Islamist movements Indonesia. On the one side, it grants movements with political freedom that allows mobilization. Such a freedom is a privilege for Indonesian Islamists compared to political restriction in many other Muslim countries. On the other side, democracy presents political opportunities for accommodation of Islamic political interest. The majority Muslim population gives potential constituent for the accommodation of Islamic values and laws. This democratic advantage however poses a challenge for Islamist movement advocating a fundamental change in the political system. The presence of Muslims in the system counters anti-systemic opposition. The impact of this challenge is evident in the political behavior of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI). Started with a revolutionary goal of replacing democracy with an Islamic political system of khilafah, the movement now has to adjust with political reality. While persistently continuing its rhetorical opposition to democracy, HTI is becoming more tolerant of participation in the democratic system.