Sarah’s involvement in the interfaith dialogue world, since she studied at CRCS until now, can be given two-thumbs up. This woman, whose full name is Siti Sarah Muwahidah (CRCS 2004), has no fear walking the dialogue world as a researcher at the same time an inter-religious dialogue advocate. “I have known interfaith issues since I was young, because I was born in Pabelan boarding school environment, Magelang,” Sarah said.

 

Sarah is now in Bangkok, Thailand, and absorbed in finishing her research report funded by the Asian Public Intellectuals (API). She did her research on Interfaith Dialogue, Moslem-Christian, in Zamboanga City, Mindanao, Southern Philippines, a place where conflicts are often colored with inter-religious issues. She had just finished her six-month (October 2009-March 2010) field research in Mindanao.

Pengembangan minat Sarah dalam dunia dialog antar-iman, sejak ia masih menuntut ilmu di CRCS, dapat diacungi jempol. Perempuan bernama lengkap Siti Sarah Muwahidah ini, alumni CRCS angkatan 2004, tidak ragu-ragu melenggangkan kakinya di dunia dialog, baik sebagai peneliti maupun pegiat dialog di masyarakat. “Yang jelas saya sudah mulai kenal isu interfaith sejak kecil, karena dulu lahir di lingkungan pesantren Pabelan, Magelang,” tutur Sarah.

 

Saat ini, Sarah sedang berada di Bangkok, Thailand, dan asyik menyelesaikan laporan penelitiannya yang didanai oleh Asian Public Intellectuals (API). Dialog antar-iman, Muslim-Kristen, di daerah yang dahulunya sangat sering diwarnai konflik antar-agama, kota Zamboanga, Mindanao, Filipina Selatan, menjadi pilihan kajian penelitiannya kali ini. Ia telah menyelesaikan penelitian lapangan di Filipina itu selama 5 bulan (Oktober 2009 –Maret 2010).

Title : THE CULTURE OF DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION (A Case Study of Political Behaviour of Muslims in Jekulo Kudus in the Post New Order Era) Author : Achmad Ta`yudin (CRCS, 2005) Abstract The purpose of the research is to explain the political behaviour of Islamic community (umat) in Jekulo Kudus the Central of Java in the 1999 and 2004 general election, which has shown a reality of the failure of Islamic parties in the religious communities. The raised question is “Why Islamic community in Jekulo who have a high level of virtuous were reluctant to choice the Islamic parties”. This interesting question becomes focus of this study. There are three main problems that would be analyzed in this study. First, to what extend does correlation between political aspiration, and voting behaviour of Islamic communities in Jekulo towards political parties in the 1999 and 2004 general election. Second, to what extend does correlation between level of understanding for religious teaching and voting behaviour of Islamic communities in Jekulo towards political parties in the 1999 and 2004 general election. Finally, are religious local elite (kiai) a determinant factor for voting behaviour of Islamic communities in Jekulo towards political parties in the 1999 and 2004 general election? The sampling method which was used in the research, besides the qualitative method (1) to make choice the religious people of Jekulo with using the probability of random distribution; (2) to choice domain sampling taken from religious people in the first point with using the non-probability of purposive distribution. The result of this research indicates that the failure of Islamic parties in Jekulo was determined by the increase of their tolerances to the diversity of faith, so that they do not want to dominate anymore other people based on their faith and political ideology. There are some factors of this social change. First, the dominant rules of New Order regime that marginalized the politic of Islamic syariat has changed the political orientation of Islamic communities based on religious liberalization. Second, the two biggest of Islamic Organization, NU and Muhammadiyah, have changed their social orientation based on politics of tolerant. Third, the level of education and the economic gaps among communities have weakened elite domination in Islamic communities. They cannot be influenced by political elite anymore. These all indicate that Islamic community with high level of virtuous become tolerance and democratic. They can separate whether it is a political or religious thing. Both political and religious things are sometimes difficult to be separated because of elite behaviours and their interests.

The decision of the Indonesian Court Constitution on the Judicial Review of UU No. 1/PNPS/1965 is about to be given this month. The review process is still hotly going on, and in March, the situation in the court was colored by the clash between pro and contra groups. During the review process, CRCS also took part by writing a position paper to the problematic law.

The position paper that had already been sent to the Court was written by CRCS team consists of Zainal Abidin Bagir, Suhadi Cholil, Mustaghfiroh Rahayu, Ali Amin, Endy Saputro and Budi Ashari. Several months ago, the team followed and criticized the review process.

Judul: BUDAYA DEMOKRASI DAN PARTISIPASI POLITIK (Studi Kasus Perilaku Politik Umat Islam Jekulo Kab. Kudus Pasca Orde Baru)

Penulis: Achmad Ta`yudin (CRCS, 2005)

 Abstrak:

 

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menjelaskan perilaku politik masyarakat Islam di Kecamatan Jekulo Kudus pada Pemilu 1999 dan 2004, di mana partai-partai Islam dengan kecenderungan religiusitas masyarakat yang tinggi menuai kekalahan telak. Pertanyaan yang muncul kemudian adalah, “Kenapa masyarakat Islam Jekulo yang mempunyai tingkat religiusitas relatif tinggi, enggan untuk memilih partai-partai politik yang mengadopsi Islam sebagai pijakan ideologinya”. Pertanyaan menarik tersebut menjadi fokus penelitian ini.

Keputusan Mahkamah Konstitusi (MK) atas judicial review UU No. 1/PNPS/1965 semakin dekat. Proses persidangan atas UU ini masih berlangsung hangat, bahkan pada bulan Maret lalu suasana persidangan sempat diwarnai bentrokan antara pendukung UU tersebut dan yang menolaknya. Di tengah proses itu, CRCS turut ambil bagian dengan membuat sebuah makalah posisi (position paper) terhadap keberadaan UU yang problematis ini.

Makalah posisi yang telah disampaikan ke MK ini ditulis oleh tim CRCS yang terdiri dari Zainal Abidin Bagir, Suhadi Cholil, Mustaghfiroh Rahayu, Ali Amin, Endy Saputro, dan Budi Ashari. Selama beberapa bulan terakhir mereka terus mengikuti dan mengkritisi proses persidangan yang berlangsung.