Arsip:

Tesis

Negara Zionis Bukan Negara Yahudi

Tesis Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Judul: Negara Zionis Bukan Negara Yahudi: Telaah atas Pandangan Abdel Wahab El-Messiri

Penulis: M. Nursaid Ali Rido (CRCS, 2006)

Kata-kata kunci: Zionisme, Imperialisme, kelompok fungsional Yahudi, negara Zionis fungsional

Abstrak:


Konflik di Timur Tengah selalu menarik disimak. Sebelum tahun 1990-an, Israel, sebagai pihak yang lebih kuat, memilih jalur militeristik untuk “menyelesaikan” konflik dengan Arab. Setelah periode itu, penaklukan terhadap Arab, terutama Palestina, berupa embargo ekonomi dan politik, penutupan jalan-jalan utama, sabotase bantuan makanan dan obat-obatan. Mengapa konflik itu terus berlangsung? Abdel Wahab El-Messiri, seorang intelektual Mesir, berusaha menjawab pertanyaan itu melalui paradigma “kelompok fungsional Yahudi” dan “negara Zionis fungsional”. Paradigma ini melihat fenomena Yahudi dan Zionisme melalui perspektif filosofis-epistemologis, bukan perspektif politik empiris atau agama.

Pandangan Pesantren Salaf terhadap The Other

Tesis Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Judul: Pandangan Pesantren Salaf terhadap “The Other” (Studi terhadap Pesantren Sidogiri di Pasuruan, Jawa Timur)

Penulis: Akhmad Munir (CRCS, 2005)

Kata-kata kunci: Pesantren salaf, eksklusivitas agama, truth and salvation claim, ideologisasi agama.

Abstrak:

 

Pesantren Sidogiri, Pasuruan, Jawa Timur adalah pesantren salaf tertua yang tetap eksis di Indonesia. Sebuah pesantren besar yang memiliki sistem pendidikan sendiri dengan mempertahankan model salaf yang tidak berafiliasi dengan sistem pendidikan pemerintah. Sistem pendidikan salaf yang mengacu kepada karya-karya ulama terdahulu telah membentuk karakter khas pesantren dalam melihat komunitas lainnya (“the other” –komunitas Yahudi dan Kristen). Internalisasi nilai-nilai salaf, seperti: pengagungan yang besar terhadap karya ulama-ulama terdahulu, kepatuhan yang penuh kepada Kyai, dan fanatisme yang kuat terhadap Islam telah memberikan pandangan yang unik dalam melihat komunitas umat agama lainnya.

Relation among Different Religious Believers in Kotesan, Prambanan, Klaten

Tesis Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Title : Relation among Different Religious Believers in Kotesan, Prambanan, Klaten
Author : Ruwandi (CRCS, 2005)
Keywords : Relation among Different Religious Believers
Abstract
This research aims at analyzing the creation of interfaith relation, the factors that influence this creation, and the ways of maintaining it. This is a socio-anthropological study conducted in Kotesan, Prambanan, Klaten, Central Java. The respondents of this study are the key persons consisting of village government officials, public figures, religious leaders, and several common people. The methods used to collect the data are Focus Group Discussion (FGD), participant observation, in-dept-interview, and documentation. Then, the data collected from the research field are socially and anthropologically analyzed.
The research findings show that interfaith relation in Kotesan, Prambanan, Klaten is a historical heritage handed down from generation to generation. The creation of the relation is influenced by several conditions, for instance: geographical setting, social and living-hood systems, economic condition, and the level of welfare. All the community layers – they are village government officials, public figures, religious leaders, and common people, actively involve in the process of the creation. There are two factors that influence interfaith relation in Kotesan namely internal and external factors. The former consists of emotional, cultural, and familial affinities, and religious teachings; while the latter covers contact with outsiders, and people’s mobility.
Familial affinity is the most influential since this one has characterized the internal factors and lessen the significance of the external shapers. Kotesan villagers maintain the established relation through several ways, for instance: social activities, dialog, and government and intra-faith creations. Social activities, however, are the most significant ways because the informality of these activities makes the extensions of the actors involved in conversation and the scope of social problems discussed.

Human Finitude and Interreligious Dialogue

Tesis Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Title : Human Finitude and Interreligious Dialogue: A Discussion of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Thought on Human Finitude
Author : Mega Hidayati (CRCS, 2006)
Keywords : human limitation, interreligious dialogue, awareness of otherness
Abstract
In this plural world, in terms of religion, the encounter among people who have different religions is inevitable. Problems arise when someone views others based on his/her religious beliefs, meaning she/he does not realize that what she/he believes is truly limited, or in other words, humans are limited in their understanding of others’ beliefs. This becomes dangerous when people maintain their false prejudices towards others and do not want to obtain the clarification of the prejudices. In many times and places, religious issues are one of the significant factors which rapidly increase the state of conflict and violence.
Interreligious dialogue is one measure to avoid such danger above. In an interreligious dialogue, people do not only talk about their religious teachings but also are concerned about the human problems of suffering. Thus, the understanding among followers of different religions and a clarification of prejudice are possible through interreligious dialogue.
In this thesis, human finitude and interreligious dialogue are discussed by exploring Gadamer’s thoughts. Gadamer’s ideas of human finitude indeed help people to have the awareness of their finitude and of otherness. In addition, Gadamer conveys a model of dialogue by regarding this fact of human finitude. By exploring this, hopefully, people will be aware of the need for dialogue with others. This model of dialogue will be associated with Kniter’s four models of interreligious dialogue so that an immense contribution of Gadamer’s thoughts into interreligious dialogue can be obtained and the most adequate model of interreligious dialogue can be found.

The Ambiguity of Religion: A Study of the Ambon Conflict, 1999-2001

Tesis Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Title : The Ambiguity of Religion: A Study of the Ambon Conflict, 1999-2001
Author : Marthen Tahun (CRCS, 2007)
Keywords : Ambon Conflict, Laskar Jihad, Conflict Resolution, Religion and Violence
Abstract
The aim of this thesis is to understand the major contributing factors of the Ambon conflict from 1999-2001, the influence of religion on the conflict escalation, and the contribution of religion to the process of conflict resolution.The Ambon conflict that started on January 19, 1999 is recorded as one of the great human tragedies in Indonesia happened after the economic crisis that hit Indonesia in 1997 and after the leadership transition from the Soeharto regime to the more democratic reformation era. The conflict started on the Islamic holy day when the Muslims in Ambon were supposed to celebrate the day of Idul Fitri peacefully. Only a few days after the conflict eruption, thousands of BBM (Bugis Buton Makasar) people leave Ambon in a massive exodus as response to rumors that the Ambonese indigenous would attack and destroy the BBM who for a long time took control over the trading sectors in Ambon city and the seashore areas.
That exodus created more nervousness in the city while the uncontrolled mass of Muslim and Christian groups in amok attacking the facilities related to religious symbols. Thousands of peoples had to flee from their houses and lived as refugees in schools, the military or the police bases.
The issue of religious conflict between Muslim and Christian in Ambon was amplified in a short period creating more religious segregation in that city. The discourse of this religious conflict was strong in Ambon. Many people outside of Ambon also perceived the Ambon conflict as a religious conflict between Muslim and Christian, especially when the Laskar Jihad from Java finally came to Maluku. The religious issue then empowered to be a separatist issue based on the assumption that RMS was behind that conflict. This issue was stronger at the declaration of the FKM (Forum Kedaulatan Maluku).
There is a mix of issues such as ethnicity, religion, and separatism in the Ambon conflict. In the midst of all this background, this writing critically adopted the thought of three scholars: Scott Appleby, Charles Kimbal and Charles Selengut as a tool to understand the Ambon conflict.

Liberative Dialogue

Tesis Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Title : Liberative Dialogue: a Comparative Analysis of the Proposals of Paul Knitter and Farid Esack for a Liberative Dialogue of Religions and Their Contribution to Muslim – Christian Relations in Indonesia
Author : Lidya Kambo Tandirerung (CRCS, 2004)
Keywords : liberative praxis, liberating hermeneutics, inter-religious solidarity, and potential laboratory
Abstract
The existence of those considered as poor, non-persons, marginalized and “victims of the world” has triggered the emergence of liberation theologies, which occupy a wide space within the discourses of liberative praxis of religions. An important example is the theology of liberation from Latin America, that was developed based on the existence of those dominated people, exploited social classes, despised races and marginalized cultures which are included in the very word of “poverty”.
Also, liberation became a keyword for gratifying the rights and dignity of the human being. It voices that there is no single circumstance possible that respects human dignity except of being liberated from any sort of oppressive power. The struggle for liberation has been flowing significantly from century to century during human civilization. Much of the suffering inflicted on the poor and marginalized is committed in the name of religions. Christians and Muslims, in particular, are two of those world religions’ communities which consider liberation as a religious call based on the scriptural messages. Unfortunately, religious people fall sometimes into an exclusive understanding of the struggles they perform as for the sake of particular religious agenda or mission.
Generally, the aim of this research is to recognize the development of liberative dialogue in Indonesia, although this term has not yet been utilized often in the ongoing discourses. By selecting Paul F. Knitter and Farid Esak, two prominent scholars who gives great concerns on dialogue and liberation, we are not abandoning the emergence and discussion of Indonesian scholars concerning dialogue. Indeed, this is intended to focus on how the proposal of Knitter and Esack, their basic concept of dialogue based on the “praxis of liberation”, might contribute to the dynamic of liberative struggle in Indonesia.
Hence, there are two expected major contributions of this research. The first is the theoretical contribution which explains the content of the theological thought of Paul F. Knitter and Farid Esack on “liberative dialogue of religions“ and its particular dynamic of development. The second is the contextual-practical contribution of such a liberative approach to the Muslim-Christian relation in Indonesia, with particular elaboration to their social responsibility as religious communities struggling against many faces of injustice.