Ali Jafar | CRCS | Wednesday Forum Report
Maurisa, a CRCS alumna from the batch of 2011, presented her award-winning paper in Wednesday forum of CRCS-ICRS in 11th November 2015. Her paper entitled “The Rupture of Brotherhood, Understanding JI-Affiliated Group Over ISIS”, was awarded as best paper in IACIS (International Conference on Islamic Studies) in Manado, September. Maurisa was glad to share her paper with her younger batch. To all the audiences, Maurisa told that winning as best paper was not her high expectation, and it makes her proud.
The presentation began with Maurisa’s statement that the issue of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) are quite to understand in relation to modern terrorism, because we always misread them and sometime we cannot differentiate between ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Maurisa continues her explanation that there are many groups in Iraq and Syria struggling for their power, terrorism is not single but many. ISIS also has supporters in Indonesia such as Jemaah Islamiyyah (JI-Islamic Group) which is considered as a big terrorist organization in Southeast Asia. This group (JI) has disappears from public consciousness, but actually its members have been spreading out. The most fascinating thing that she found is that JI in Indonesia. JI was separated into two, Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI) and Jama’ah Anshar at-Tauhid (JAT), and surprisingly JAT itself has internal conflict and divided into two; JAT and JAS (Jama’ah Anshar as Syari’ah).
Maurisa’s paper focused on questions about how does the conflict in Syria resonates with Jihadists in Indonesia, and how does political struggle within MMI show belief in a master narrative. Maurisa used Juergensmeyer’s perspective about cosmic war and the logic of religious violence. In the Juergensmeyer perspective, an ordinary conflict could become religious conflict when it is raised into cosmic level. One of the ways is demonization or Satan-ization of the enemy. In the context of Syria, the demon is Shia group which is blamed for chaotic situation within Sunni community. The master narrative was also about the same language. It is about sadness, it is about the sad feeling of being discriminated and persecuted by Shia.
According to Maurisa, not all jihadist groups support ISIS, indeed MMI was supporting Jabhat an-Nusra. The rupture of this affiliation was based on their differences in the perspective of takfirism (Apostasy). JAT and MMI have different perspectives in defining what Takfir Am (general apostasy) and takfir Muayyan (specific apostasy) is.
In seeing terrorist movements, although Maurisa saw that Jihad-ism is not monolithic, she revelas that there are five elements which are related each other. There are ideological resonance, strategic calculus, terrorist patron, escalation of conflict and the last is charismatic leadership. Terrorists also use social media, such as Facebook, Youtube and so on, to promote their propaganda, and as soft approach to other Muslims. Based on Maurisa’s research there are 50000 social media accounts to spread ISIS propaganda, but only 2000 are used to spread out propaganda. The most popular social media is Twitter, because a message can be retwited..
In the discussion session, Nida, a CRCS student asked about the current issues in which governments have banning Shi’a celebration in Indonesia, and whether there is any relation with ISIS, and how an Indonesian can be involved in the terrorism. Maurisa answered the question by explaining that Indonesia is about to change. It can be seen in Islamization created room for Islam in the public sphere. Indonesia is vulnerable since Wahabis and Iran have their political goals here and both want to establish their domination to spread out their agenda. Cases in Sampang, Madura, Pakistan and so on cannot be separated from international case. There are long story for transformation of Saudi and Iran. Our country is like something too. In talking about the entrance gate, Turkey is good entrance from Indonesia to go to Syria. If we see Turkey’s position is also questionable. They deny Isis, but they also support Isis.
Subandri also asked about the ways we interpret jihad are accessible. Therefore there are many interpretations of Jihad. That is what looks like for young Muslim now. Along with Subandri, Ruby also asked about the genealogy of Indonesian Jihadist movement. Like the connection between Indonesia and middle east that coming and potential realignment and the effect of JAT over ISIS.
In seeing connection and global phenomena, a relation between Islam and Middle East, Maurisa explained that in the United State for instance, there is relation if you wear jilbab, you are Muslim, and when you are Muslim, you are ISIS. “Here we can see the idea about securitization is like Islamophobia”, said Maurisa with showing slide about relation between Indonesia and Middle East. As she explained again “If we look at voice of Islam, we can see that there are solidarities for Syria. It is reported that medical mission in Indonesia, they have collected 1.6 million. For Syria suggesting support for the movement of mujahidin”. Maurisa also explained that globalization is the most responsible for this case. For example many Indonesia Muslims have easy access to Saudi, Iranian, Jihadist web, because of technology and so on. Young Indonesian have a lot of curiosity and they don’t ask to other.
In responding the interpretation of jihad, Maurisa gives a feedback, how do we interpret this? What makes cosmic war happen? And how to deal with them?. Maurisa began her explanation that in Islam, although there are many verses for killing, but it not necessary to do in violence. We have many steps in interpretation. There are many reasons for what make Muhammad approve of killing and in what context he did so. There are many possibilities to interpret jihad and there are many verses of good thing about Jihad. In talking about cosmic war, she said that “as long as we consider our enemy as Satan, or evil, meaning it is cosmic war”. At the end of discussion session, Maurisa concluded that the factor of jihad is not monolithic; there are many factors, even in ISIS and Al-Qaeda have different perspectives about jihad.
(Editor: Gregory Vanderbilt)
Wednesday Forum Report
Ali Jafar | CRCS | Wednesday Forum Report
The discourse about “religion” “and” “science” has been long contested among scholars. Since the nineteenth century, religion and science have often been understood as in conflict with each other, science is human method for understanding nature using reason and religion relies on divine revelation. From different starting point, both religion and science have difficulties in finding common ground. But, starting from Ian Barbour, in the 1950s, a new discourse about the contemporary field of religion and science has proposed that integration is possible. Starting from this question at the Wednesday forum of CRCS/ICRS on 9th September 2015 , Zainal Abidin Bagir called for both side to re thinking the relation between science and religion.
Bagir described the Barbourian discourse as sympathetic to religion, accepting of the basic theories and findings of modern science, and looking at scientists’ theories and theological beliefs to understand the relationship and its impact of the former on the latter. Barbour proposed a typology: conflict, independence, dialog- integration. In the conflict relation, we have to choose one. In the independent relation religion and science belong to separate world without contact. While in the dialog, we have to find similarities of them. The last is integration meaning that religion validate science each other.
Bagir explained that the territory struggle between religion and science outside the West is not about the content itself, but it is as part of resistance to colonialism. Among this contestation, bagir told about Islamic modernist movements. In Indian subcontinent there is Sayyed Ahmed Khan who integrated religious belief with modern science. Other example include Muhammad Abduh from Egypt, Muhammad Iqbal from Pakistan, and Hossein Nasr from Iran and so on, who were communicating religious belief with scientific ideas.
Indeed, Bagir argued that discussion of the discourse on the relation between religion and science should involve historical awareness. Moreover, it should not be just discussion of the content of the two fields but rather and examination of instrumental and social ethics, as well as epistemological and metaphysical view points. Bagir also noted that there are differences in the discourse between cultures and religious tradition. One example is that evolution is not a topic of debate in the Islamic world as in the United States.
Bagir discussed several instances of the “religion and science” discourse in Indonesia. For example, this question has arisen in relation to the educational models of Islamic Universities. When some of the IAINs (State Islamic Religious Institute) were transformed into UINs (State Islamic Universities), these new universities included faculties of natural and social science and medicine. Each university took its own approach to the question, but all tried to integrate the spirit of religion and the spirit of science.
Bagir also explained that the relation between religion and science at times of disaster can be one of competing authorities. He took an example from Merapi volcano eruption in 2010, when there was debate between scientific explanation and defiance by Mbah Maridjan, the traditional spiritual guidance of the volcano, though Bagir argued that the central was issue trust, not science versus superstition. Anticipating next week’s presentation by Samsul Maarif on the forestry practice of the indigenous people of Sulawesi, Bagir argued that the “religion” part of “religion and science” must be radically questioned and opened up to include indigenous religion which are often the same as indigenous ways of knowing nature, i.e. indigenous science. Moreover we must ask what this discourse is for: it is to dominate the other or it is for the well-being of all, including non-human communities.
Responding a question about scriptural authority in relation to scientific knowledge, Bagir answered both are known through interpretation. Another question is from Fahrur, a CRCS student, who asked about Bagir opinion on the integration of religious studies and science and other field of study, including English, at UIN Yogyakarta. Bagir described the integration is still among debate. If the purpose of integration is to create Islamic identity, what makes a field of study become Islamic? He took examples from UIN Jakarta and UIN Malang. At UIN Jakarta, there is no integrated study. Science and Islamic studies each follow its own logic and methods. While in UIN Malang, student in all field are prepared for their studies by learning about Islam for one year in a boarding school that is part of the university. Still, the science learned in university is not integrated with religious science.
Concluding the discussion, Bagir explained that the discourse of religion and science is still debatable among scholar. There are many discourses and opinions of integration of religious and science. Thus, he insisted Dr. Samsul Maarif to be speaker in the next Wednesday Forum to explain indigenous science and religion. Dr Samsul Maarif has taken his research in Amatoan in which the indigenous sciences of Amaatoan about forest conservation are coherent with their religious belief. (Editor: Greg Vanderbilt)
Ali Jafar | CRCS | Wednesday Forum
Many of us know Ammatoans from general perspectives about them. Their traditional ways of life are fascinating. Indeed, if we watch TV programs about ethnicity or similar topic, Ammatoans are usually portrayed as a small community group who “still” believe in “animism” and hold rituals for forest conservation. In some religious programs on Indonesian television, Ammatoans are shown as Muslim who practice “syncretism” because they give offerings to the forest, mountains and lands. Indonesians have a lot of stereotypes about Ammatoans, but who they really are without judgmen? Concerning with these stereotypes of Ammatoans, On Wednesday 16th September, Wednesday Forum of CRCS/ICRS presented Dr Samsul Maarif who had concerned his deep research in Ammatoans and said in otherwise fact.
Author: Ali Ja’far/CRCS
Editor: Gregory Vanderbilt
“Where religious freedom is heading to” is the big question nowadays. It is sensitive issue in pluralistic societies where blasphemy law and religious conflict are still dominant. Speaking in the Wednesday Forum of CRCS/ICRS, Dr Paul Marshal of the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and the Leimena Institute in Jakarta argued that emphasizing religious freedom does not correlate with religious conflict, but the prevalence of religious restriction does. In his research summary, combining data from more than 180 countries, he showed that there are two factors related to religious conflict: religious restriction and social hostilities.
The January 7, 2015, attack on the Paris office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdoand the killing of eleven people has raised questions about universal values of human rights and freedom of expression, as well as religious blasphemy, since the attack was based on what some Muslims and others consider the mocking of the Prophet Muhammad. Hence, the questions about the French tradition of laïcité, which has a long history, as identity becomes significant to the discussion. One significant question is whether or not this tradition should be embodied in immigrants’ identity for them to be part of France. Following the attack, there is a movement supporting total freedom of expression as represented in the satirical cartoons found in Charlie Hebdousing the catchphrase “Jesuis Charlie” (I am Charlie).
In response to the movement, a French writer and long-time resident of Indonesia, Jean Couteau wrote a column entitled “Jesuis Charlie! Yes, but…” in a national newspaper, Kompas. Hence, Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies invited him to speak about it at its regular Wednesday forum on February 18, 2015.
Couteau explained the intellectual history of Charlie Hebdoto show how itis characterized by harsh criticism of social and political phenomena and how immigrants tend to oppose it. “Charlie Hebdo is a satirical magazine the purpose of which is to criticize any ‘power’ in social context, which really represents French tradition. It tends to be opposed to government, colonialism, religious intervention, and modern capitalism. It can be classified as at the far left of the political spectrum,” he explained. Its readers are multi-ethnicin background, such as French, Maghreb, and Jewish. However, this magazine is often sued in the court by Christians, Muslims, and members of the Jewish community, but it has always won. Then he came to the question, “Why is this magazine supported? Who supports it?” He contends that it is all about the freedom of expression, which is so much related to French intellectual history and that of Europe as well.
Discussing those questions, he explained the intellectual history of Europe. There was a period when religious absolutism existed in Europe in the sense that the church became an absolute power at that time. It decided everything regarding people’s lives. People were treated differently based on religion, ethnic, and race. However, the subjective-individual non-normative interpretation of the Bible emerged in 16th century, since printed media started to be used. It contributed to the Protestant reformation and Wars of Religion, until both the Catholics and Protestants reached a modus vivendi, leading to the emergence of “free choice” as a concept, in 17th century. Furthermore, in France between 1789 and 1799, the resistance towards Catholic hegemony emerged to free the individual from religious absolutism. Thus, the concept of citizenship based on nationality was constructed, the special right and discrimination based on social status, race, ethnicity, and religion were no longer accepted as inevitable or natural. The Declaration des Droits de l’Hommeet du Citoyen of 1789 declared certain rights as universal, contributing to the recognition of equal rights for minorities, such as Muslims, Jews, and others.
As Couteau contended that this action against religious absolutism was what led minorities in French to be equally recognized as citizens, there is no systematical discrimination as what happened before the revolution. He added that if there was no revolution, there would be no minorities in France. This is the root of French tradition embodied in the way in which Charlie Hebdocriticizes certain powerful ideologies and figures. “You can attack the opinion and idea, yet you cannot attack a people,” he said. However, the immigrants coming in the next centuries are not ready for this tradition, leading to cultural misunderstandings. They presume Charlie Hebdo is attacking the people, when it sees itself as, in fact, attacking ideology. They presume Charlie Hebdo’s satire on religious ideology, which often includes negative representations of the Prophet, means attacking Muslims.
Bernard Adeney-Risakotta of ICRCS raised the question whether the West can construct universal definitions of freedom and of blasphemy. It is very important since we live in a pluralistic society where our neighbor might see what we do as blasphemy. The more our society is plural, the more we need to listen to other views, he said. What we call freedom of expression always has limits. In reaction to this, Couteau emphasized that the meaning blasphemy changes shapes from time to time based on the context of society. He then took an example of a sewage hauling company in Bali fifteen years ago that was named “Vishnu” like the Hindu god. This would not happen nowadays, because it would be considered blasphemy. “So where does blasphemy come from?” he asked. It is shaped over time based on context. “We are witnessing things, including identities, changing over time,” he added.
Moreover, this discussion raised the question of identity. Hary, a CRCS student, asked whether French tradition of laïcité and critical opposition to religious absolutism must be embraced by the new immigrants to France or does to be part of France mean to embrace this tradition? If not, will the immigrants take the risk of being excluded from France? Couteau explained that neither ethnic origins nor religious identity of immigrants are counted in the census. One concept that has been negotiated is the notion of communitarianism, meaning that the immigrants should embrace the values of the French republic in order to integrate into French society. He further explained, as an example, why religious symbols are banned in public schools. In short, each cannot show his or her religious identity since we live with different people. If we do show our differences, it will lead to disintegration because each sees the other as different. In the Indonesian context, he explained, you cannot emphasize either Muslim or Hindu identity because the country will not survive. If national identity comes first then the country survives.
Wedforum | Hary Widyantoro
Islam and politics has been difficult to separte. This is reflected in the situation in some Muslim countries, such as Mali and Somalia where violent struggles have shifted to periphery. In other regions, revolutionary movements like the Arab Spring were hampered by the politics of religion. On February 19, 2014, Dr. Andreas Radtke, the political counsellor in German Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, discussed these issues of political Islam in global terms at the regular Wednesday Forum lecture series hosted by CRCS and ICRS.