Protecting the dignity of men is more important than any and all racial, social or religious obstructions that seek to box humanity.
By
YUDI LATIF
·4 minutes read
Kompas/Wawan H Prabowo
Yudi Latif
Indonesia’s reputation as a peaceful, multi-religious nation has been increasingly tested. The past few weeks have seen a number of attacks against religious leaders. These include the attack on Buddhist monk Mulyanto Nurhalim and his followers in Caringin Legok village, Tangerang; the attack on St. Lidwina Church in Bedog, Sleman; the assault on Al-Hidayah Islamic boarding school patron KH Umar Basri in Cicalengka, Bandung; and the fatal assault on cleric and Persatuan Islam (Persis) leader HR Prawoto.
These series of attacks formed the peak of a fundamental problem in worldview and religious ethos. Defining religiosity as merely exterior and formalistic worship through prayer but without the capacity to dig deeper into the inner values of spirituality and morality is nothing more than surfing on the surface of dangerous waters. Without diving into the depths of spiritual experience, religiosity becomes barren, dry and hard.
When religiosity hardens, it neglects the teachings and legacy of tolerance. Islam, as the majority religion in Indonesia, has a strong basis in tolerance. The Quran is a holy scripture that is exemplary in recognizing the validity of other religions. In the golden era of Islam, Jews and Christians were protected as “people of the book” and were accorded relative freedom in practicing their religions.
“Once [a people] surrenders,” Karen Armstrong writes, “there is no murder, no damaging of properties, no burning of symbols of other religions, no evictions or raids and no coercion on them to convert to Islam.”
It is true that the history of Islam is not one of perpetual peace, but there were periods of sustained peace. Many historians cite the Iberian Peninsula case as exemplary. The peaceful city of Cordoba attracted people from various cultures and the city became a melting pot for diverse art forms, languages, cultures, philosophies and religious traditions. King Al-Hakam II was famed for his patronage of poets, writers and dancers. Toledo was famed as a city of three cultures and the peaceful meeting point of three major religions (Islam, Christianity and Jewism).
However, in the past two decades, the world has witnessed several “milestones”: acts of violence and restrictions of freedom in the Muslim world.
In such a dark world, Indonesia has gained much praise as a promising Muslim community. In recent years, state repressions on civil and political freedoms have been significantly reduced. However, a new threat in the form of violence and fanaticism by civil groups (which, in a sense, are actually “uncivilized”) has emerged.
As the term “civil society” derives from the term societas civilis, meaning a societythat upholds civility, then enlightened thinkers are correct in saying that “civil society” must be contrasted not with the state, but with fanaticism. Fanaticism is a belief system that rejects representation. The most explicit form of such rejection is iconoclasm: the hatred and vandalization of icons and images.
In the arts, fanaticism rejects representation by obscuring one’s view of perceiving the esthetic gap that separates true reality from invented reality as an art form. This rejection leads to fanaticism killing creative imagination as the soul of art.
In politics, fanaticism rejects representation by repudiating the existence of an “intermediate space” that allows for the human interpretation of a “godly city” versus a “worldly city”, between state and religion, between the text and specific context in the holy book and between citizens and representative institutions.
Fanaticism, born of insecurity in the face of different thinking, undermines the sanctity of the descendants of Adam. Freedom of expression is the constitutive element of this sanctity. The Quran states that human rights and dignity must be upheld: “And we have certainly honored the children of Adam” (Quran, 17:70). Therefore, protecting the dignity of men is more important than any and all racial, social or religious obstructions that seek to box humanity.
YUDI LATIF
Chairman, Presidential Working Unit on the Implementation of Pancasila (UKP-PIP)
