Refleksi Kebebasan Beragama

sumber gambar:www.religious-freedoms.org

Ismatillah A. Nu’ad*

INDONESIA sebagai negara-bangsa masih banyak diwarnai ketegangan-ketegangan yang melibatkan agama dan mengabaikan nilai-nilai perbedaan. Kasus-kasus pelanggaran kebebasan beragama ramai mengemuka. Bahkan, kekerasan tersebut juga mencederai kalangan pembela hak kebebasan beragama (human rights defender). Sebaliknya sikap saling toleran nampaknya sangat penting untuk dimunculkan kepermukaan. Laporan akhir tahun 2008 The Wahid Institute yang dikeluarkan kemarin ini, misalnya, menyebutkan sejumlah pelanggaran terhadap kebebasan beragama yang terjadi, salahnya kurang ada tindakan dari aparat kepolisian sehingga bagi para pelanggar mengulangi lagi tindakan anarkisnya.

PKS Ads Castrates NU-Muhammadiyah

repro

Ismatillah A. Nu’ad*

The political advertisement on television launched by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) to commemorate the Youth Pledge Day last October was considered by the followers of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah to have stained the reputation and the dignity of the religious organizations’ founding fathers, namely KH Hasyim Asy’ari and KH Ahmad Dahlan. In this regard, the ad was really to political interest in nature. Ideally, if the PKS has a good willingness for showing photographs of the prominent men as the source of inspiration for young generations, it should not base its ad on the figures in the name of party. As consequence the ad was fully littered with political interest.

From Pepsi to Hira Cave

Ismatillah A. Nu’ad*

For Moslem haji is a special religious service because not everybody can do it. There are material and nonmaterial conditions that have to be fulfilled. In relation with the non material condition it is interesting to focus on the experience of haji Farid Esack, a liberal Moslem who shared his experiences in his work, On Being a Muslim (2002).

One day Esack was lost from his journey to Hira Cave, the historical site where Muhammad the Prophet first received his revelation. The orthodox Saudi government is very strict on permitting people on doing their religious service especially in traditional holy sites that is why there is no road sign that leads to certain places. So Esack could only follow other pilgrims who already knew the road to Hira Cave or as he confessed, just follow the Pepsi cans that scattered all over the steep road to the mouth cave.