PKS Ads Castrates NU-Muhammadiyah

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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.

Focusing on Islamic Leadership Crisis

sumber gambar:www.daylife.com

Ismatillah A. Nu’ad*

Bassam Tibi, a liberal Moslem from Lebanon who lives in German said that Islamic civilization was undergoing a disconnection with the modern world in his first published book, The Crisis of Modern Islam (1989). When modernism surrounded the world from all direction, the Moslems were unable to face it, most were not responsive with the modernism, trying to avoid it which eventually lead to resistance. That is why Tibi wrote that Islam was having a crisis for alienating modernism instead of competing to give birth to modernism through Islamic Culture for the progressing era.

Fasting and Pop Culture

sumber gambar:fanabis.blogdetik.com

Ismatillah A. Nu’ad*

Pop culture not only related to fashion, lifestyle, or entertainment. Because it is more to global and universal phenomenon, all Moslems are being called to fast for the whole Ramadan, and the popular culture’s energy’s can be felt clearly by all Moslem.

Theoretically, according to Dominic Strianati, a popular culture is a practical culture which actualized by massive society. The factor which brings the popular culture prominent is the advancement of information of communication. Because of the same factor globalization took part to the world society. (Strianati, An Introduction to the theories of Popular Culture, 2003)