Tariq Ibn Ziad, Suicide Bombers, dan Simbiosis Golongan Moderat dan Fundamentalis

Alkisah, Tariq Ibn Ziad dan pasukannya baru saja menjejakkan kakinya di bibir Pantai Andalusia dalam suatu misi penaklukan. Tidak lama kemudian, sembari melempar pandangan ke seluruh pesisir dan menarik nafas panjang, Tariq memerintahkan anak buahnya untuk membakar seluruh armada. Tindakan Tariq bukanlah tanpa perhitungan. Dia percaya bahwa dengan memusnahkan seluruh armadanya maka tentara yang dipimpinnya tidak akan punya pilihan, selain bertempur melawan musuh sampai titik darah penghabisan. Tentaranya tidak akan bisa mundur pulang kandang, karena di belakang mereka lautan luas menghadang. Sedangkan di depan mereka, musuh siap menerjang. Resiko terburuk dari dua pilihan ini sama, yaitu mati. Namun demikian, jika memilih pilihan kedua, mereka punya kesempatan mati syahid dalam jihad menegakkan panji agama. Sebaliknya, jika pilihan pertama yang dipilih, tentara-tentara ini percaya bahwa mati konyollah yang akan mereka dapatkan. Mati syahid tentu saja lebih menarik (dan memang inilah yang menjadi pilihan Tariq dan tentaranya). Siapa yang tak mau syahid dengan jaminan masuk surga dan berbagai macam kenikmatan tanpa akhir di dalamnya. Walaupun kalah banyak, janji-janji surga ini ternyata mampu memompa semangat pasukan Tariq untuk bertempur dengan gagah berani. Singkat cerita, di akhir pertempuran, Tariq dan pasukannya mampu mengalahkan army of the infidels dengan gilang gemilang.

Lagan Dan Kyai Zul yang Tak Lagi Mempesona

Ada ritual yang sayang untuk dilewatkan jika berkesempatan pulang ke Kalimantong, kampung halaman saya di Sumbawa Barat. Ritual tersebut adalah laung ning lagan, terjemahan bebasnya ngobrol di lagan. Lagan merupakan tempat kongkow berbentuk segi empat atau persegi panjang berkerangka bambu atau kayu. Potongan-potongan bambu panjang berukuran kecil terpasang melintang sebagai alas duduk. Di tiap sudutnya terdapat tiang penyanggah. Dari segi fungsi, alas duduk ini mirip dengan berugaq dalam masyarakat Sasak. Namun demikian, terdapat perbedaan yang mencolok dari segi tampilan fisik. Dibandingkan dengan berugaq, lagan (yang tanpa atap dan berbobot ringan) lebih praktis karena sifatnya yang portabel alias bisa bergerak kemana-mana. Jika suatu tempat dianggap kurang nyaman lagi untuk mengobrol karena alasan cuaca misalnya, lagan bisa dipindahkan ke tempat yang lebih terlindung dan comfy. Selain itu, lagan nampaknya bisa mengakomodasi lebih banyak fungsi, seperti jemuran tilam, meja makan, lumbung semi permanen, dan lain sebagainya. Jika di kampung saya dinamakan lagan, ia disebut dengan nama berbeda di tempat lain, yaitu lase’ atau pantar.

Resistance from Within: A Case of Indonesian Muslim Women

Language has been continuously scrutinized and accused as one of the locus where gender inequalities and discrimination occur. It is mostly feminists, instead of linguists, who keep raising their voices to address this issue (Grandoll & Swann, 1990). They have been tirelessly reminding each member of our modern society to be aware that the interdependent relation of language use and gender inequalities is a social fact. Further, they promote linguistics reforms as one way out to eliminate these inequalities. They decline to view the differences in language use merely reflect sex based division that does not involve any power relation concerns. Therefore, their roles as the linguistics reformer are considered to be vital as well as inseparable from their wider goal, i.e. promoting social change; particularly creating a more friendly and just world for female member of the society.

A War on Pakistan’s Schoolgirls

I have such fond childhood memories of summer holidays in the Swat Valley in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, a place well known among Pakistanis for its breathtaking views, cool summer climate and lush fruit orchards. But today the Swat Valley is experiencing heartbreaking pressures, as the Taliban strike with disconcerting regularity and, among other atrocities, impose a ban on the education of girls.

Even before this ban was put in place on Jan. 15, more than 100 schools for girls in Swat, as well as more than 150 such schools in the greater Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), had been shut down, many after being bombed or torched, leaving approximately 100,000 girls out of school. Radio announcements warned girls that they could be attacked with acid if they dared to attend school, and teachers have been threatened and killed. Last Monday, five more Swat Valley schools were bombed.

Students take sides in Gaza crisis

As Gaza burned and violence by Hamas and the Israeli Defense Force added to the mounting death toll of the current conflict in the Middle East, Penn students gathered on Locust Walk and College Green yesterday in protest, solidarity or both. They carried signs: “End the Genocide in Gaza”; “Israel We Stand with You”; “Zionism=Racism”; “Free the Palestinians from Hamas.” The students formed two separate groups: one marching in silence against violence in Gaza and the other rallying to support Israel. The rally included five speeches and a prayer for peace.

“I want to sit in the middle of the rallies. I want to express support for Israel and for any innocent people who are dying,” said College sophomore Elisheva Goldberg. “The rallies don’t express the subtleties of the situation.”

Israel’s Goals in Gaza?

I have only one question about Israel’s military operation in Gaza: What is the goal? Is it the education of Hamas or the eradication of Hamas? I hope that it’s the education of Hamas. Let me explain why.
I was one of the few people who argued back in 2006 that Israel actually won the war in Lebanon started by Hezbollah. You need to study that war and its aftermath to understand Gaza and how it is part of a new strategic ballgame in the Arab-Israel arena, which will demand of the Obama team a new approach.

What Hezbollah did in 2006 — in launching an unprovoked war across the U.N.-recognized Israel-Lebanon border, after Israel had unilaterally withdrawn from Lebanon — was to both upend Israel’s longstanding peace strategy and to unveil a new phase in the Hezbollah-Iran war strategy against Israel.

Manji: Indonesia Harus Jadi Ujung Tombak the Alliance of the Interdependent

Saya akhirnya menerima  tulisan Irshad Manji, yang berjudul “To Fix Islam, Start From The Inside”, yang di muat di kolom Newsweek.  Dia, melalui surat pribadinya, memang telah menjajikan akan mengirimkan  tulisan tersebut kepada saya. Saya kemudian mengingatkannya kembali, setelah mendengarkan dia menyampaikan pidato dengan topik yang sama di California State University. Artikel yang dimuat di edisi khusus awal Desember 2008 merupakan  bagian kompilasi dari beberapa tulisan lain dengan tema besar “How to Fix The World: A Guide for The Next President”. Dari judulnya, kita bisa menebak kalau tulisan-tulisan itu berisi saran untuk Presiden AS Terpilih Barack Obama. Selain Irshad, terdapat beberapa nama-nama besar lain yang ikut menyumbangkan pikiran, sebut saja Joseph E. Stiglitz, Fareed Zakaria, Kevin Rudd, Lula Da Silva, Ban Ki-Moon, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, dll.

Irshad memberikan beberapa resep yang saya kira sangat aplikatif dalam rangka memperbaiki Islam. Salah satu idenya adalah memberdayakan perempuan muslim, yang dia nilai selama ini mendapat perhatian yang sangat minim dalam diskursus dunia Islam.

Tentang situs Faithfreedom: Surat kepada seorang teman

SECARA pribadi, saya kerapkali menerima email-email yang isinya menyerang Islam dan bahan-bahannya, antara lain, diambil dari situs yang terkenal, “Faithfreedom”. Situs ini dikelola oleh seorang ex-Muslim bernama Ali Sina. 

Menurut saya, Ali Sina, dalam beberapa hal, sama persis dengan Hj. Irena Handono, seorang yang konon mantan biarawati dan kemudian masuk Islam. Keduanya sama-sama meninggalkan agama yang mereka peluk, Islam dalam kasus Ali Sina dan Katolik dalam kasus Irena. Keduanya sama-sama menjelek-jelakkan “bekas agama” yang pernah mereka peluk. Perbedaannya, Ali Sina keluar dari Islam untuk kemudian menjadi agnostik, alias tak memeluk agama lain. Sementara, Irena meninggalkan Katolik untuk memeluk agama lain, yaitu Islam.

Progressive and Neo Traditionalist Approaches on Education

Both the progressives and neo-traditionalist believe that the purpose of education is to socialize the young children into adults’ life.  Therefore every activity in the school setting strongly correlates and contributes to that goal.  The ways like how students are treated, classified, and graded will inevitably contribute to their later lives. The students’ experiences during their school years will form the ways they view their outside world at the time they enter the adult society. Moreover, the progressives and neo-traditionalist also holds a view point about the roles of school as in loco parentis which refers to school, as a formal education institution, as well teachers having identical roles and functions as family in nurturing and parenting the students.  As points out by Coleman (1987), school has role to fit the vacuum left by parents during the socialization process.

Tracking and Detracking in Schooling

 

There is an ongoing debate about the most effective students grouping in schooling, i.e. whether tracking (grouping students into a more homogeneous group) or detracking (into heterogeneous group). The supporters of tracking may offer the fact that inequality is a reality that exists in the society. After all, school, as a social institution, is simply an instrument and tool that reflects that inequality. As social stratification of society based on demographic factors, like socioeconomic, gender, race, school has more or less similar categorization. Therefore, categorization is very integral part in every aspects of human life, not to exclude school. They would most likely argue by adopting traditionalist perspective that views schooling as an arena in which competition and race take place where the students depart from similar starting point. Since it is a race, some may win, while others may lose during the race. To them, equality is almost impossible.  On the other hand, proponents of detracking strategy will certainly reject this view. They would most likely to counter this argument by saying equality is possible, especially as we live in democratic society.