The problem with democracy

By Robert Fisk,

Oh no, not more democracy again! Didn't we award this to those Algerians in 1990? And didn't they reward us with that nice gift of an Islamist government - and then they so benevolently cancelled the second round of elections? Thank goodness for that!

True, the Afghans elected a round of representatives, albeit that they included some warlords and murderers. But then the Iraqis last year elected the Dawa party to power in Baghdad, which was responsible - let us not speak this in Washington - for most of the kidnappings of Westerners in Beirut in the 1980s, the car bombing of the (late) Emir and the US and French embassies in Kuwait.

And now, horror of horrors, the Palestinians have elected the wrong party to power. They were supposed to have given their support to the friendly, pro-Western, corrupt, absolutely pro-American Fatah, which had promised to "control" them, rather than to Hamas, which said they would represent them. And, bingo, they have chosen the wrong party again.

Result: 76 out of 132 seats. That just about does it. God damn that democracy. What are we to do with people who don't vote the way they should?

Way back in the 1930s, the British would lock up the Egyptians who turned against the government of King Farouk. Thus they began to set the structure of anti-democratic governance that was to follow. The French imprisoned the Lebanese government which demanded the same. Then the French left Lebanon. But we have always expected the Arab governments to do what they were told.

So today, we are expecting the Syrians to behave, the Iranians to kowtow to our nuclear desires (though they have done nothing illegal), and the North Koreans to surrender their weapons (though they actually do have them, and therefore cannot be attacked).

Now let the burdens of power lie heavy on the shoulders of the party. Now let the responsibilities of people lie upon them. We British would never talk to the IRA, or to Eoka, or to the Mao Mao. But in due course, Gerry Adams, Archbishop Makarios and Jomo Kenyatta came to take tea with the Queen. The Americans would never speak to their enemies in North Vietnam. But they did. In Paris.

No, al-Qa'ida will not do that. But the Iraqi leaders of the insurgency in Mesopotamia will. They talked to the British in 1920, and they will talk to the Americans in 2006.

Back in 1983, Hamas talked to the Israelis. They spoke directly to them about the spread of mosques and religious teaching. The Israeli army boasted about this on the front page of the Jerusalem Post. At that time, it looked like the PLO was not going to abide by the Oslo resolutions. There seemed nothing wrong, therefore, with continuing talks with Hamas. So how come talks with Hamas now seem so impossible?
Not long after the Hamas leadership had been hurled into southern Lebanon, a leading member of its organisation heard me say that I was en route to Israel.

"You'd better call Shimon Peres," he told me. "Here's his home number."

The phone number was correct. Here was proof that members of the hierarchy of the most extremist movements among the Palestinians were talking to senior Israeli politicians.

The Israelis know well the Hamas leadership. And the Hamas leadership know well the Israelis. There is no point in journalists like us suggesting otherwise. Our enemies invariably turn out to be our greatest friends, and our friends turn out, sadly, to be our enemies.
A terrible equation - except that we must understand our fathers' history. My father, who was a soldier in the First World War, bequeathed to me a map in which the British and French ruled the Middle East. The Americans have tried, vainly, to rule that map since the Second World War. They have all failed. And it remains our curse to rule it since.

How terrible it is to speak with those who have killed our sons. How unspeakable it is to converse with those who have our brothers' blood on their hands. No doubt that is how Americans who believed in independence felt about the Englishmen who fired upon them.

It will be for the Iraqis to deal with al-Qa'ida. This is their burden. Not ours. Yet throughout history, we have ended up talking to our enemies. We talked to the representatives of the Emperor of Japan. In the end, we had to accept the surrender of the German Reich from the successor to Adolf Hitler. And today, we trade happily with the Japanese, the Germans and the Italians.

The Middle East was never a successor to Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy, despite the rubbish talked by Messrs Bush and Blair. How long will it be before we can throw away the burden of this most titanic of wars and see our future, not as our past, but as a reality?

Surely, in an age when our governments no longer contain men or women who have experienced war, we must now lead a people with the understanding of what war means. Not Hollywood. Not documentary films. Democracy means real freedom, not just for the people we choose to have voted into power.

And that is the problem in the Middle East.

P/S:This article was published in "The Independent"(01/28/06) which the I think worth reading especially in the times of the post revolution in the Arab World and the transition of these countries towards more democratic government

Leia Mais…

Pesan buat Mahasiswa

Hari ini berdemo lagi,

Hari lusa kita berkumpul lagi,

minggu depan bermadah lagi,

bulan depan berforum lagi,

Tahun depan kita merusuh lagi,

Gunalah sepenuhnya ruang demokrasi,

Namun jangan terjerat perangkap anarki.

Mahasiswa O' mahasiswa, 

Yang berjiwa kental,lantang bertenaga,

dalam pekikan menjulang idealisme,

Fahamkah kita realiti dunia?

Idea kebebasan menjadi wacana,

Rejim kejam musuh utama,

politik kotor kuat dicerca,

budaya intelektual hendak dijana,

Itulah asiprasi mahasiswa negara,

Namun,

kita tertanya,menepuk dada tanya selera,

Sudahkah intelektualisme tersemat di dada?

Sudahkah ilmu dikasih dicinta?,

atau masih berfb sepanjang masa?

Mahasiswa O' mahasiswa, 

Yang berjiwa kental,lantang bertenaga,

dalam pekikan menjulang idealisme,

Fahamkah kita realiti dunia?

Ayuh bangkit mahasiswa malaysia,

Berbekal ilmu kita melangkah mara,

Buanglah ego,sedikitkan berbicara,

Hentikan mengumpat,banyakkan membaca,

Kerna ilmu yang memberi cahaya,

dalam gerakmu mengubah layar bahtera.

Leia Mais…

Calon Republikan 2012,suatu penilaian ringkas.

Di sebalik dilema dan konflik politik tanah air yang yang seret dengan pelbagai isu yang “meloyakan”,saya berpeluang untuk turut mengikuti perkembangan kempen pilihan raya yang bakal berlangsung tahun depan.Setakat ini calon republican merupakan antara focus yang paling menarik kerana kebanyakan masih kabur dan tidak pasti siapakah yang bakal dijadikan calon utama bagi parti Republikan.Mengikut kajian Gallup Poll yang disiarkan di laman webnya,sekitar pada 30 November sehingga  7 Disember antara calon pilihan yang menjadi pencabar utama adalah Newt Ginrgrich dan Mitt Romney.Gingrich yang telah pun mencipta kontoversi kerana dengan jahilnya mendakwa “Palestin tidak wujud” pada 10 Disember 2011.(saya telah pun menyanggah dakwaan beliau di sini )

Juga telah menjadi tradisi pada setiap kali menjelang pilihan raya akan diadakan pelbagai siri-siri debat yang menampilkan calon-calon presiden baik daripada Republikan atau Demokrat untuk mempromosi idea-idea mereka dalam mentadbir negara.Saya cuba menekuni setiap siri debat yang diadakan dan pada hemah saya beberapa isu yang menarik timbul pada sesi pra-pilihan raya ini.

“We're under great threat because we occupy so many countries. We're in 130 countries. We have 900 bases around the world. We're going broke. The purpose of al-Qaeda was to attack us, invite us over there, where they can target us. And they have been doing it. They have more attacks against us and the American interests per month than occurred in all the years before 9/11. But we're there, occupying their land. And if we think that we can do that and not have retaliation, we're kidding ourselves. We have to be honest with ourselves. What would we do if another country, say China, did to us what we do to all those countries over there?”

Ucapan berikut merupakan ucapan Ron Ernest Paul,calon Republikan bagi jawatan Presiden untuk pilhanraya 2012 akan datang ketika menghadiri sesi Debat Presiden Republikan(Republican Presidential Debate) pada 12 September 2012.Hujah beliau disambut dengan ejekan penonton dan hujah-hujah balas yang agak kuat dari kalangan calon-calon lain.Ini tidak mengairankan kerana lokasi perdebatan tersebut adalah di kawasan Florida,yang merupakan kubu kuat Zionist serta memuatkan peratusan bangsa Yahudi yang ketiga terbesar(4.3% yakni seramai 641,000 orang) di Amerika Syarikat. Malah andai anda mengikuti siri-siri pilihanraya lepas,kebanyakan ucapan-ucapan manifesto di Florida adalah berkisarkan tentang polisi luar Amerika terhadap Timur tengah,terutama sekutunya Israel..

Leia Mais…

Islamic Movements:- Self-Criticism And Reconsideration

BY SHAYKH RASHID AL GHANUCHI HEAD OF THE AL-NAHDA ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF TUNIS

Looking at the Islamic revival worldwide today - a revival aiming to rebuild the individual and society and recompose the nation's thought and politics based on Islam - we find it making progress. It is making victories that no other ideology is making in today's world. The progress is not limited to the idea, because the idea itself is improving. The Islamic movement has been able to discover new areas of Islam, and the discoveries continue along the path forged by men of the last century like Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and continued by men like Hasan al-Banna and Abu Al-A'la al-Maududi. The ideas of these men gave birth to modern Islamic movements, which rediscovered the Islamic basis upon which to build life. Islam is not a group of individual beliefs, rituals, or mannerisms.

It is a comprehensive way of life. Islam was around before the modern Islamic movement, but it had been thought of as a preparation for one to get to heaven, not a system to mold society. Today Islam is progressing forcefully while secularism is falling rapidly.

 

While Islam attracts people who are looking for justice, secularism is loosing major footholds and has lost its ability to defend itself except by violence. When you see a secular state using more and more violence, know that it is bankrupt. The secular state has lost its legitimacy. Instead of being based on popular support, these states are based on international support and on violence. Meanwhile, Islam is progressing vertically and horizontally.

Its idea deepens daily while spreading from fields such as politics and economics to art, human resource development (including women), and institution-building. Despite this remarkable progress, however, I must make some negative remarks, emphasize some shortcomings in the performance of the Islamic movement, and warn against some pitfalls, because we cannot always focus on the positive side of things.

One of the elements of repentance is reconsideration. We must reconsider our actions every day. Are we really on the truth path, or can we be described by the Qur'anic verse:

"We found our forefathers doing something and here we are doing the same" (Zukhruf: 23). 

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Transisi Algeria

Pada hujung 1960-an Gerakan Islam di Algeria dikatakan mula muncul di pentas politik ketika wujud konflik identiti antara golongan elitis yang menaja budaya Barat(Perancis) dan orang-orang bawahan.Gerakan-gerakan yang wujud kebanyakannya mendapat inspirasi daripada tokoh-tokoh dari kalangan Ikhwan Muslimin serta Jamaat i' Islami,dan beberapa tokoh intelektual seperti Muhammad Abduh dan Muhamamd Iqbal.

Sehinggalah lewat 1970-an,kehadiran gerakan-gerakan Islam ini menjadi pelopor kepada transisi masyarakat Algeria ke arah yang lebih matang.John L.Esposito mencatatkan:

"..a transition occured from a focus on issues of culture and ritual to a more comprehensive Islamism that stressed life in a more Islamic political and social order.Small grup congregated and shared ideas at the mosques:'These were no longer lessons dealing with how to pray or perform a fast and all that.No,these were lessons at a high level in which we explained,or we searched for a method by which we could..And we touched on all the problems which Algerian nation was confronting.We spoke about everything.Of all situations,the economy,of all aspects of life"-Islam and Democracy,ms154

Perkembangan mentaliti juga dapat kita nilai melalui isu-isu dan fokus perbincangan di masjid-masjid yang perlu dipelbagaikan dan tidak lagi terpenjara dalam lingkungan fiqh ibadat(khusus) atau tawhid sahaja.


Walaupun tidak dinafikan pentingnya unsur-unsur tawhid dan fiqh dalam membahaskan sesuatu perkara,namun apabila berlegar di ruang sempit ini sahaja menyebabkan kita gagal mencapai maqasid syariah itu sendiri.


Perseimbangkan wacana,membudayakan ilmu,mengkritiskan pemikiran.  :)

Leia Mais…

Palestin bangsa yang wujud,menyanggah dakwaan Gingrich.

Pada tanggal 10 Disember 2011,Newt Gingrich memberi komentar yang menampakkan kejahilan beliau tentang sejarah,menyebut;“"I believe that the Jewish people have the right to a state ... Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire" until the early 20th century,(1)”.Beliau yang juga pernah dinobat sebagai “Man of The Year” oleh majalah Time(1995) dan antara calon utama Parti Republikan untuk jawatan Presiden pada pilihanraya 2012 menjustifikasikan pendiriannya mengatakan bahawa: “"I think that we've had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs, and who were historically part of the Arab community”(2).Sungguhpun dakwaan beliau tampak “berani” dan mungkin menjejaskan kredibiliti beliau untuk mendapatkan undi pada pilihanraya akan datang setelah presiden Barrack Obama menampakkan “kehambaan”nya kepada Israel dalam isu permohonan Palestin untuk menyertai UN sebagai ahli yang sah.Namun begitu usaha untuk memadamkan nama Palestin dalam dunia,sekaligus kamus-kamus sejarah bukanlah suatu usaha yang baharu.

Pada tahun 1984,seorang penulis wanita yang juga bekas produser berita CBS,Joan Peter,telah menulis sebuah buku “From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine” membuat dakwaan yang hampir serupa seperti yang disebut Gingrich.Buku tersebut telah mendapat liputan dan komentar yang cukup positif dari kalangan ahli-ahli intelektual sehingga dijadikan sebagai bahan buku teks di berapa buah universiti.Chomsky,seorang ahli linguistic dan penganalisis politik Timur Tengah lantang mengkritik buku tersebut dan merumuskan keseluruhan tulisan Joan Peter sebagai:“the implicit message was, if Israel kicks them all out there's no moral issue, because they're just recent immigrants who came in because the Jews had built up the country”(3).Sungguhpun begitu pada era ia diterbitkan buku Joan Peter mendapat “best seller”,diiringi dengan beratus-ratus ulasan positif dari ahli akademik dan sehingga telah diterbitkan sebanyak 10 edisi(4).Hanya sebilangan kecil sahaja yang kritikal dan tajam mengkritik dakwaan buku tersebut,dan antaranya ialah Prof Norman Finkelstein.Kata Chomsky,Noam Finkelstein telah menulis sebuah jurnal setebal 25 helai menceritakan pemalsuan fakta,dan penipuan-penipuan yang dibawa oleh Joan Peter sehingga mengkaburkan perspektif masyarakat.Jurnal tersebut kemudiannya telah dihantar oleh Chomsky kepada beberapa jurnalis British sebelum buku tersebut diterbitkan di England.Impaknya selepas diterbitkan di England buku tersebut dikritik hebat,berpandukan jurnal Norman Finkelstein sehingga dilabel sebagai “ludicrous," dan "preposterous."(5).Kemudian perlahan reputasi buku tersebut mula merudum dan mula dipinggirkan masyarakat:

Leia Mais…

Kontangnya tujuan hidup kita,sempitnya dakwah kita

Wanita bertudung di atas merupakan pemenang “TEDxIB@York 2011 student competition”,seorang pelajar IB biasa yang masih muda(17 tahun) namun mempunyai cita-cita yang tinggi untuk mengubah dunia. Amal Ahmed Albaz,seorang pelajar di White Oaks Secondary School,Oakville telah bepidato di pentas itu meminta kita semua merenung semula; “Apakah sumbangan kita pada dunia?”, “Sudahkah kita memanfaatkan bakat dan kehidupan yang tuhan kurniakan kepada kita untuk tujuan kebaikan”.

Mungkin ada yang tersenyum,lega kerana sekurang-kurangnya “kami dah join organisasi Islam?”,namun cukupkah hanya menyertai sahaja?

Amal kemudiannya meminta kita renungi falsafahnya “5 before 5”,yakni yang dipetik daripada hadis nabi Muhammad S.A.W:

“Rebutlah lima perkara sebelum datang lima perkara lain, yaitu masa muda engkau sebelum datangnya hari tua, masa sihat engkau sebelum dilanda sakit, masa kaya engkau sebelum masa miskinmu, masa lapang engkau sebelum datangnya waktu sibuk, dan masa hidup engkau sebelum datangnya saat kematian.” (Hadith Riwayat Muslim dan Tirmizi dari Amru bin Maimun r.a.)

Benar hidup ini berjalan,berputar dan hari juga saling silih berganti.Perlahan-lahan masa itu ibarat sebuah kenderaan yang memandu kita menempuhi kelima-lima tanda ini.Namun sugguhpun tidak ramai yang ambil peduli.

Leia Mais…

Keruh tak Sudah.

Huduh disanggah,akidah punah!

Islam diludah,tampak umat yang lemah!

Dakwah ditegah,terjulang mazmumah!

Pemimpin asabiyah,perpaduan musnah!

Andai ini yang kita persembah,

Tertegakkah Islam yang menjadi amanah?

Bangkitlah ummah ,gerakkan Islah.

Tampilkan yang haq,hapuskan yang bidaah,

agar di kubur tidak bermadah,kelak di akhirat sesal tak sudah.

 Berbicara soal perlaksanaan adalah suatu yang lumrah dan perkara ijtihadiyah.Namun mempersoalkan sesuatu secara dasar yang termaktub di dalam al Quran boleh membawa kepada kekufuran.

"Barang siapa yang tidak mengikut hukum Allah maka mereka itu adalah orang-orang yang KAFIR". (Al-Maidah : Ayat 44)

Tidaklah kita mentakfirkan mana pihak,namun seharusnya di zaman yang serba kekeliruan ini hukum hudud patut diberi penjelasan yang betul untuk melahirkan persepsi yang baik kepada orang ISLAM dan BUKAN ISLAM.Melihat video ini yang hanya menjadi propaganda murahan buat parti-parti tertentu tidaklah bukan melainkan hanya mengeruhkan pemahaman masyarakat kepada hudud Allah.

Bila dan bagaimana untuk melaksankannya?Masih belum sesuai sekarang?Itu boleh kita perdebatkan tetapi JANGAN mempersoalkan autoriti hukum ini.

Suatu komentar yang baik terhadap video ini oleh sahabat saya,saudara Marwan Bukhari:

"Akar rebung meresap,

Akar nangka di dalam perahu,
Terbakar kampung, kelihatan asap,
Terbakar di neraka, siapa yang tahu?


Pantun dan komentar ini tidak bermaksud meletakkan "hukuman neraka" kepada pelakon-pelakon dalam video tersebut, cuma sebagai amaran dan tafakkur untuk kita, supaya jangan bermudah-mudah menghina hukum Tuhan. Semakin ramai yang melihat video ini, semakin banyak dosa orang yg menghina.


Pada saya, kalau mahu bercakap hudud secara terbuka, sudah tiba masanya memandangkan hudud berkait dgn ramai pihak. Bahkan (pandangan peribadi saya) sesiapa sahaja boleh mempersoalkan dan mengkritik implementasi hukum Hudud, sama ada Muslim dan lebih-lebih lagi bukan Muslim. Mempersoalkan implementasi tiada masalah lantaran manusia yg mengimplementasikannya, justeru pastinya sangat banyak kelemahan manusia. Sebaliknya yangg menjadi masalah apabila disindir tanpa ilmu dan penuh dengan tohmahan. Hal ini tidak dapat diterima akal rasional, apatah lagi agama sendiri melarangnya.


Sehingga masa ini, saya bersetuju dengan pandangan tokoh-tokoh yg mengesyorkan supaya didahulukan membuka ruang kebebasan, good governance, menyelesaikan masalah ekonomi, demokratisasi media dan lain-lain lagi berbanding tergesa-gesa dalam melaksanakan hukuman hudud. Menuju kepada hudud itu wajib hukumnya, oleh yang demikian segala syubhah yang menjadi penghalang kepada pelaksanaan hudud mesti diselesaikan terlebih dahulu. Pada hemat saya, halangan utama sekarang ialah ruang kebebasan dan demokrasi yang sangat bermasalah, malahan jabatan-jabatan agama sendiri menjadi penghalang dalam menyebarkan agama (isu tauliah sebagai contoh).


Namun demikian, video di atas telah menambahkan salah faham semua pihak terhadap hudud, tiada kritikan ilmiah sebaliknya penuh dengan cercaan peribadi, fitnah dan mempersenda hukum agama. Sebagai Muslim, wajib kita menasihati dan memberi respon sewajarnya terhadap penyebaran video ini. Kalau pun bukan menerusi blog atau facebook, sekurang-kurangnya hati kita menolak tindakan lakonan dalam video di atas.


Selain itu, saya melihat di sinilah kepentingan untuk NGO-NGO Islam seperti IKRAM, ABIM, ISMA, PUM (Pada saya, Pas tidak perlu terlalu menumpukan isu ini memandangkan terlalu banyak keutamaan lain yang mesti dilaksanakan dan diperkuat buat masa ini) dan lain-lain merespon tindakan di atas dengan sehikmah mungkin. Apabila sihir digunakan ahli-ahli sihir pada zaman Firaun, maka Musa as dikurnia mukjizat tongkat ajaib utk melemahkan mereka. Tatkala syair-syair yg penuh mempersona digunakan masyarakat Arab jahiliah untuk menentang dakwah nabi saw, maka datang al-Quran yang penuh dengan nilai sastera yang tinggi. Justeru apabila video, filem dan teknologi digunakan dalam memberi tanggapan buruk kepada Islam, apakah sekadar demonstrasi yang akan menjadi satu-satunya jawapan?


Wallahua'lam, semoga Allah merahmati sekalian pejuang keadilan dan kebenaran!" Boleh dicari di sini

Leia Mais…

The very foundation of all question

‎"What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do,not what I must do,not what I must know-except that a certain amount of knowledge is presupposed in every action.I need to understand my purpose in life,to see what God wants me to do,and this means that I must find a truth which is true for me,that I must find that idea for which I can live or die."-Soren Kierkegaard ,private papers(1838-1855)

Kierkegaard was a young student of philosophy and theology at the time he wrote these words in his diary.Since then he delved into an intellectual voyage dealing with philosophical wonders,aiming solely to find the Truth,but not simple empirical truth,factual knowledge,but for the truth which there wasn't yet known to him,a sort of inner truth,a spiritual ideal for which he could live and die for.


His attempt,weather we noticed it or not,is an universal attempt by mere thinking creatures as ours,named human.This ultimate question lies deep within the spiritual dimension of any human being,as God had embedded this as a remarks of His existence and Might.Some might try to avoid asking this question,refusing to pay attention to their inner cry for such meaning of living a life and think that by denying those fact would grant him FREEDOM but those attitude only lead him to a greater inner suffering and depression.This question will haunt them till they are ready to embrace it.


Who am I?What is life?What happen after I died?Who created me?Any ignorance, however great, could be forgiven except for man to be ignorant about the secret of his existence, his aim in life and what will be his outcome after death.


"Human by definition are in need,we need foods,drinks,shelter,and answers to this very basic question of our life"-Tariq Ramadan. 

"And I did not create the Jinn and mankind except to worship Me…"-Quran 51:56-58

Leia Mais…

The Age of Confusion/Zaman Kekeliruan.

The Age of Confusion/Zaman Kekeliruan.

Bukanlah ini kali pertama saya berdialog dengan manusia melalui penulisan,malahan sebelum ini telahpun diwujudkan dua blog yang awal namun terpaksa dibelasungkawakan atas sebab-sebab tertentu.Dalam ruangan yang baru ini saya ingin memberi nafas yang baru,tulisan dan ide yang lebih terperinci  dan menzahirkan pandangan seorang insan muda yang masih bertatih dalam dunia akademik.Langkah saya langkah yang perlahan dan mungkin juga kurang cermat.Oleh yang demikian saya mengharapkan para pembaca yang budiman dapat melahirkan sebarang teguran,kerana dunia dan hidup ini adalah pentas pendidikan,taadib,dan tarbiyah.

Blog yang baru ini telahpun saya bungkuskan dengan wajah dan nama yang baru.”Age of Confusion” ataupun “Zaman Kekeliruan” pada hemah saya adalah antara ungkapan asas yang menjadi driving force untuk seseorang manusia pada hari ini untuk terjun ke dalam dunia ilmu dan intelektualisme.

Adalah benar andai disebut bahawa kehidupan gaya  moden yang menjadi tema dunia pada hari ini telah mewujudkan dunia yang lebih interaktif,membentuk gagasan kosmopolitanisme(1) .Era globalisasi yang memancar-mancar hasil penciptaan teknologi ini menjadikan manusia itu lebih mudah menjelajah dunia maklumat; “Kesemuanya di hujung jari”.Namun tambunan maklumat seakan masih belum cukup untuk menjadikan masyarakat kita golongan yang disebut Al-Quran sebagai golongan al fahmu(2).Mungkin tidak siapa yang mendapat nafikan bahawa disebalik era “The Third Wave” ,era pasca industri,seperti yang dinukilkan oleh Alvin Toffler dalam bukunya(3) kita masih di ambang kekeliruan yang kritikal dan mungkin lebih parah daripada generasi sebelumnya.Generasi muda pada hari ini menyaksikan dalam detik-detik kehidupan mereka sebuah tamadun yang dihujani dengan pelbagai lagaan dan konflik ideology yang pelbagai.Melalui cabang falsafah pelbagai transisi yang mengambil tempat;era rationalism mengambil tempat metodologi intelek,sains menjadi tuhan,laungan Nietzsche mengisytiharkan kematian tuhan,nihilism menjadi asas system nilai,pragmatism William James dan Richard Rorty menjadi kayu ukur kebenaran-dunia seakan menjadi satu sudut relativisme di mana kebebaran mutlak(absolute truth) menjadi hampir mustahil untuk dicapai.

Ilmuan Islam juga berpecah dengan pelbagai aliran-Ahbash,Salafi wahabiyah,modernist,reformis,sufisme-malah aliran-aliran ini juga berpecah menjadi beberapa rangkaian lagi.Dalam kalangan ulama’ juga saling berbalah,jemaah-jemaah bertelagah,menjadikan budaya takfir sebagai mainan mulut.Siapakah yang benar sebenarnya?Siapakah yang betul-betul berpandukan Al-Quran dan Sunnah?Siapakah yang tepat dalam menzahirkan maqasid al Islam?

Andai anda lahir pada zaman seperti ini,tidakkah kita juga semua keliru?

Leia Mais…

Islam and Liberal Democracy: The Challenge Of Secularization

Abdou Filali-Ansary, "Islam and Liberal Democracy: The Challenge Of Secularization," Journal of Democracy 7.2 (1996) 76-80

Robin Wright and Bernard Lewis both seem to address the question of whether there is an "Islamic Reformation" going on now, and if there is, what content, direction, and influence it is likely to have. The raising of this question betokens an important shift in the way that Western observers view the Islamic world. Wright and Lewis implicitly acknowledge that behind the confrontations and violence that we witness today in many Muslim societies, there lies a situation marked by some kind of pluralism and opposition of ideas. In other words, there is not merely a fight, but a debate. To recognize this is already to take a giant step away from the familiar Western academic and journalistic stereotypes of Muslim societies as places overwhelmed by religious fanaticism, rejection of "the other," and crises of identity.

The dramatic importance of the question under discussion should need no emphasis: Islam, one of the major world religions, may be living through a turning point in its history, one that will bring it face-to-face with the challenges of the human condition at the end of the twentieth century.

Bernard Lewis proceeds according to his well-known "macrohistorical" approach. He casts his gaze across large spans of history, constitutive elements of Islamic faith, and some features of Middle Eastern languages in order to construct a grand schema that explains what is happening now and illuminates its links with the mainstream of Islamic (and also Middle Eastern) history. He draws on a larger arsenal of disciplines (history, theology, linguistics) than does Wright, and discusses a greater variety of subjects (religious beliefs, historical facts, [End Page 76] linguistic usages and concepts) in order to create a highly seductive synthesis of his own.
While Lewis acknowledges that the term "Islam" can be confusing, he himself is not always sufficiently careful in his use of it. He goes back and forth from Islam as a religion to Islam as a historical civilization, from detailed observations to general remarks. He seems to be guided by the "inner logics" that he sees lurking behind the observed data, molding attitudes, behaviors, and ways of understanding. His conclusions about the present situation point to a clash of such logics, one that pits Muslim communities against their Western counterparts. These inner logics are what he considers to be the true core of observed reality; facts, which appear on the surface, manifest the core imperfectly, much as the shadows that flicker on the wall of Plato's cave provide only a crude representation of the realities that give them shape.

Robin Wright, in contrast, adopts an approach at loggerheads with the one prevailing in specialized academic circles. She prefers to try to understand the debate by "listening" to two of its key participants: Iranian philosopher Abdul Karim Soroush and Tunisian political leader Sheikh Rachid al-Ghannouchi. Wright assumes that ideas, not conscious or unconscious determinisms, rule human societies, which simply cannot be understood through external observation or historical reconstruction alone. This, it would seem, is why she has chosen, among living Muslim thinkers, to discuss two prominent and highly controversial figures, each of whom is thought to exert a large (and in all likelihood growing) influence on thoughtful people in the Muslim world.

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DISTINCTION BETWEEN RELIGION AND POLITICS IN ISLAM by Dr. Sa.ad Al-Din Al-Uthmani

In a very original thoughtful article, Saad Al-Din Al-Uthmani¹ uses a linguistic discourse on the meaning of the word religion and the significance of its dual purpose to explain the distinction between religion and politics in Islam and the role of secularism.

 The Linguistic Approach

Al-Uthmani suggests that technical linguistic differences in the use of words are what gave rise to conflicting interpretations of religious texts. Referring to the theory of the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein on the  specificity of words and expressions, Al-Uthmani blames the conflict over the relationship between politics and Islam on those who fail to understand the linguistic ambiguities in Arabic expressions. He emphasizes the importance of interpreting words in context rather than based on their meaning in the abstract.

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What I can offer You?

Writing historically is arguably one of the most important medium for the intellectuals to convey what they ought is/are the truth(s) to the audience,the society.I am no scholar or even an intellectual.I've hold no degree in an particular fields but God had blessed me with this intellect to distinguish between Haq and Batil so via writing i hope that this humble attempt to share my understanding of the world might help,if not all,some in this vast globalized society.

May I remind you that I could be wrong in my arguments thus It would be very helpful if one can criticizes   any part of my works if one find it misleading.

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