Bahaya pada agama dan agamawan bermula pada keghairahan, emosi dan kebutaan iman.
[Kira-kira maksud saya macam ungkapan Abdolkarim Soroush tentang orang Islam yang melihat agamanya semacam "pasangan kekasih" -- cinta itu membutakan. Dia tidak boleh "objektif" atau "mencipta jarak" atau "rasional". Agama itu ideologi, atau dalam bahasa Arab disebut 'aqidah. Akidah di sini dieja dengan 'ain huruf kecil, bukan 'ain huruf besar, OK!]
Ia tidak bermula dengan akal, buku dan kajian tetapi menampal sejumlah kata agama -- jika perlu, menempel kalimat-kalimat al-Qur'an -- sewaktu cuba merumuskan persoalan duniawi dan masyarakat yang cuba digelutinya.
Sekalipun dia bermula dengan akal, buku dan kajian -- semuanya ini akan jadi tumpul dek keghairahan dan kecintaan yang menebal, mengasyikkan dan membutakan. Tetapi kita namakan pula ia "iman"!
Sama ada seseorang agamawan itu jujur atau tidak, perkara ini sahaja boleh mencacatkan pergelutan akliahnya itu (kalaulah itu hajatnya yang asal).
Menulis memang boleh dan ia memang kerja 'mudah', apatah lagi jika ia memang seorang penulis atau sasterawan. 'Mudahnya' kegiatan ini seperti menyangkut/melilit serban (atau: kain yang selalunya diserbankan) di bahu ke hulu ke hilir dan menyimpan sejemput janggut.
[Jika perlu lagi, membawa biji-biji tasbih atau menyebut insya allah sebanyak 50 kali dalam tempoh seminit!]
Samalah mudahnya dengan memplagiat (ulang: memplagiat) patah-patah al-Qur'an dalam artikel untuk meyakinkan nilai agama pada artikel, macam juga mengutip petikan, nama pengarang dan buku rujukan.
Kononnya nanti dapat memberi sense of authenticity atau authority pada artikel dan penulisnya.
Lagipun, penulis kreatif atau manusia sastera ini memanglah dikenali sarat dengan kata-kata tetapi kontang kejujuran ilmiahnya atau tidak tekal disiplin ilmiahnya. Sarat propaganda tetapi tidak ada kedalaman akal.
Pada dasarnya, ia bergelut seperti meronta-ronta di permukaan air, dia tidak menyelam dengan lincah di perut lautan. Dia hanya mendebur-deburkan permukaan air dan mengocak untuk mencipta riak-riak.**
Ramai pembaca dan pengikutnya tidak akan sedar dia sekadar bermain air (bukan penyelam mutiara) seperti mudahnya mengutip pengikut di tepi longkang artikel kita.
Entah mengapa dan di mana celakanya, semua penulis mesti ada pengikut dan pemujanya sendiri!!! Walau bagaimana bodohnya penulis itu atau walau bagaimana buruknya wacana dalam artikelnya, pastilah ada pengikut dan peminatnya sendiri.
Jika dia tidak berfikir, dia lama-kelamaan akan menjadi penjual agama dalam industri agama. Malah itulah hakikatnya, dia sedang mencipta pasaran dan menjual diri, marketing himself in religious markets -- di hujung nanti keuntungan benda, material gain, macam ustaz-ustaz bebas di masjid dan surau kita.
Meletakkan harga, seolah-olah analisa Marxisme dalam hal ini sentiasa benar dan perennial sifatnya!
Bagaimana dia tidak dianggap menjual diri jika biodata, sumbangan, hasil kerja, lulusan akademik dan anugerah yang diraihnya terpaksa ditulis panjang lebar untuk memperkenalkan dirinya kepada dunia! Fuhhhh... parah 'tu!
Daripada seorang profesional menjadi semacam ustaz; daripada seorang seorang (bekas) penyanyi rock menjadi seorang ustaz; daripada seorang penulis cereka menjadi seorang ustaz -- apatah lagi kalau dia seorang lulusan agama!
Saya memerhatikannya dengan penuh minat. Ke mana jajaannya selepas ini. Sudah ramai orang yang menjualnya dan mudah banyak pula yang tidak laku....
** tugas ini tugasan berat; tugas cendekiawan yang tulen (yang terbukti melalui beratnya hasil pemikirannya daripada tebal bukunya dan dalam pula rentas waktu persoalan yang digelutinya) walau kata 'intelektual', 'cendekiawan', 'terpelajar', 'lulusan universiti' atau seumpamanya di negara kita boleh merangkumi semua jenis manusia yang ke kampus. Tetapi orang yang mendebur-deburkan air sekadar berminat menulis kolum, artikel pendek atau memiliki blog. Oleh kerana dia menjerit, maka tentu ada orang mendengarnya, sama ada mahu atau tidak, terpaksa atau rela. Seperti lolongan anjing di waktu malam, jeritan ini pastilah menarik perhatian.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Tinjauan
Kepada mereka yang belum membacanya tetapi berminat mengetahui isu ini ... ada sesuatu yang tersembunyi, tersirat dalam berita tentang tinjauan pendapat ini.
Poll shows 73% think we are Islamic state
by Jacqueline Ann Surin (The Sun, 6 Sept 2006)
PETALING JAYA: Nearly three-quarters of Malay Muslims in Peninsular Malaysia believe that Malaysia is an Islamic state, according to a poll.
Seventy-three percent of 1,029 Muslims surveyed in the Muslim Identities Public Opinion Survey, Peninsular Malaysia answered "Yes" to the question "Is Malaysia an Islamic state?", while 25% answered "No" to the question and 2% said they did not know.
However, 77% said they did not want an Islamic state in Malaysia, like Iran.
Of those polled, 57% wanted hudud laws implemented. However, 60% said non-Muslims should not be subjected to hudud laws while 28% said they should.
The public opinion survey conceptualised and coordinated by Assoc Prof Dr Patricia Martinez of Universiti Malaya's AsiaEurope Institute, polled 1,029 randomly-selected Malaysian Muslims across the peninsula between Dec 15 and 18 last year.
It was administered by the Merdeka Centre and supported by funding from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
It also found that a majority of Malay Muslims in the peninsula say it is acceptable for Malaysian Muslims to live alongside people of other religions.
The majority also believe that Malaysian Muslims should learn about other religions in Malaysia, and that Muslims in Malaysia can participate in interfaith dialogue (see graphic -- as reproduced here below).
77% say Malaysians should be allowed to choose their religion
98% say Malaysian Muslims should NOT be allowed to change their religion
73% agree that Malaysia is an Islamic state
77% don't want an Islamic state modelled after Iran's
64% say syariah should remain as it is under the Constitution
79% say Malaysian Muslims should learn about other religions
83% believe Malaysian Muslims can participate in inter-faith dialogue.
Poll size: 1,029 respondents
Source: Muslim Identities Public Opinion Survey, Peninsular Malaysia, December 2005
Asked if Islam should be part of an Interfaith Council in Malaysia, if there were one, the majority also said "Yes".
Martinez noted that the survey has mixed findings, some of which dismantle the generalisations and assumptions that are made about Malaysian Muslims.
Ninety-seven percent of those polled said it was acceptable for Malaysian Muslims to live alongside those of other religions, while 76% said that if there were an interfaith council in Malaysia, Islam should be part of that council.
However, even though 77% said Malaysians should be allowed to choose their religion as stipulated in the Constitution's Article 11 which guarantees freedom of religion, 98% said Malaysian Muslims should not be allowed to change their religion.
Of those polled, 64% want the syariah to remain as it is under the Constitution.
At the same time, 77% said current syariah laws in Malaysia were not strict enough, 18% said they were sufficiently strict, and 2% thought they were too strict.
Forty-four percent also believed that the authority to monitor and punish Muslims for immoral behaviour should be state religious authorities, 33% chose family, and 21% chose others.
Martinez said the survey's objective was to get Muslims themselves, instead of those who speak on their behalf, to define their identity, issues and concerns, noting that this was the first such largescale poll that had been conducted in Malaysia.
"Some of the findings really repudiate some of the claims being made about Muslims, or even what many of us have assumed. For example, the growing orthodoxy, which came through in the survey, does not mean that Peninsular Malaysian Muslims are growing less open to diversity in the country.
"However, one needs to point out that some of those with the power to shape Islam or who make pronouncements in the media or who claim to speak on behalf of, or for Islam, seem to function from the opposite dynamics: making Muslims more exclusive, less able to accept and participate in cultural and religious pluralism," she told theSun.
The poll also asked Muslims which identity they would choose if they could only choose one, and 73% chose Muslim, 14% chose Malaysian, and 13% chose Malay. However, 99% felt they were all three.
Martinez said that if over 70% of more than half of Malaysians identify themselves primarily as Muslims, then national unity policies and programmes, which largely focus on bridging the racial and ethnic gap, do not sufficiently address the fundamental element of religiosity.
"Obviously, we need to build interfaith dialogue in all these policies and programmes, and by that, I mean the ability to know about the religion, and not just the cultural practice, of the other," she said, noting however, that unlike cultural practice, in interfaith dialogue, not everything is up for scrutiny or discussion.
"This is the sort of `sensitivity' that should be addressed. Not silence and silencing, but knowing boundaries. And here the golden rule, `do unto others as you would others do to you' suffices.
"If you don't want people discussing Jesus in disrespectful terms, then don't talk about the Prophet Muhammad disrespectfully, for example."
Martinez said the government should consider building interfaith dialogue along these lines into national unity programmes and projects so that people could learn to disagree with civility and live with disagreement or difference from fellow citizens.
Poll shows 73% think we are Islamic state
by Jacqueline Ann Surin (The Sun, 6 Sept 2006)
PETALING JAYA: Nearly three-quarters of Malay Muslims in Peninsular Malaysia believe that Malaysia is an Islamic state, according to a poll.
Seventy-three percent of 1,029 Muslims surveyed in the Muslim Identities Public Opinion Survey, Peninsular Malaysia answered "Yes" to the question "Is Malaysia an Islamic state?", while 25% answered "No" to the question and 2% said they did not know.
However, 77% said they did not want an Islamic state in Malaysia, like Iran.
Of those polled, 57% wanted hudud laws implemented. However, 60% said non-Muslims should not be subjected to hudud laws while 28% said they should.
The public opinion survey conceptualised and coordinated by Assoc Prof Dr Patricia Martinez of Universiti Malaya's AsiaEurope Institute, polled 1,029 randomly-selected Malaysian Muslims across the peninsula between Dec 15 and 18 last year.
It was administered by the Merdeka Centre and supported by funding from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
It also found that a majority of Malay Muslims in the peninsula say it is acceptable for Malaysian Muslims to live alongside people of other religions.
The majority also believe that Malaysian Muslims should learn about other religions in Malaysia, and that Muslims in Malaysia can participate in interfaith dialogue (see graphic -- as reproduced here below).
77% say Malaysians should be allowed to choose their religion
98% say Malaysian Muslims should NOT be allowed to change their religion
73% agree that Malaysia is an Islamic state
77% don't want an Islamic state modelled after Iran's
64% say syariah should remain as it is under the Constitution
79% say Malaysian Muslims should learn about other religions
83% believe Malaysian Muslims can participate in inter-faith dialogue.
Poll size: 1,029 respondents
Source: Muslim Identities Public Opinion Survey, Peninsular Malaysia, December 2005
Asked if Islam should be part of an Interfaith Council in Malaysia, if there were one, the majority also said "Yes".
Martinez noted that the survey has mixed findings, some of which dismantle the generalisations and assumptions that are made about Malaysian Muslims.
Ninety-seven percent of those polled said it was acceptable for Malaysian Muslims to live alongside those of other religions, while 76% said that if there were an interfaith council in Malaysia, Islam should be part of that council.
However, even though 77% said Malaysians should be allowed to choose their religion as stipulated in the Constitution's Article 11 which guarantees freedom of religion, 98% said Malaysian Muslims should not be allowed to change their religion.
Of those polled, 64% want the syariah to remain as it is under the Constitution.
At the same time, 77% said current syariah laws in Malaysia were not strict enough, 18% said they were sufficiently strict, and 2% thought they were too strict.
Forty-four percent also believed that the authority to monitor and punish Muslims for immoral behaviour should be state religious authorities, 33% chose family, and 21% chose others.
Martinez said the survey's objective was to get Muslims themselves, instead of those who speak on their behalf, to define their identity, issues and concerns, noting that this was the first such largescale poll that had been conducted in Malaysia.
"Some of the findings really repudiate some of the claims being made about Muslims, or even what many of us have assumed. For example, the growing orthodoxy, which came through in the survey, does not mean that Peninsular Malaysian Muslims are growing less open to diversity in the country.
"However, one needs to point out that some of those with the power to shape Islam or who make pronouncements in the media or who claim to speak on behalf of, or for Islam, seem to function from the opposite dynamics: making Muslims more exclusive, less able to accept and participate in cultural and religious pluralism," she told theSun.
The poll also asked Muslims which identity they would choose if they could only choose one, and 73% chose Muslim, 14% chose Malaysian, and 13% chose Malay. However, 99% felt they were all three.
Martinez said that if over 70% of more than half of Malaysians identify themselves primarily as Muslims, then national unity policies and programmes, which largely focus on bridging the racial and ethnic gap, do not sufficiently address the fundamental element of religiosity.
"Obviously, we need to build interfaith dialogue in all these policies and programmes, and by that, I mean the ability to know about the religion, and not just the cultural practice, of the other," she said, noting however, that unlike cultural practice, in interfaith dialogue, not everything is up for scrutiny or discussion.
"This is the sort of `sensitivity' that should be addressed. Not silence and silencing, but knowing boundaries. And here the golden rule, `do unto others as you would others do to you' suffices.
"If you don't want people discussing Jesus in disrespectful terms, then don't talk about the Prophet Muhammad disrespectfully, for example."
Martinez said the government should consider building interfaith dialogue along these lines into national unity programmes and projects so that people could learn to disagree with civility and live with disagreement or difference from fellow citizens.
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