Religious Transcript Needs to be Re-interpreted
Wednesday, 26 March, 2008 | 14:46 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Religious transcripts that have been used to justify violence should be studied deeper and adjusted to the Indonesian context.

“For example, the words jihad and dzimmi,” said KH Malik Madani on a seminar about “The Role of the Islamic Boarding School and Religious Leaders in Preventing Religious-based Violence,” attended by religious figures from throughout Indonesia, in Jakarta on 25-26 March.

Jihad, he said, can be understood as a serious effort to eradicate poverty, backwardness, injustice, and environmental damage. “It means also to fight for minority groups.”

The difference in conviction, according to religious figures, cannot be used as a reason for violence. It is not what Al-Quran and the Hadith say about Jihad and Qital. They say that violence as criminal action can be treated by the justice system.

They suggested religious leaders encourage their followers to build a dialog with different believers and to protect mistreated groups. They also suggested that the community not be easily provoked.

For the scholar there is also the role of the state apparatus. Religious-based violence can be reduced when the state acts fairly in solving the tension between different groups in the community.

The seminar was initiated by the Wahid Institute and Yayasan Mata Air Jakarta. Two of the speakers were KH Mustofa Bisri and KH Abdurrahman Wahid.

ANTON SEPTIAN