quote:"Yet, what Muslims should also need to consider is who can guarantee
security in Iraq following the withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces, given
Shiite-Sunni strife existed long before the U.S. invasion." unquote
amartien: Betul sekali. Ini dimulai jauh sebelum adanya negara Amrik.
Karballa massacre 680served.
quote: "It is also hard to deny the reality that when Saddam Hussein was in
power, the Shiites in Iraq were badly treated by the Sunnis. Nevertheless,
while the arrival of U.S. troops succeeded in toppling the dictator Saddam
Hussein, the invasion has increased the misery of the Iraqi people and been
widely criticized by the world community, as well as in the U.S. itself.:
unquote
amartien: Hmmm ....... "misery Iraqi people" tsb. siapakah penyebabnya?
Kita lihat saja di website Iraq body count bahwa itu adalah muslim membunuh
muslimin. Penulis lupa kali membaca berita2 mengenai pemboman2, bom2 bunuh
diri, penculikan2, penggorokan 2 leher, dll. yang terjadi setiap hari di Irak,
dilakukan oleh orang2 Islam terhadap sesama Islam.
Sunny <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20070420.F05&irec=3
Don't blame those who don't trust Muslims Mohammad Yazid, Jakarta
In a bid to enhance his understanding of Islam, my parents allowed my younger
brother to participate in Koranic recitation and discussion sessions. After a
few months, he began to make positive changes such as performing regular
evening prayers, and zikir (chanting verses in praise of Allah), which he had
rarely done before.
However, about a year later, he started to demonstrate a different attitude.
He began to argue about the interpretation of the Koranic verses and hadiths
(words and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad), also with my parents. He actively
encouraged his friends to join his group's recitations, frequently neglecting
the small business he had been developing for some years after high school.
As a result of my brother's peculiar take on Islamic teachings, such as his
refusal to perform obligatory prayers and Ramadhan fasting rituals by asserting
that "the right time has not yet come", my father, a Muhammadiyah follower,
found it difficult to accept my brother's attitude, although he tried hard to
understand. Most regrettably, though, my brother grew intolerant of other
people's views after almost two years attending the recitation group, without
ever telling us who his teacher was or describing what the group got up to.
Without any hesitation, he branded those not sharing his
opinions as infidels. His closed viewpoint and exclusive beliefs also created
tension within the family. He finally decided to leave home without saying
anything, and closed up his business. By this stage, he was even refusing to
see family members. "Why have his religious studies led to a family rift and
his increased religious knowledge resulted in hatred?" was what I found myself
asking. There is a fundamental difference between studying the right way to
embrace a religion and the science of religion. The former aims at
understanding the universal belief in God so that life can be approached with
wisdom, which is helped by the support of religious science. The process
involves personal and spiritual experiences of life. The outcome of this is a
proper comprehension of the correct balance between hablum minalloh (the
vertical relationship with God) and hablum minannas (horizontal relationships
between human beings). The latter involves the study of religious
teachings as written in the Koran and hadiths, which may give rise to
conflicting interpretations against the backdrop of diverse levels of
knowledge. It adopts a doctrinal system so that tension often arises along with
different views as each interpreter claims to have discovered the exclusive
truth. Amid high unemployment and difficulties in making a decent living due
to the country's difficult economic situation and the low-quality of its human
resources, conflict arising from religious issues can very easily trigger
anarchy and intolerance. What happened to my brother and the attack on a
Shiite group using sickles and cudgels in Sampang regency, Madura, on April 9
are examples of this type of intolerance. No bloodshed occurred in Sampang as
the police had taken precautions to avoid a full-scale clash. But the incident,
of course, contradicts the spirit of Muslim brotherhood. In Indonesia,
intolerance toward fellow Muslims has frequently surfaced. Large numbers
of Ahmadiyah followers around the country have been subjected to anarchic
treatment by those adhering to other Islamic schools. Most notably, some 10,000
members of the Indonesian Muslim Solidarity Group assaulted the Ahmadiyah
Indonesia Congregation (JAI) compound, the Mubarak campus, in Bogor, West Java,
in 2005. Approaches and actions that tarnish the image of Islam undoubtedly
reduce the confidence of non-Muslims when it comes to interfaith relations.
They also indicate that Muslims are unable to draw lessons from the examples
set by the Prophet Muhammad, who was able to live peacefully and amicably under
the same roof with his uncle Abi Talib, who embraced a different faith. The
same is true of the internal conflict in Islam between the Shiite and Sunni
communities currently taking place in Iraq in the wake of the fall of Iraqi
president Saddam Hussein four years ago, when the U.S. and its allies launched
a military attack on that country. Many fence-mending
attempts have been made to end the conflict, which has killed 37,000 people
and left 471,000 others homeless. One of these was the meeting of Islamic
leaders to discuss Iraqi reconciliation at the Bogor Palace on April 3-4, which
recommended the withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops, among other things. As
a peace-seeking effort, this recommendation merits consideration as an
alternative solution. Yet, what Muslims should also need to consider is who can
guarantee security in Iraq following the withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces,
given Shiite-Sunni strife existed long before the U.S. invasion. It is also
hard to deny the reality that when Saddam Hussein was in power, the Shiites in
Iraq were badly treated by the Sunnis. Nevertheless, while the arrival of U.S.
troops succeeded in toppling the dictator Saddam Hussein, the invasion has
increased the misery of the Iraqi people and been widely criticized by the
world community, as well as in the U.S. itself. Many Islamic
figures maintain that the conflict in Iraq is not due to Shiite-Sunni rivalry,
as shown by several countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Lebanon,
where both groups are said to live in peace. However, Iraqi history shows that
the Shiite-Sunni feud is deep-rooted, reaching its climax with the death of
Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, when he fought against the
Sunni Muslims in the seventh century in what is now Karbala, Iraq. To be
honest, Shiite followers still find it hard to forget the death of Imam
Hussein, who is commemorated on Asyura day, Muharam 9-10. The writer is a
staff member of The Jakarta Post. He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
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