Some years ago, the then minister of religious affairs arrested for the case of hajj fund corruption. He is not a man who does not know religious norm at all but is a religious figure who has a wide religious views. Recently, one of official bureaucrats of East Java was arrested because of the case of societal empowerment aids. He is also not a common people who is taqlid, but he knows and unde…
Bahtsul Masail has authority to answer religious problems faced by members of Nahdlatul Ulama [NU]. During the period 1926-1999, the dominant religious problems in the discussion of Lajnah Bahtsul Masail were fiqh matters. They reached 84.8 persen [428 decisions] out of a total of 505 decisions. While in the field of non-fiqh, they reached 15.2 persen [77 decisions]. To answer the problems aris…
This article proposes that Islamic Jurisprudence [ushul a fiqh], as the methodology of classical Islamic law, was laden with male bias. This is due to formulators of ushul al fiqh who are men therefore there must be subjectivity and interest of men when understanding the text [both the Qur'an and the Sunnah] and when conducting istinbath al ahkam from the text a well as because of the absence o…
This article views popular themes discussed by Muslim politicians, namely democracy and theocracy. While democracy builds governmental system based on public sovereignty, theocracy is based on the sovereignty of God. We often hear ideas of democracy used in several contexts, for example, people democracy, popular democracy, and guided democracy. Moreover, in Indonesia, the term of Demokrasi Pan…
Charles J Adams has been widely known as a scholar of religious methodology [Islam in Particular]. He tries as he can to explain Islam as it is. However, sometimes he seems hesitant and is influenced by others' views so that the objectivity of this views is often unclear. Therefore it is appropriate if he is regarded or mybe misunderstood as a reductionist thinker, although he himself tried not…
Marriage [al nikah] in Islam has been defined simply as a contract that guarantees the legality of lady's private part [al farj]. A definition such as this, often tends to create problems of gender bias, for example women are considered to be ans are positioned just as satisfiers of male's lust. In fact, the implication of the definition is the emergence of nation that dowries [al mahr] given t…
For Shi'ah Ithna Asyariyah, ijtihad [intellectual exercise to extrapolate rules from their sources] is an imperative logical practice. Like Sunnism, this school of thought requires that a mujahid [the one who exercises ijtihad] has high intellectual qualifications and that tight conditions should be applied to him. To this branch of Shi'ism, a mujtahid has a special place and respected status …
In the hierarchy of traditional society, Kiai is considered to belong to both social and religious elite. He therefore holds an important role in his society. However, with the expansion of modernity that gives birth to a progressive and dynamic change in our society, Kiai is not regarded any more as the sole agent of social chane. His function is becoming less and limited vis -a-vis modernity.…
Democracy-which means an authority of the people as opposed to that of the ruler - fair general election, civil supremacy, equality before law, and government accountability are seemingly inapplicable in Arab countries. Applying democracy and sustaining it will require what Bernard Lewis calls gradual and deliberate chane"
Indonesia, with its diverse social, cultural and geographical variety, is one of the biggest multicultural societies in the world. This diversity-when-misused-can cause many problems such as corruption, collusion, nepotism, poverty, violence, damage to environment, separatism, and human right violation. Vis a vis this, multicultural education suggests that diversity of ethnicity, culture, langu…