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Re-defining Islam: Post-Ramadhan call
One major setback of Indonesian Muslims is the increasing insatiable need to be able to touch, smell, see and hold our “religion.”
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Muslims perform the Idul Fitri mass prayer at the Bandung Grand Mosque in West Java on Sunday, June 25, 2017. (JP/Arya Dipa)
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amadhan is over, yet it is not clear what kind of impact it has had on our humanity and capacity to stand against both the physical and symbolic injustices around us.
In the context of Indonesia, Ramadhan does not mean “liberation” for small farmers who stand up alone against the encroachment of big mining corporations, nor for sexual minorities who have consistently become victims of both state and social violence.
In opposition to the peaceful message of Ramadhan, some of us even equate Ramadhan with a heightened need to discipline and marginalize others. From warung (kiosk) raids to the open persecution of non-Muslims and marginalized Muslims (especially Shiites and Ahmadis), we seem to use Ramadhan as a specific time of the year when we can blatantly show our superiority and announce that we own the country.
This tendency to view Ramadhan as a time to flex our muscles is certainly pathological and needs to be addressed through self-criticism. Yet we have been inflaming that tendency by focusing on symbols and externalities. Hence, we have seen Arab glorification move to the point that we do not even see the deaths of our migrant workers as a national abomination and discussions about Islam that only center on what is halal and what is haram.
