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Reviewing ‘kafir’ to end intolerance, inequality
In the previous months, we have been shocked by intolerant actions against two Indonesian Christians — including a deceased elderly woman
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span>In the previous months, we have been shocked by intolerant actions against two Indonesian Christians — including a deceased elderly woman. In mid-February, villagers in Mojokerto regency, East Java, opposed the burial of Nunuk Suwartini, 68, in Ngares village because of her religion. The most recent case saw a Christian artist, Slamet Jumiarto, 42, expelled from another predominantly Muslim neighborhood in Bantul in Java’s heartland, Yogyakarta.
As a Muslim by birth, who was raised in Islamic education systems from pre-elementary school to the postgraduate level, I can surely say that while these cases are shocking, they are the extreme logical consequences of what all Muslims have been taught regarding all non-Muslims, referred to as kafir or infidels.
While we are indoctrinated to believe that there is no salvation outside Islam, likewise we are taught that non-Muslims are different from us and also aim to put Muslims worldwide in misery. Their appearance as upstanding individuals, we are taught, masks their actual desire to conquer Islam and Muslims. Such teachings, also found in other faiths, must be immediately revised to reduce intolerance.
I can identify three categories for how Indonesian Muslims perceive their non-Muslims fellow citizens. The first is kafir-kafir, the lowest category, in which all non-Muslims are considered kafir from a theological perspective as well as at the nation-state level. Its followers believe that non-Muslims should not be allowed to be part of the state apparatus let alone become high-ranking public officials.
They shamelessly and aggressively campaign for this position, which conveniently feeds certain political interests. A 2016 survey by the Wahid Foundation showed that almost 60 percent of 1,520 respondents from 34 provinces abhorred people with certain identities, including non-Muslims.
Concerning this group, more than 92 percent of respondents said they should not be employed in state bodies, with more than 82 percent opposed to living in the same neighborhood.
The second term for non-Muslims is kafir muwathinun (citizen), which refers to non-Muslim citizens. In a historic decision at a recent national conference, Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) agreed to use this term. Pre-election sectarian tensions contributed to this decision.
This term is certainly better than kafir-kafir. Yet, will it effectively cut off the root of Islamic teaching that has driven intolerance over last 20 years? I doubt it. NU’s decision is like administering paracetamol for a fever caused by an infection, without treating the infected wound.
The third category is mu’min (faithful, believers) muwathinun, which I believe is the ideal reference. It places non-Muslim on the same theological platform as Muslim Indonesians, acknowledging them as believers, not as kafir.
Classical Islamic theology generally indoctrinates Muslims to believe that “believers” are only followers of Prophet Muhammad. That is true but not quite right. A close look at Quranic verses reveals a difference between the terms iman (faith/to believe) and islam (submission), as in the verse Al Hujurat:14 (The Dwellings). Thus, adherents of other faiths are also believers.
Furthermore, the Quranic term for believer also pertains to followers of Moses and Jesus as well as followers of pre-Islamic religions, who believe in gods, the messengers, Judgment Day and in doing good deeds, as conveyed in several verses.
Most classical Quranic commentators followed by the majority of clerics in Indonesia are of the view that freedom of belief only exists for non-Muslims but not for Muslims, as Islam is perceived to encompass all pre-Islamic faiths. Thus, converting from Islam to another religion is considered a disgrace and poses legal problems concerning marriage, divorce and inheritance in Muslim families.
This interpretation evidently ignores contemporary interpretations regarding freedom of belief introduced by Muhammad al-Tahir Ibnu Ashur (1879-1973), a Tunisian Islamic scholar and jurist.
Among other things, he stated that Islam accepted freedom of belief based on verses such as Al Baqarah: 2 (The Cow), and that there was no coercion in religion. While all classical Quranic interpreters believed this verse was abrogated by verses such as the widely quoted “O Prophet, fight against the disbelievers and the hypocrites and be harsh upon them”, Ashur argued these verses were sent down for a specific historical context. I agree with him that the above verse of “no coercion in religion” is mutlaq wa muhkam (absolute and decisive in meaning).
He came to this conclusion by not only understanding the Quran in a historical context through the concept of abrogation and the occasions of the revelation of the verses, but also by upholding the welfare objectives of maqasid al-shari’ah (Islamic law). He wrote that restricting freedom of belief could violate one of the pillars of those objectives — preserving and protecting freedom of religion.
Unfortunately, very few Islamic educational institutions follow Ashur’s position. Therefore, many Muslims are still encouraged to use kafir rather than mu’min to refer to non-Muslims.
I believe the Quranic term of kafir refers to those who do not believe in the oneness of the Divine (tawhid), including adherents of polytheism and atheism. The Quran condemns them but interestingly does not command Muslims to punish them; God will deal with them himself in the afterlife and even allows Muslims to do good deeds for them.
If they rebel against a lawful government or expel Muslims from their land, then Muslims are encouraged to defend themselves, but neither of these situations justifies banning non-Muslims from a neighborhood or opposing their burial in a predominantly Muslim area, as in the aforementioned recent cases.
Finally, Indonesia’s future of diversity rests heavily on how seriously the government and Islamic leaders in particular can uphold and disseminate the understanding that citizens are equal believers — mu’min-muwathinun — through the roughly 27,000 Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) and thousands of public and private Islamic schools.
If such efforts fail, amid so much abuse of religion for political interests, religious minorities will likely face more intolerance from the Muslim majority, as experienced by the above artist and the distressed family of the deceased woman.
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The writer is a coordinator of the Islamic Network against Discrimination (JIAD) and is pursuing a master’s in Islamic family law at Hasyim Asy’ari University, Tebuireng, Jombang, East Java.
