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Bankers quit jobs amid rising ‘hijrah’ movement
The hijrah trend has not significantly boosted sharia banking in the country.
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The hijrah movement is said to be a positive activity toward a better way of life based on Islamic values. (Shutterstock/SantiPhotoSS)
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t has been more than a year since Zainur Rusdi, 38, left his job as deputy head of a state-owned bank's branch office in North Sumatra over the fear of the danger of riba (interest) that he learned from preachers on the internet.
He put an end to his 13-year banking career in April 2018, when he was leading an office worth Rp 400 billion (US$28.3 million) in assets and had 10,000 customers.
Zainur now works from home, running an online business and helping his wife operate a beauty salon for Muslim women.
“It started when I watched a video on the danger of riba from Erwandi Tarmizi,” Zainur said, referring to a Muslim preacher on YouTube.
It was early 2017 and Zainur found himself delving more and more into anti-riba campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, especially through the sermons of social media-savvy preachers Abdul Somad and Buya Yahya.
“When I was working at the bank, my wife kept going in and out of the hospital, but they couldn’t identify her illness. It was one the signs mentioned in the sermons, so I was even more inclined to quit,” he said, arguing that he had been “cursed” by God given the nature of his work.
His colleagues, regretting the end to his promising career, suggested that he move to the sharia division of the bank. Zainur refused, arguing that the sharia division was no different from the conventional bank. If anything, it was thanks to the help of the conventional bank that it could thrive.
