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View all search resultsAhmet Kuru: Early Muslims more open to diversity, creativity!
It is true that only one-fifth of the 49 Muslim countries in the world are electoral democracies.
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W
e have finally reached the end of Ramadan, the fasting month for Muslims all around the world! Many Muslims consider it a moment of victory. Over what? A month of being hungry from sunrise to sunset and then overindulging when you break the fast?
Idul Fitri, the end of Ramadan, has for the most part been stripped of its spiritual meaning and reduced to being an orgy of consumerism. Is this what being a Muslim has been reduced to?
The other thing that Muslims in Indonesia cannot refrain from doing is the yearly mudik (exodus), when urbanites return to their hometowns to be with their families. This year as well as last, due to COVID-19, the government issued a ban on mudik. But by hook or by crook, people try anyway, even if it means hiding in a vegetable truck!
How come we Muslims have become so incapable of self-restraint and rational thinking, reducing us to not just being “backward” on a personal level but also as a nation? Even Ma’ruf Amin — our Vice President, who is not exactly known for his scintillating repartee, quick wit let alone progressive views — stated that we are lagging behind because of our narrowmindedness.
This is one of the reasons why many Muslim countries are still classified as underdeveloped countries and are lagging behind in the fields of economy, education, science and technology and other fields,” he said in February.
I wonder if he’s been reading Ahmet Kuru’s book, Islam, Authoritarianism and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Development? Well, it’s been translated into Indonesian, published this year, so Ma’ruf may have read it. From what I hear, his English is at the level of “little-little I can”, at best.
Ahmet T. Kuru is a professor of political science and director of the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies from San Diego University, who has written a number of important award-winning books. His latest is the one I mentioned above, published in 2019, which has taken the Muslim intellectual world by storm. Besides Indonesian, it’s been translated into Persian, while the Arabic, Bosnian and French versions are in progress.
