By: Raditya Rahman *
Revealed from 100 mosques in the ministries, institutions and State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN), there were 41 mosques indicated to have been exposed to radicalism. Among them were 11 ministry mosques, 22 in the institutional environment and 21 mosques in the BUMN area. Of the 41 mosques there are 7 mosques in low category, 17 mosques are in the moderate category and 17 mosques are in the category of high radicalism. In addition, the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) also explained that there were around 500 mosques throughout Indonesia which were indicated to be exposed to radical understanding.
Aside from the problems of the mosque, BIN also highlighted the degradation of ideology that was happening. The main problem is the increasing social conflict such as SARA, as well as provocative content circulating in the mass media. Maybe mosque activists or mosque takmir need to reflect on an attitude of tolerance that had been carried out by the Prophet Muhammad. Where in the year 10 AH, the Messenger of Allah SAW came the arrival of Christians from Najran. The Prophet welcomed his guests cordially. But by chance the meeting took place in the evening and the Christian group needed to worship. So the Prophet invited his guests to hold a service at the Prophet’s Mosque.
Although at that time the companions gave a hard code to the Prophet so as not to allow Christians to worship at the Prophet’s Mosque. However, this was ignored by the Prophet Muhammad, until later the Companions understood that such a matter was allowed for emergency reasons. However, this event is a historical record of the practice of tolerance. Of course this was not done haphazardly by the Prophet, because after all the Prophet Muhammad SAW was a role model that consistently brought the basis of arguments referring to the text of the Qur’an.
Literally, a mosque is a transitional form of the word sajada-yasjudu which means a place of prostration. While prostration sociohistorically can be interpreted by a series of ritual surrender to the Almighty. In the story above it certainly does not teach us to take turns in worship, but teachings to uphold tolerance and help in kindness. Because the mosque is a place to surrender. Anyone who enters the mosque in essence has let go of all its greatness so that it creates an egalitarian bibliography between itself and other forms.
With the existence of mosques exposed to radicalism, of course this is a very serious concern for all parties. If radicalism is found in 41 mosques in the ministries and state-owned enterprises, then it can be hypothesized that the ministry employees and the state civil apparatus are becoming the main targets of the spread of radicalism.
The threat of radicalism is a real danger. The movement can be latent, but destructive. While the threat is now strongly suspected of developing through mosques wherein there are state civil apparatus. His movement again through the mosque, a holy place that should be the center of the spread of the mercy of Allah, the Most Merciful, Most Merciful.
The responsibility of guarding the mosque from radicalism is not only the duty of the government. But every citizen has a constitutional right to defend the country. So that the mosque can return to its function, namely as a place to worship and pray to Allah SWT.
In addition to radicalism, some groups also use mosques as an arena for their political existence, utterances of hatred are spread, the spirit of tolerance is dimmed, to dogmas such as “voters of infidel leaders, their bodies need not be addressed”. This certainly tarnish the diversity that has been upheld by the founding father of the NKRI. The meaning of politicizing mosques in a simple way can be interpreted as an effort to make mosques a place for covert political campaigns. The mosque is considered a strategic place for campaigning, this is because the place of worship is one of the centers for Muslim gatherings.
Efforts to convince opinion and mass mobilization are carried out by driving 1 or 2 verses of the Qur’an. Political struggle is oriented towards power that is imaged that it is as if it is a purely religious struggle. The involvement of religious elements in the realm of practical politics has proven to bring up many negative things, ranging from discrimination, the potential for division, to fears of greater social conflict.
On the other hand, politicization of mosques can also be interpreted as degrading behavior of religious values. Religion generally always contains a set of teachings about divinity, humanity, peace and other beautiful things. The thing that is unfortunate is that when religion is drawn into the realm of practical politics, the sacred nuances of religion slowly wear off, then disappear altogether. The sacred religious language and scripts are then degraded into agitative languages and characters.
In the realm of practical politics, religion loses its spirit of spirituality and changes its face to become the fierce face of the servant of power. Post-reform, we see a stretch of conservative-radical Islamic mass organizations. This kind of organization later became the main exponent of the practice of politicizing Islam. Islam is not an anti-political religion. History records that Islam as a political religion. However, the political style played by Islam is not a political style of power that justifies any means to gain power. The politics of Islam is human-oriented politics and is loyal to ethical values.
Ulamas certainly have a role to eliminate politicization efforts in mosques. The main role of the ulama can generally be summarized into a sentence, namely amar ma’ruf nahi munkar, which means to call for kindness and prevent it from being ignorant. Of course to carry out this role, the ulama must go beyond the reasoning of partisan politics. Namely not being an agent for the electoral interests of the opposition, also a mouthpiece for the political interests of the authorities.
- The author is a Observer of Political Issues
