Protecting The Sanctity Mosque from Politcal Campaign

by: Rahmat Indra Wibowo

In the upcoming of 2019 election campaign, Bawaslu warned the contestants of the presidential election to not carry out campaign activities of any kind in places of worship.
Moreover, the two candidate pairs have both won the support of religious leaders. This made Bawaslu maximize the function of preventing the occurrence of campaign violations.
Reflecting on the DKI Jakarta gubernatorial election the mosque environment has been misused to give utterances of hatred and slander to one of the gubernatorial candidates, this prompted the mosque congregation to elect a faithful governor candidate, not the incumbent governor candidate Basuki Tjahaya Purnama (Ahok)
At that time the mosque in the capital city of Jakarta was littered with speeches through loudspeakers in the mosque and slandering one of the non-Muslim governor candidates. Sermons and recitations are diligently held with the main content in the form of doctrine in order to elect governor candidates who are Muslim
The act of hijacking mosques for political purposes, of course, has reduced the dignity of the mosque as a holy place that should be a shelter for people from all groups, not as a place to spread hatred.
The arrival of people in the mosque is nothing but to purify themselves, improve themselves, repent and worship activities. This certainly cannot be mixed with the interests of certain groups to gain votes on the political stage.
Even if the community has an agreement that the mosque can be used to discuss politics with nationalism and populist themes, it must be done carefully. Because nationalism and populist politics also have the potential for a political orientation of power.
Providing understanding regarding political, economic and anti corruption campaigns is certainly still allowed. But when this understanding leads to criticism of one of the candidates for the election, it does not aim to educate the people, because it has the potential to break the unity of the people. So that the political understanding given in the mosque is expected to be able to unite the people even though the choices are different.

Some political groups tend to use mosques as a means of campaigning because they do not require a lot of money. This is certainly quite tempting for political activists in the mosque.
Certainly campaigns in any form within the mosque will tend to create horozontal conflicts. This certainly gives a warning to politicians and political activists not to play religious sentiments in politics.
Minister of Communication and Information Rudiantara in his statement stated that places of worship such as mosques were not allowed to be used as a place to convey messages aimed at practical politics,
Places of worship such as mosques or prayer rooms are places of public worship that are not specific to one group, although we know that in Indonesia there are Islamic organizations such as NU, Muhammadiyah, LDII and others. This proves that the mosque is still a shared house. So it is unethical if the sermon or lecture that is echoed contains certain utterances especially those that carry the interests of groups with political nuances.
Understanding of the prohibition of campaigns in mosques certainly cannot be understood raw. One example is if someone uses a party shirt into a mosque, it certainly cannot be ascertained as a campaign movement.
Eliminating the habit of campaigning at places of worship is quite difficult. This can be caused by two things, namely a lack of awareness and misunderstanding of the community in distinguishing campaign activities by broadcasting religious knowledge.
In addition, mosque youth must also dare to report election activities to Bawaslu if they encounter violations in the form of covert campaigns in the mosque area.
Rules relating to the prohibition of campaigns in places or houses of worship have actually been stated in Law No. 32 of 2004 concerning local governments where it is written “campaigns are prohibited from using places of worship and education”
A conducive situation ahead of a democratic party in a pluralistic society, of course the mosque should not be a tool for practical political interests. Not only that, ideally the mosque is not permitted to be a medium to spread hatred and intolerance towards other groups, especially against fellow Muslims themselves.
The Election Oversight Body (Bawaslu) should need to take a persuasive approach to religious leaders, so that people are not affected and can distinguish what content is leading to campaign activities. This time it’s time for Muslims in Indonesia to restore the function of the mosque as a place for the interests of da’wah and positive activities that concern the lives of many people, and foster a spirit of tolerance among the people.
Everyone has a role to maintain the sanctity of the mosque from various practical political interests. The thing to remember is that mosque worshipers come from a variety of communities and community organizations, not all of them sympathizers and supporters of certain parties and candidates. Mosque administrators certainly need to be aware of the plurality and diversity of Muslims.
For this reason, social relations between communities do not cause social friction, so the mosque administrators  must make mosques a place for knitting Muslim unity. So that the vision of Islam as a religion that spreads mercy to the universe is truly realized.

) * The author is a political observer

 

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