By: Muhammad Yasin)*
Lecturers have a central role to invite people towards goodness. Therefore, the speaker must be free from radicalism and become the glue of the national spirit.
The profession of preacher can make someone have financial security, plus they get a reward for broadcasting hadith and holy verses. Currently, there are more and more famous lecturers, and some of them are graduates from overseas campuses, but some are alumni of Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia.
However, do not invite radical preachers in religious events. This appeal was ordered by President Jokowi, and applies to the wives of members of the TNI and Polri. Inspector General Dedi Prasetyo, Head of the Public Relations Division of the National Police, stated that the directive was to mitigate the spread of radicalism.
In a sense, it is indeed not permissible to invite radical preachers, especially at religious events, because he has been proven to spread radicalism and extremism. Meanwhile, the TNI and Polri are institutions under the state, so they must be loyal to the state and including the wives of their members are also not allowed to invite them.
Radical preachers are strictly prohibited to be invited because they are supposed to be ustad, they spread positive and calming stories, such as stories of prophets and companions, miracles of the prophet, hijrah, etc. An ustad should also motivate that religion is not only related to the Almighty, but also to fellow human beings (including those with different beliefs).
However, most of the radical preachers are deliberately inciting. With the reason of da’wah, they teach jihad by means of violence. Whereas the prophet himself preached gently and was also full of tolerance to those of different beliefs. There was even a history of him feeding blind people of different beliefs, and it was done every day.
The way to find out if a preacher is radical is quite easy and there is no need for direct research by going into the community. Just look at their social media accounts and videos circulating, both on Tiktok, Instagram, and Youtube. If he broadcasts about jihad, the caliphate state, and often blasphemes against the government, then he is definitely a radical.
In addition, radical preachers like to associate the contents of their speeches with viral events and those in the political arena. He leads the opinion of the listeners, so that they believe that the government is wrong for this and that reason. The accusation is only slander because it is not based on real evidence, in fact many are trapped by hoaxes.
Even though the government has never issued regulations that harm its people. For example, when there is an appeal to worship at home only when the corona case is high (when the patient per day is more than 50,000 people). Spontaneously the speaker smacked. Even though this appeal is for the safety of many people and to prevent the formation of new clusters, because most of those who are worshiping take off their masks.
We must be careful not to be trapped by radical preachers. Even though they are not the wives of members of the TNI or Polri, they should not invite radical clerics, because they cannot calm the hearts of their listeners. Instead, they promote jihad, radicalism, terrorism, and the caliphate state. We must be careful before inviting the speaker.
The rules for banning lecture invitations for radical clerics are considered appropriate, because da’wah should be gentle and can cool the minds of the listeners. Instead of heating up the congregation by telling one by one the bad things of the government. Don’t make the mistake of inviting radical clerics because they actually promote radicalism.
)* The author is a contributor to Pertiwi Institute
