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Muhamad Ali Posts

Preparing and Writing an Academic Essay

An academic essay is rational, systematic, verifiable, and subject to criticism. 

Checklist of A Good Essay 

  • You address the subject specifically and are not too general. The subject should be relevant, answerable and feasible.  You should have a constant sense of curiosity. 
  • You draw on appropriate reading 
  • You demonstrate a good grasp of the claims being made; you put claims and ideas in your own words, and draw on evidence you have assembled to sustain them 
  • You present a coherent argument, and the essay has a structure, which indicates a control over the ideas and the material being presented. The paragraphs follow from one another in the argument. 
  • The paragraphs and points are arranged in a logical sequence and the structure is clear – i.e. thesis > evidence presented > antithesis> synthesis >  OR proposition > evidence > proof >.  It is the intellectual structure which is what is meant by the word critical. Thinking critically means showing an ability to question propositions, and weigh up evidence from different points of view. Emotive sermonizing or slavish repetition of what a lecturer has said is not critical thinking. 
  • Evidence is used in a balanced and objective way – even when you only consider in detail one side of an argument you demonstrate that you know the opposing view 
  • Sources are accurately referenced and plagiarism is avoided.
  • The essay is well written, key terms are explained or defined – i.e. it is clear and concise, and sentence structure is correct.
  • The essay is legible, preferably word processed, neatly presented, the title and author are clearly indicated, footnotes or endnotes are set correctly. 

How to Prepare to Write an Essay and How to Write it 

  • Study the question carefully and look at each word in the question. Circle words in the title, which identify the subject of the essay, and words, which identify approach.
  • Assembly the relevant course materials and notes.
  • Do a thorough literature review of the topic. You might want to begin with a dictionary or encyclopedia article on a subject to get a brief overview.  Use the library online services, and search books, articles, journals to identify a range of suitable material on the subject of your essay. Use databases such as Ebscohost, Jstor, and Scopus. 
  • Do not read whole books at least not in order to prepare an essay, unless you already read them before! Use the index and contents page of a book to find relevant points and possible quotes or references. Read the introduction and conclusion to a book or to particular chapters or articles to get the gist of the argument before reading the body of the book. 
  • Notes should pull out the bare bones of an argument. It is useful to have notes which put ideas in your own words, and which include your own responses to what you read. It is useful to have notes, which include verbatim sentences with page numbers of possible quotation in your essay. When note taking ask ‘what is this about’ and ‘what do I want/need to remember’. Notes are not just for reference – note taking helps you to remember and to begin to control what you read. 

Writing the Essay 

You are ready to plan to write when you have a general sense of five things: 1) Your research questions; 2. A possible answer; 3. A body of evidence to support the answer; 4. The major warrants that link your evidence to the research question; 5. The objections you need to rebut. 

  • Make a plan. This can be done by brainstorming, jotting down on paper or word document anything that occurs to you, of you have in your notes, relating to the title. Arrange the main points in a logical order, going for a simple structure. 
  • Decide about the main claim: whether it comes at the end of the introduction or in the conclusion. Readers tend to prefer knowing where a paper is going.
  • Write the first draft of your essay. You should remember you are taking to someone, the reader.
  • When the draft is written read the essay to yourself. Do the sentences make sense? Do the paragraphs flow logically from one to another? Does it move towards a conclusion?
  • Revise the draft by marking the text at each major new step in the argument. 
  • Identify or highlight parts of the text which are specifically your argument. 
  • New ideas may and will come as you write but with an effective plan you will be able to incorporate them into the essay without destroying a logical structure and flow. 
  • Use link words to link paragraphs in an argument – but, however, whereas, conversely ….
  • Use signposts. E.g. ‘before discussing X we must ask question Y’, ‘having considered the arguments against, we now…”. “A final set of issues we must address …’.  Subheadings can also be useful. 
  • Vary sentence length and avoid long sentences.
  • Avoid contractions such as didn’t, couldn’t. Avoid passive voice, incomplete sentences, imprecise language, excessive wordiness, and excessive quotation. 
  • Each paragraph should have one main theme. The paragraphs mark the natural break in your argument.
  • List references accurately in footnotes or at the end of the document.
  • Accuracy in quotes and referencing is fundamental to the reader’s perception of your reliability. 
  • Quote but avoid long quotes and too frequent use of quotes.
  • Avoid plagiarism. Quote and cite. Paraphrase and cite. 

Sources: 

  • W C Booth, G C Colomb and J M Williams, the Craft of Research (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1995) 
  • David B Pirie, How to Write Critical Essay (London: Routledge, 1985)
  • John Clanshy and Birgid Ballard, How to Write Essays: A Practical Guide for Students (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1992) 

Response to Anna Gade’s Muslim Environmentalism: Religious and Social Foundations (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019)

Reading Anna Gade’s Muslim Environmentalisms was truly a pleasure, like reading much of my own personal and academic journey in Islamic studies, Southeast Asian studies, and religious studies, from being a student, santri in Jakarta and West Java in the late 1980s-early 1990s, when we read the Qur’an, hadith, and classical and medieval literature, when we learned that “environment” was an integral part of our religious knowledge and everyday practice, when we learned “cleanness” or al-nadhafah or al-thaharah, on the first chapter of the fiqh books, containing a popular hadith “to be clean is a part of faith”,and “no believer goes to heaven if he does not feed a cat”, and  more “environmentally friendly” mannerisms; when we responded drought by performing the rain-prayer (and rains did fall after that), and we lived with nature: paddy rice, creeks, chickens, ducks, birds, trees, ants, bugs, mosquitoes. My journey continued to the undergraduate study of the Qur’an and hadith alongside humanities and social sciences, and we started to hear about NGOs such as the famous Walhi (Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia) associated with everything about environment, and the popular Ministry of Lingkungan Hidup, also dealing with everything environmental. At the same time, we learned about “Quranic verses on the environment”, and began learning about the connection in a systematic way. When I did my master in Edinburgh 2000-2001, I did not pay due attention to the subject. When I did a fieldwork for my PhD dissertation in 2006, I saw Nik Abdul Aziz, the spiritual leader of PAS in Kelantan considered “the most conservative state” in 2006, delivering a sermon with a symbolic gesture “Pick up the Trash” (Pungut Sampah). More and more about Islam and the environment. More recently, I was surprised by an unexpected requirement for our marriage at the Ministry of Religion (KUA) Yogyakarta in December 2018 to plant a tree in our house and take a picture of it. I study and teach more and more scholarly and comparative studies and courses which include “Islam and the environment”, “Islam and ecology”, ecofeminism, and more recently I wrote an invited entry on global Islam containing ecology under the subheading theory and practice in developing a comparative religious ethics.  

Today Muslim leaders, scholars, and activists have held local, regional, and international conferences and workshops, and many have created curriculum to include ecology, connecting scholars, activists, journalists, teachers, and have producd books, articles, and fatwas on Islamic eco-ethics. In educational and scholarly circles, Muslims normative approaches to the natural environment have changed and diversified. There are now more studies and the elaboration of the unity of God, the unity of humankind and creation, the balance in nature humans’ vicegerents of God on earth, and the humans’ responsibility not to destruct the world and to strive for environmental justice. There are more efforts to produce Islamic environmental law and authoritative legal opinions on key environmental issues.

Muslim scholars and activists have created a distinctly Islamic environmentalism, different from the Euro-American ones, while other Muslims emphasize the universality of the ecological values and activism (Foltz, Denny and Baharuddin 2003). Many Muslims have joined green movements, faith or secular-based, or else they have created their own environment-friendly spaces within their mosques, schools, and communities. Many Muslims have engaged the environments for the sake of Islam, and others have reinterpreted Islamic texts and tradition for the sake of the environment although the distinction is not always clear. In light of these contexts, scholars of the humanities have called for the study of Muslim theories of the environment as developed in the Qur’anic interpretation, hadith, Sufism, art, science, and diverse community engagements across local and global contexts. 

In Muslim Environmentalisms, Anna Gade offers insightful and engaging ideas and firsthand material about Muslim environmentalisms not as a complementary model but as a critique to the Anglophone, post-Christian, secular environmentalisms and humanities, including the world religions and religious and ecology frameworks; it is also a development if not a critique to the Islam and environment, and Islam and nature framework from within Islamic studies, using the Qur’an, hadith, fatwas, Sufi, and everyday ethics or adab, sustained by ethnographic fieldwork in Muslim island and mainland Southeast Asia. For Gade, Muslim environmentalisms combine both the scientific and morale, the phenomenal and the unseen, and the present world and the afterlife.  

One of the book’s arguments is that “not all environmentalisms of Muslims are religiously Islamic, but rather that all environmentalisms – religious or otherwise – are ethical commitments.” The question is whether all these environmentalisms – religious or otherwise, can be conceptually regarded as “Islamic”. Can a Muslim who says that they are doing just farming” without labelling it Islamic farming, be analyzed as a Muslim environmentalism. Is everything that a Muslim does inherently religious? What if Muslims do things secularly without Islamic means and meanings? As I understand them, Muslim environmentalisms are not about identity politics such as the Islamization of science (islamiyyat al-marifah promoted by the IIIT in the US, or ISTAC in Malaysia), the ayatization of science by justifying scientific findings with select Qur’an and hadith, or the bureaucratic model of integration of Islam and science in some Islamic universities in contemporary Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Muslim environmentalisms, as I read from this book, are ontological, epistemological, and axiological at once.  

I wonder how mainstream these Muslim environmentalisms have been among the 2.0 billions Muslims globally. If we observed only the fatwas, sermons, books, flyers, and madrasahs, labelled as “eco-pesantren”, “eco-masjid”, and other voices and programs labelled with “eco”, “environment”, “green”, and the like, we would probably observe small and only emerging phenomena in Muslim societies. In educational and da’wah spaces, the environment has not become an immediate concern, in contrast to issues of purifying and strengthening the faith (aqidah) and correcting the ritual (ibadah madhdah), and issues of poverty, illiteracy, and intra-Muslim conflicts. There are comparatively few “committed religious activists” who understand “cause and effect extending this world to the next through the environmental transformations and landscapes to come” (p.253). Climate change and global warming are not a consistent subject of sermons every Friday or pengajian every week. It is an add-on subject, depending on the preachers and activists’ concerns, priorities, knowledge, and experience. 

If we looked for surveys about Muslims views of the environment or climate change, we might  cite a Pew Research on US Muslim views. The 2017 survey states that being Muslim is about more than the core religious beliefs; roughly seven-in-ten, say “working for justice and equality in society” is an essential part of their Muslim identity and 62 % say the same about “working to protect the environment,” – which is higher than the share of U.S. Christians (22%) who said protecting the environment is essential to their Christian identity. It suggests many Muslims do say the environment is an essential part of being Muslim. But if we considered the environment not in the sense of an ism or ideology as in “environmentalism”, but in broader and inclusive ways of being kind and friendly to the environment, we would say it had been a mainstream theory and practice. 

It is safe for us to say that environmentalisms are not a uniquely modern project because the Qur’an, hadith and early and medieval scholarships address the earth, the worlds, plants, animals, big and tiny, and such sophisticated yet accessible religio-ethical concepts as tauhid, ‘ilm, ‘amal, khilafah, adl, wasathan, mizan, and maslahah – including the aim of the shari’ah of the protection of the environment rendered as “hifz al-bi’ah” in addition to religion, life, reason, property and progeny. 

If we agreed this were a mainstream ethics, we would need to also discuss gaps between commitments and actual practice, between the ideal norms and the everyday practice; how many Muslims, men and women, waste their food, water, fruits, soil, money, oil and gas, and other scarce resources; how many Muslims destroyed the forests for buildings and factories and did little for reforestation; how many Muslims threw their trash on the rivers and neighborhoods,which led to flood their cities, how many teachers or kiyais wasted food, smoked cigarettes, and do not always commit clean and sustainable acts. There is always a gap between theory and practice on Muslim ethics. On the issues of climate change, the lack of action for a sustainable ecology in Muslim countries has often been attributed to Muslims’ cosmology centering human submission (islam) toward God, rather than their responsibility in protecting the environment. The challenge remains in socialization and implementation. Deforestation, overexploitation, wastes in private and public spaces, overconsumption, pollution, and flooding in urban areas, have become the prevalent facts in many Muslim-majority environments.

Even if Muslim environmentalisms were a mainstream idea and practice, we would also analyze the characteristics of humans (insan) towards God, others, and the environment, described in the Qur’an: forgetful, wasteful, complacent, ungrateful, hypocritical, irresponsible, and corrupt (page 89). These qualities need exploration and discussion in relation to the keywords stewardship (khalifah), balance (mizan), and trust (amanah) – given the ambivalences of human qualities and the gap between words and action.

Muslim environmentalisms may be considered as part of Muslim humans-earth interactions that could reflect different forms: reciprocity or respect, domination or manipulation, celebration or submission.

One needs to test how significant and real, impactful and effective Muslim environmentalisms have been given the grave problems facing global citizens. How effective have been the rituals (including the hajj, fasting, and eco-salawat), elitist gestures and symbolic acts, and ceremonies in solving the local and global environment issues, given the pervasive roles of the nation-states, and multinational companies, globalization, modernization, commodification of spirituality offline and in the Internet? 

One of the book’s key arguments is that apocalypticism or eschatology (akhirat), albeit unapprovable, is central to Islam and central to Muslim environmentalisms. To earn reward and fear punishment in the life to come “inspires engaged action through recognition of clear and inevitable consequences.” (p.253) But this very same belief could have a limited impact in the real actions of many Muslims, men and women, old and young, poor and rich, in this world. The Qur’anic command: “Seek, through that which Allah has given you, the home of the Hereafter, and yet, do not forget your share of the world. And do good as Allah as done good to you. And desire not corruption in the land. Indeed, Allah does not like corrupters. “(28:77), has been often cited in sermons and fatwas. Because what matters most is the world to come, instead of acting here and now, many Muslims wait for the hereafter, or akhirat, and so they do not really care about the environment on earth in the real-world circumstances. They believe that their part and time is not here and now but in the akhirat. There are Muslims who feel content (qanaah), patient (sabar) and pasrah (tawakkul) indicating a jabary pre-destined ethico-theology, in coping with natural and human-driven disasters and crisis (fires, flood, and draught), even though more and more Muslims are engaged in activism and struggle for environmental justice.  

There are different ways in which Muslims have responded to the aftermath of natural disasters (bencana alam) such as earthquakes, the tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, floods, by believing these as a punishment by Allah or a necessary event that no one cannot prevent but should be responded with patience and trust in God (sabar dan pasrah menghadapi musibah);  many have turned to focus their efforts at addressing the impacts by helping the victims, rebuilding the village, healing traumas, and so forth. Those who believe that natural disasters are the act of God tend to hold that humans are not the cause of the disasters and they tend to be reluctant to commit to conserving the environment. 

In scholarship, the marginalization of Muslim environmentalisms of 2 billions Muslims the majority of whom living in Asia, mostly in Indonesia, is due not only to the Euro-centric, colonial, and orientalism, but also to the lack of access to non-Arabic and non-English scholarships and especially thanks to the emerging Muslim scholars and activists from Asia or Anglophone scholars working about Asia themselves to produce knowledge and information about their environmentalism; they are yet to go global. 

In developing both the construction and critique, Muslim environmentalism may be expanded to include disaster relief programs like Muhammadiyah Disaster Management Center (2006) and other humanitarian NGOs and actions. It is also important to include the state’s efforts at dealing with the environmental issues even within their “developmentalism” that is subject to criticism, even without Islamic labelling. 

In Indonesia and elsewhere today, Muslim activists, preachers, and scholars have selectively borrowed from, and worked with, global ideas and best practices of environmentalisms of the international NGOs as well as the nationalistic projects. 

Moreover, gender dimension should be an integral part of these Muslim environmentalisms: women as both actors and victims and their relationship with multiple agencies.   

Another key argument of the book is that Muslim environmentalisms are not an alternative but a critique to the secular environmentalisms; it is also presented as an autonomous ethical theory and practice derived from within Muslim texts, traditions and practices themselves. The challenge is how Muslim environmentalisms can be in conversation and dialogue with secular environmentalisms they are critiquing. There is recognition of “the intertwined histories of Muslim and Christian Europe”, but can this intertwin continue to happen and even become recognizable in the contemporary world where Muslims and non-Muslims face more common problems including the environmental? 

Another dimension worth discussing further is the place of local knowledge, kearifan lokal, or adat, also mentioned in the book. One need to study the relationship between Muslim environmentalisms and indigenous environmentalisms sometime characterized with land ownership and preservation, spirit beliefs, ancestors, offerings, sacred nature, micro and macro-cosmos, and indigenous ethics and esthetics.  

Another challenge is how the contribution of Muslim environmentalism can go beyond humanities and Islamic studies and religious studies: social sciences, exact sciences, engineering, urban planning, biology, chemistry, astronomy, ocean, and earth sciences. In Indonesia, many Muslim scientists are working in hegemonically Western terminologies, concepts, ontologies, epistemologies and even axiology. If environmentalism were neither merely an addition to Islam, nor an add-on to the Islamic system, but an inherently ethical, Islamic concept, then the challenge is to mainstream it in both religious and secular spaces of Muslims in many levels.

There is criticism that contemporary religious ethics scholars have pointed out that the study of Islamic ethics has focused on cases and concrete actions rather than on general principles, and on communalistic rather than individualistic, in contrast to Western deductive and individualistic ethics. Anna Gade’s book offers both specific and general principles. Given the central idea of community (ummah, humans and nonhumans), I wonder about Muslim individualisms (rights and responsibilities) from within Islamic texts, traditions, and experiences. 

For Shahab Ahmed, also cited in the book, “all acts and statements of meaning-making for the self by Muslims and non-Muslims that are carried out in terms of Islam… should properly be understood as Islamic.” (p.544). This reconceptualization paves the way to even more diverse and dynamic understandings and practices of Muslim ethics in the past and the present, in the local and global context. I think Muslim environmentalisms are not confined to Muslim actors and not all Muslim actors are embodying Muslim environmentalisms.  

We also need to recognize the fact that although ethics is about good and bad relationships; it is in many cases not an either/or, black/white domains of life. Human beings have faced moral dilemmas, ambiguities, and contradictions in individual and social circumstances, despite their continued search for moral certainties and predictabilities. The important challenge may not be simply to formulate a continuity and engagement with our own intellectual moral underpinning but to remain open-minded to the new possibilities of new theories, approaches, methods, and even objectives of advancing Muslim environmentalisms. 

Muslim environmentalisms are not fixed, not rigid, not monolithic, and not final. Much are already there, elaborated clearly and convincingly in this fine book, but these are a work in progress: education, dakwah, research and scholarship, and more. Islamic interpretations, as Anna Gade said, “extend ethical dimensions to unseen futures in religious modes that are highly relevant to present and inclusive discussions in environmental humanities.”

The future of scholarship in religious ethics depends on the pursuit of normative-prescriptive and descriptive-empirical studies, with interdisciplinary and comparative studies, with collaborations among Muslims from the diverse schools of thought and traditions as well as non-Muslim scholars and activists everywhere. The normative studies may be well advanced by considering the classical and contemporary productions of an ethical theory with now more accessible Muslim and non-Muslim, Arabic and non-Arabic references and ethnographic work, thus contributing to the advancement of Muslim ethical theories, its multicultural origins, its rich intellectual tradition, its varied dimensions touching the diverse domains of life, and its diverse impacts on the Muslims, humankind, and al-alamin, all the worlds. 

Sedikit soal Presiden Macron dan Islam

Kasus kriminal pembunuhan guru sekolah menengah Samuel Paty oleh seorang anak muda imigran asal Chehnya-Rusia Abdoullakh Anzorov di dekat kota Paris, 16 Oktober lalu, memperkuat Presiden Macron untuk melawan apa yang ia sebut “separatisme” di negerinya. Oleh banyak kalangan, Macron tidak membedakan kriminalisme dan Islam. Apa yang dianggap sebagai Islamofob dalam pidato dan kebijakannya memicu reaksi Erdogan dan beberapa pemimpin Muslim dan seruan boikot produk Perancis. Debat pun muncul kembali, di Perancis, dan di mana-mana tentang Republik dan Islam. Akan tetapi, ada beberapa hal yang tertutup dalam reaksi Macron (juga berbagai kalangan) dan reaksi Erdogan dan sebagian Muslim itu.

1) Ada Muslim dari Afrika dan tempat-tempat lain yang berperan dalam revolusi Perancis. Misalnya, bagi Muhammad D’Ghies, menjadi Muslim dan revolusioner itu tidak bertentangan. Keadilan, persaudaraan, dan kemanusiaan, adalah ajaran Islam. Ia mendukung revolusi ketika itu. Banyak Muslim imigran – sekitar 5 jutaan – dari berbagai negara menikmati hidup dalam laicite Perancis. Perancis adalah negeri yang paling banyak umat Islamnya seantero Eropa. 

2) Sebetulnya Macron tidak selalu anti-Islam. Ia bukan Islamofob garis keras. Ia sering bilang dirinya “bukan kanan bukan kiri. ” Ia sering membela hak Muslim termasuk hak pemakaian hijab ketika banyak kalangan kanan di Perancis mengidentikan hijab dan Islam dengan terorisme, dan menyamakan komunalisme dengan terorisme. Tentu saja sikap dan kebijakan dia juga kontekstual. 

3) Laicite Perancis itu agak berbeda dengan sekulerisme Amerika. Banyak pengamat politik AS kurang paham perbedaan ini sehingga menyamakan begitu saja dengan sekulerisme AS. Laicite Perancis lebih tegas karena revolusi mereka melawan kemapaman Gereja Katolik berabad-abad. Karena itu, mereka ingin menghilangkan simbol-simbol keagamaan Katolik, Yahudi dan Muslim, termasuk niqab di sekolah dan tempat publik. Kesetaraan mereka berbentuk pelarangan identitas primordial keagamaan. Begitu pula pemaknaan kebebasan berpendapat di Perancis dan di AS agak berbeda. Di Perancis, moto liberte, egalite, fraternite itu dipahami sakral, menggantikan kesakralan gereja pada abad-abad sebelumnya. Kebebasan di Perancis termasuk kebebasan untuk membuat karikatur, mengolok-olok Yesus, Muhammad, atau siapa saja, dalam batas konstitusi Perancis. Kebebasan Perancis juga berarti orang bisa menjadi sangat ortodoks, konservatif secara individual dan komunal, asal tidak membahayakan ruang publik. 

4) Perancis adalah kekuatan kolonial berabad-abad dan kebijakan asimilasi terhadap warga bekas jajahan mereka yang gagal di dalam Republik Perancis sendiri. Tindakan kriminal sebagian kecil terutama teror sejak tahun 2011, 2015, 2020, dari sekitar 5 jutaan warga Muslim itu adalah bagian dari masalah pembinaan kewarganegaraan (citoyennete) Perancis yang belum tuntas. 

5) Di sisi lain, kriminalisme dan teror yang terjadi beberapa kali di beberapa tempat di Perancis juga menunjukkan masalah di dalam tubuh sebagian Muslim sendiri, termasuk anak mudanya, untuk dapat hidup dalam konteks laicite Republik Perancis. Ektremisme dengan kekerasan, antara lain kurangnya pemahaman ajaran dasar Islam dan Quran. Tidak ada ajaran Al-Quran untuk membunuh orang yang menghina Nabi atau Al-Qur’an. Apalagi di Perancis, tidak ada hukuman untuk itu. Tindakan memenggal kepala guru dengan alasan blasphemy, itu jelas bertentangan dengan hukum Perancis. 

6) Di Perancis, banyak sekali organisasi imam Muslim dan upaya dialog antaragama. Conseil Francais du culte musulman (CFCM) misalnya mengecam radikalisme, kekerasan, dan pembunuhan guru itu. Ada solidaritas umat beragama termasuk Muslim terhadap aksi pemenggalan guru itu. Sejauh ini banyak tokoh dan organisasi Muslim di sana yang memajukan keagamaan, kebudayaan, olah raga, dan ekonomi Perancis. Tapi masih banyak pendatang Muslim yang menderita, belum maju ekonomi sosial mereka, rendah pendidikan mereka. Di sisi lain, ada banyak muslim yang mendukung moto nasional Perancis Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite. Sebagian mereka membangun “French Islam”. Islam Perancis, semacam Islam nusantara atau Islam Indonesia. 

7) Di kalangan sarjana Perancis, setidaknya ada dua teori yang mencoba menjelaskan fenomena radikalisme. Gilles Kepel berpendapat ada faktor ideologi Islam, sedang Olivier Roy menyebut faktor psikologi individual Muslim yang marjinal, bukan mainstream ajaran Islamnya. Dalam pidatonya, Macron sejalan dengan teori Kepel itu: “Islam adalah agama yang mengalami krisis zaman sekarang. Islam harus dibebaskan dari pengaruh-pengaruh asing”, dan merencanakan mengurangi imam-imam yang terdidik dari luar Perancis, mengurangi homeschooling, dan mengawasi sumber pendanaan agama. Selain program-program pelayanan pendidikan, kultural dan olah raga yang lebih kuat. Semacam program deradikalisasi. 

8) Meskipun unik sejarahnya, Perancis tetap perlu belajar dari negara-negara yang tidak represif terhadap kaum-kaum yang marjinal dan kalangan yang berpotensi atau terbukti radikal dan kriminal. Karena ideologi terbukti sulit termoderatkan melalui pidato dan kebijakan represi. Pendekatan ekonomi, pendidikan, kebudayaan, dan kewarganegaraan harus lebih komprehensif, dengan mengakui kontribusi berbagai elemen bagi lahirnya revolusi, Pencerahan, dan moto kebebasan, persamaan dan persaudaraan itu. Pemerintah dan berbagai elemen masyarakat di Perancis sama-sama harus introspeksi sejauh mana mereka bisa menghadapi masalah bagaimana bisa hidup berdampingan damai, adil, dan produktif.

Memaknai Les Rites de Passage

https://geotimes.co.id/kolom/memaknai-les-rites-de-passage/

Hampir setiap minggu ada kabar duka wafatnya teman, tetangga, atau orang lain, di Indonesia, di Amerika, dan di mana-mana. Minggu lalu kehilangan teman dan kolega. Tapi hari ini baru saja kami menghadiri virtual pernikahan saudara. Ada juga kelahiran bayi dari saudara, teman, dan banyak orang yang kita tahu.  Ada yang lahir, ada yang menikah, ada yang meninggal. Saya telah mengalami dan menyaksikan fase-fase kehidupan ini. Dalam kajian agama, fase-fase kehidupan manusia ini bisa disebut les rites de passage, dalam bahasa Perancis, atau rites of passage dalam bahasa Inggris, yaitu ritual, seremoni, atau upacara yang dilakukan untuk menandai seseorang melewati satu fase ke fase selanjutnya, sebagai tanda perubahan status dalam kehidupan keluarga dan sosial. Setiap budaya, agama, ideologi, bahkan komunitas tak beragama, memiliki rites de passage masing-masing. Di sisi lain, seseorang menjadi anggota dari berbagai macam kelompok, organisasi, afiliasi, jaringan, keluarga, pekerjaan, dan sebagainya, yang memiliki upacara-upacara dalam tahap-tahap penting masing-masing.   

Etnografer Belanda-Jerman-Perancis Arnold van Gennep (w. 1957) mengkaji rites de passage secara sistematis dalam Les Rites de Passage: Etue Systematique des Rites (1909).  Menurut van Gennep, ada dunia sakral dan dunia profan atau duniawi, ada laki-lakin dan ada perempuan. Van Gennep mengibaratkan rites de passages seperti rumah yang dibagi menjadi kamar-kamar dan koridor-koridor. Melewati passage artinya seseorang meninggalkan suatu fase atau suatu kelompok dan masuk ke fase berikutnya atau kelompok lainnya, ibarat ia keluar dari satu kamar dan masuk ke kamar lainnya.  

Umumnya ada tiga fase: 1) pemisahan (separation) sebagai masa pre-liminal, 2) fase antara atau transisi (liminal) dan 3) fase bergabung (incorporation) dan menjadi anggota (post-liminal). Ketika seseorang masuk menjadi anggota baru (apakah itu organisasi, agama, kelompok, profesi, atau apapun), ada fase awal ketika ia memisahkan diri dari fase sebelumnya, dari waktu sebelumnya, dari kelompok sebelumnya. Pada fase awal ini, seseorang atau suatu kelompok menarik diri dari status sebelumnya dan mempersiapkan diri pindah ke status atau fase berikutnya. Ketika seorang masuk ke dalam korps militer misalnya, ia akan memotong rambut cepak, mengenal senjata, dan menggunakan seragam baru. Ketika seorang masuk menjadi mahasiswa, ia akan mengikuti awal pengenalan mahasiswa, seperti ospek, dengan memakai seragam tertentu, mengikuti kegiatan-kegiatan tertentu, seringkali tidak biasa, dan sebagiannya, sebagai tanda ia memasuki dunia baru: mahasiswa, yang berbeda dari dunia sebelumnya: masa SMA atau madrasah. 

Setelah itu, fase transisi, liminal, masa antara.  Ia baru masuk ke fase, waktu, atau kelompok baru tetapi belum benar-benar masuk atau menjadi bagian dari fase, waktu, atau kelompok yang baru. Fase liminal ini biasanya ditandai dengan kebimbangan, ketidaknyamanan, ketidaksiapan, dan hal-hal tidak biasa lain. Masa antara seorang pasangan bertunangan dan pernikahan, masa antara mengandung dan melahirkan, masa antara kematian dan pengurusan jenazah (apakah penguburan, kremasi atau lainnya), bisa dikatakan masa liminal. Pada masa liminal, ketika seseorang melakukan akad nikah misalnya, ia akan sungkem kepada orang tua, berterima kasih, dan mohon do’a restu untuk mengawali kehidupan rumah tangga. Pada saat liminal ini, ia belum benar-benar menjadi anggota keluarga baru sang suami atau sang istri. Masa transisi ini penuh tanda tanya, tidak begitu tahu apa yang akan terjadi, belum mengenal dan dikenal keluarga dan daerah baru. Ia baru selesai masa lajangnya, tapi belum benar-benar masuk menjadi keluarga baru. Ujian melewati masa transisi ini bisa lulus ketika ia pelan-pelan belajar dan memahami satu demi satu bagaimana menjalani kewajiban, tuntutan, dan hak-hak sebagai identitas atau kelompok baru. Masa liminal ini penting karena pada waktu inilah ia akan mempersiapkan diri untuk menjalani kehidupan di depannya. Victor Turner dan lain-lain berpendapat bahwa masa liminal semakin berkurang pada era industri ketika orang semakin individualistik, tapi ia mengenalkan istilah liminoid yang artinya break from society, lepas keluar dari komunitas, misalnya ketika ia menghadiri konser musik rock, atau menonton pertandingan bola atau, kita bisa beri contoh pada kerumunan massa, ketika terjadi penjarahan, demonstrasi besar, dan seterusnya. Tapi menurut saya, masa liminal masih dialami masyarakat perkotaan dan moderen sekalipun, meskipun bentuk dan pemaknaan bisa berubah.

Kunjungan atau ziarah, seperti haji ke Mekah dan Madinah, atau Yerusalem untuk sebagian kaum Yahudi dan Nasrani, bisa termasuk fase liminal. Juga Hindu, Buddha, Konghucu, bahkan Marxis, dan ateis sekalipun. Setiap agama dan keyakinan memiliki tempat suci yang dikunjungi dan diingat untuk waktu tertentu. Ormas keagamaan, denominasi gereja, aliran Buddha, kelompok agama-agama baru, memiliki upacara-upacara dan ziarah-ziarahnya masing-masing. Bukan hanya keagamaan, juga wisata alam dan duniawi. Setiap kunjungan bisa menjadi suatu perjalanan (journey) ke tempat-tempat tertentu menjadi awal transformasi intelektual, mental, dan spiritual bagi pelakunya. Pada masa haji yang waktunya terbatas itu, seorang Muslim berada dalam masa transisi tapi sangat penting. Salah satu karakteristik masa liminal ini, adalah bahwa manusia yang ada didalamnya merasa sejajar. Orang kaya dan miskin, laki-laki dan perempuan, yang memiliki hirarki berbeda sebelum haji, lalu berpakaian yang sama, mengalami ritual yang sama, merasa sejajar. Setelah masa liminal ini selesai, maka menjadi hajji, memiliki status sosial baru, dan mengalami transformasi spiritual individual, dan bagi sebagian orang menjadi bagian dari umat Nabi Muhammad.  

Baru pada fase selanjutnya, post-liminal, seseorang menjadi bagian (incorporate) kehidupan atau kelompok baru. Setelah ia mengikuti upacara, melakukan prosesi, ia memiliki identitas baru, ikatan baru, kelompok dan dunia baru. Hirarki terbentuk kembali. Pada fase ketiga itu, simbol-simbol tertentu dipakai, seperti mahkota, cincin, gelang, atau seragam baru, bendera baru, sumpah baru, dan sebagainya. Di facebook pun, status berubah, misalnya. Ada rasa menjadi anggota, berafiliasi masuk keanggotaan atau fase yang baru. Masa incoporasi ini, tentu saja, bukan berarti fase terakhir. Ketika seseorang sudah lama menjadi anggota organisasi tertentu, puas ataupun tidak puas, ia memikirkan ulang, mengalami asam garam dan manisnya dengan identitas dan kelompok itu. Dalam kehidupan manusia, kematian menjadi akhir, dan upacara kematian menandainya. 

Suatu fase bisa berakhir, tapi fase baru akan dimulai. Misalnya, graduation atau lulus sarjana (S-1), mengakhir fase S-1, tapi menjadi fase untuk selanjutnya, jika ia akan melanjutkan kuliah ke-S2. Begitu pula, jika ia telah selesai S-3, ia akan memasuki fase berikutnya lagi. Upacara pengukuhan Guru Besar, seperti di Indonesia, menjadi penting sebagai tanda puncak status akademik seseorang tapi bagi sebagian juga menjadi fase awal untuk kehidupan baru sebagai guru besar hingga wafatnya ketika fase kehidupan berakhir dan ditandai dengan upacara kematian atau funeral. 

Pada umumnya, rites de passage berkaitan dengan fase perkembangan biologis. Bagi kaum perempuan misalnya, ada kehamilan lalu melahirkan. Ketika ia melahirkan, ada upacara terkait dengan kelahiran, apakah dikumandangkan azan atau do’a tertentu dalam agama lain, dan setelah beberapa hari, ada  aqiqah, dengan menyembelih hewan, dalam tradisi Abrahamik Islam, yang diikuti dengan pemotongan rambut dan pengumuman nama. Pada selanjutnya, anak laki-laki khususnya, mengikuti tradisi itu, memasuki fase inisitasi, melalui sunat (circumcision) kelamin, sebagai tanda ia “sudah besar” dan kemudian masuk masa puber, yang dalam kasus perempuan, menstruasi menjadi salah satu tanda pubertas itu. Menurut Catherine Bell (Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions 1997), rites de passage menggabungkan yang natural dan yang kultural. Perkembangan biologis manusia sejak lahir hingga wafat ditandai dengan upacara kultural sehingga kehidupan manusia menjadi lebih lengkap. 

Upacara-upacara rites de passage menjadi bagian penting bagi perkembangan individual manusia sebagai makhluk komunal dan sosial. Rites de passange menghubungkan seseorang kepada suatu komunitas, dan masyarakat yang lebih luas dan bahkan kehidupan yang lebih spiritual dan bermakna. sebagai makhluk budaya dan sosial. Dalam bahasa Claude Levi-Strauss, ada impuls atau dorongan manusiawi yang dalam untuk “memasak” perubahan biologis yang mentah itu menjadi matang. Artinya, rites de passage menjadikan manusia biologis “matang”  secara kultural. Dalam perspektif lain, upacara merupakan metode meng-alami-kan kehidupan kultural dan mem-budaya-kan kehidupan biologis.  

Fase sebelum, fase antara, dan fase sesudah itu, atau dalam bahasa lain siklus kehidupan (cicle of life) dialami kita semua, sebagai manusia biologis dan kultural, yang memiliki fisik dan kebudayaan. Di Mesir, Iran, Yunani, India, Cina, Arab, Eropa, Australia, Amerika, dan Nusantara, termasuk di kalangan agama lokal, dulu, dan sekarang, apapun bentukrites-nya, dari segi simbol, bahasa, gerakan, bahan-bahan yang digunakan, dan pemaknaan khususnya, ada kesamaan yang cukup universal di hampir semua komunitas manusia dulu dan sekarang. Selain berbeda-beda, ada perubahan tentu saja, karena manusia terus berubah, tapi tradisi rites de passage dalam arti permulaan, transisi, dan kematangan hingga akhir, telah ada sejak lama sekali, dan cukup langgeng dalam sejarah perkembangan umat manusia. Faktor-faktor jender dan seksualitas, kelas sosial ekonomi, kota dan desa, suku dan ras, agama dan ideologi, pekerjaan, negara, krisis wabah, dan sebagainya, berpengaruh pada rites de passages

Wabah Covid-19 misalnya berdampak pada upacara-upacara seperti pernikahan dan upacara kematian, yang harus memenuhi “protocol”. Haji, umrah, sunat, baptisme, mandi di Sungai Ganga India, bisa  menyesuaikan diri waktu dan pelaksanaannya. Namun demikian, dalam situasi darurat pun, dan dengan berbagai teknologi komunikasi yang begitu pesat, rites de passage masih dilakukan, dialami, dan kita saksikan di mana-mana. 

Rites de passage adalah bagian penting kehidupan kita sebagai manusia individual dan komunal, manusia biologis dan budaya sekaligus. Rites de Passage juga menunjukkan bahwa manusia adalah bagian dari masa lalu dan tradisi, meskipun hidup di masa sekarang, dan sejauh apapun kita sedang dan akan melesat jauh ke masa depan.

 

Becoming Antiracist

Muhamad Ali 

More than a month since the death of a black man George Flyod in Minneapolis, racial turmoil and its aftermath has become less but the conversation and anti-racist struggle continue and should continue. The white policeman’s cruelty ignited the flames of anger to so many protesters and peoples of all races beyond the streets in the US and many parts of the world. But the fire this time will not last. How to make the moment a long-term anti-racist struggle?  

Violence is always so complex that one solution can’t stand alone. Racism is so acute and systemic that it demands serious efforts from all peoples of all races. The negative feelings and actions and hostility towards other groups have existed since the birth of the United States, when black slaves became part of the settlers on the New World in the American continent. It was when white superiority, originating from parts of Europe, was carried over and institutionalized in America. 

Although in the 21st century, racism is often used for any form of hostility towards other groups for any reason, including gender, age, language, culture, and religion, skin color remains the most tangible and prominent element of group identity and struggles. 

Even many people today are still convinced that differences in skin color are not only natural, but also permanent and cannot be bridged. For many non-black peoples, black people are demeaned, impure, wild, primitive, uncivilized, not fully human. 

Science is often used to justify the dogma of racial superiority. Biological determinism, and racial Darwinism by Eugenics from England and later influential in America, believed the white or Caucasian race was nobler than blacks from Africa, and other colored skins, including the native and Asian peoples.

Modern racism takes various forms of practice, institutions, and socioeconomic structures that perpetuate differences in skin color, including legal products that perpetuate black slavery and racial injustice. Even until 1863, black people who were already independent could not become citizens. Only after the 14th Amendment to the Law of 1868, citizenship includes every person born in America.

But since the 1830s, legislation known as “Jim Crow laws” has been the longest standing product of racist law, restricting blacks to intermarriage marriages, interacting in the public sphere and electing leaders.At the same time, America is a country of paradox and struggles. She has also experienced an anti-colonial movement, the abolition of slavery, a civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, with key figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom-X, and many mores. In the contemporary period, black figures in various public fields have also become prominent of anti-racist voices: Muhammad Ali, Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, Keith Ellison, and Ilhan Omar, to name just a few. Keith Ellison became the first Muslim senator, now the General Attorney in the Floyd’s court case. Families, and the wider community are waiting for justice and the legal process has begun.

But political participation is a must. Obama, for example, calls for blacks to be involved in politics, choosing politicians who voice justice. Among many, he has voiced criminal law reform, police officers, and called for changing the legal products that do not guarantee justice. Many have called that the acts of torture be abolished and if they do, they must be subject to severest punishment. Many politicians and activists seek support for electoral reform through the post office or online, without having to come to the ballot box because it is very difficult for many black peoples and other peoples of color to vote.

They have raised their voice for legal reform, to change rules that made it difficult for blacks and other disfranchised peoples, to have a place to live, to borrow funds, to get education, health, employment, and other public services.

The “Black Lives Matter” movement should continue to reverberate. Many protestors recalled the speech of Martin Luther King Jr. Citizens must judge people based on their character content rather than their skin color.

On campuses and the media, humanitarian solidarity is also voiced. Many black students on campuses have suffered tremendous trauma, while demanding justice and everyone’s solidarity. There is indeed training on pluralism and inclusion on US campuses and anti-discrimination rules. But this is not enough.

Many claim “I’m not racist,” but they could be racist. Or they are nonracist today, but racist tomorrow. Being nonracist is not enough. Many could pretend that when they do nothing.

A person can support racist policies through his actions or can be complicit in perpetuating racism by doing nothing at all to educate themselves and others. Being anti-racist means supporting any anti-racist policy through action. Nor does it stop voicing anti-racist thoughts.

There have been global reactions to the police brutality and racism in America. There are voices of anti-racism globally in their own regional and national contexts. There is much hope, especially among the young generation of all races, who are more open to change the course of history and feel more connected to the problem and eager to explore and work in lasting solutions.

The fire this time would not last. But the promises will last. We should fulfill our promises.

Every human being is equal and noble. We should not stop fighting for justice. Peace and fairness can’t be separated. To become fully human is to see others as equally and fully human.

Rasisme dan Antirasisme di AS

Muhamad Ali 

Memasuki sekitar satu bulan, gejolak rasial dan jam malam di banyak kota di Amerika Serikat (AS) telah menurun, namun percakapan dan perjuangan mereformasi kebijakan terus berlangsung. Kematian pria kulit hitam George Flyod setelah ditangkap dan ditekan lehernya dengan dengkul polisi kulit putih, memantik api kemarahan begitu banyak warga di AS. Keluarga Floyd menuntut keadilan bagi pelaku penyiksaan itu (polisi Derek Chauvin dan ketiga polisi yang terlibat). Bagi mereka dan kita, tidak ada damai tanpa keadilan.   

Masalah warna kulit paling akut dan sistemik di AS. Rasisme, rasa dan tindakan negatif dan permusuhan terhadap kelompok lain – khususnya oleh kaum kulit putih terhadap kaum kulit hitam, telah ada sejak AS berdiri, ketika para budak kulit hitam menjadi bagian para pendatang ke Dunia Baru benua Amerika. Ketika superioritas kulit putih, berasal dari Eropa, terbawa dan melembaga di Amerika. 

Meskipun di abad ke-21, rasisme sering digunakan untuk setiap bentuk permusuhan terhadap kelompok lain untuk alasan apapun, termasuk jenis kelamin dan jender, usia, budaya, dan agama, warna kulit tetap menjadi unsur identitas paling menonjol. 

Bahkan banyak orang masih yakin, perbedaan warna kulit bersifat alami, tetap, dan tidak bisa dijembatani. Orang kulit hitam direndahkan, tidak suci, liar, primitif, tidak beradab, bukan sepenuhnya manusia. 

Sains pun dipakai untuk membenarkan dogma keunggulan ras. Determinisme biologis, dan Darwinisme rasial oleh kaum Eugenik dari Inggris dan kemudian berpengaruh di Amerika, berkeyakinan ras putih atau Kaukasian lebih mulia daripada kaum kulit hitam dari Afrika, dan kulit-kulit berwarna lainnya termasuk orang asli dan Asia. 

Rasisme moderen mengambil berbagai bentuk praktek, kelembagaan, dan struktur sosial ekonomi yang melanggengkan perbedaan warna kulit itu, termasuk produk hukum yang melanggengkan perbudakan orang kulit hitam. Bahkan hingga 1863, orang kulit hitam yang sudah merdeka pun tidak bisa menjadi warga negara. Baru setelah Amandemen ke-14 Undang-Undang tahun 1868, kewarganegaraan mencakup setiap orang yang lahir di Amerika. 

Namun sejak 1830an, perundang-undangan yang dikenal “Jim Crow laws” menjadi produk hukum rasis yang paling lama, membatasi kaum kulit hitam untuk nikah antar ras, berinteraksi di ruang publik dan memilih pemimpin.  

Menjadi Anti-Rasis  

Pada saat bersamaan, Amerika juga mengalami gerakan anti-penjajahan, gerakan penghapusan perbudakan, gerakan hak-hak sipil pada tahun 1950an dan 1960an, dengan tokoh-tokoh utama seperti Martin Luther King Jr dan juga Malcom-X.  Di masa kontemporer, figur-figur kulit hitam di berbagai bidang publik pun bermunculan. Ada Oprah Winfrey, Keith Ellison, Barack Obama, dan Ilhan Omar, untuk menyebut beberapa nama. 

Obama misalnya, menyerukan kaum kulit hitam terlibat dalam politik, memilih politisi yang menyuarakan keadilan. Ia suarakan reformasi hukum kriminal, aparatur kepolisian, dan semua produk hukum yang tidak menjamin keadilan. Tindakan penyiksaan aparat harus dihapuskan dan jika terjadi, harus mendapat hukuman setimpal. Banyak tokoh dan aktifis mencari dukungan reformasi pemilihan melalui kantor pos atau online, tanpa harus datang ke kotak suara karena sangat menyulitkan banyak orang terpinggarkan untuk memilih.

Mereka menyuarakan reformasi hukum, mengganti aturan yang menyulitkan kaum kulit hitam dan kaum miskin lainnya, untuk memiliki tempat tinggal, untuk meminjam dana, untuk mendapatkan pendidikan, kesehatan, pekerjaan, dan pelayanan publik lainnya. 

Berita baiknya. Keith Ellison menjadi senator Muslim pertama, sekarang menjadi Jaksa Penuntut Umum pengadilan kasus Floyd ini. Keluarga, dan masyarakat luas sangat menunggu apakah tuntutan keadilan terpenuhi. Proses pengadilan dimulai. 

Tapi gerakan “Black Lives Matter”, Nyawa Orang Hitam Bernilai, terus bergema. Brutalitas aparat kepolisian menjadi sasaran utama. Aktifis mengingatkan lagi pidato Martin Luther King Jr. Warga negara harus menilai orang berdasarkan muatan karakternya bukan berdasarkan warna kulit. 

Ada hampir 45 juta atau 14 persen orang kulit hitam di Amerika saat ini. Kebanyakan masih dalam kondisi marjinal. Perjuangan anti-rasisme masih panjang. 

Di kampus-kampus dan media, solidaritas kemanusiaan juga disuarakan. Banyak mahasiswa kulit hitam di kampus-kampus, mengalami trauma luar biasa, seraya menuntut keadilan dan solidaritas semua orang. Memang ada pelatihan tentang kemajemukan dan inklusi di kampus-kampus AS. Ada aturan-aturan anti-diskriminasi. Tapi itu belum cukup.   

Hampir semua orang berkata, “saya tidak rasis”, tapi nyatanya mereka bisa saja rasis. Atau tidak rasis hari ini, tapi rasis hari besok hari. Menjadi tidak rasis, belumlah cukup. Berpura-pura. Atau seolah-olah tidak ikut berdosa. Sekarang momentumnya. Menjadi anti-rasis. 

Seseorang bisa mendukung kebijakan rasis melalui tindakannya, atau tidak berbuat sama sekali. Menjadi anti-rasis berarti mendukung setiap kebijakan anti-rasis melalui tindakan. Juga tidak berhenti menyuarakan pikiran anti-rasis. 

Setiap manusia adalah sejajar dan mulia. Mereka, juga kita semua, tidak boleh berhenti berjuang menyuarakan keadilan. Damai dan adil jangan dipisahkan. Menjadi manusia sepenuhnya, dan menilai orang lain sebagai manusia, juga sepenuhnya.