…it would be a problematic to generalize the norm of Islamic Clerics among Indonesian Modernist Muslims. The ‘faces’ of modernist Muslims are changing just as other institutions where polarization is one of the characteristics. The clerical authority among reformist Muslim in Indonesia is now, especially after reformation era, more multi-polar and more plural than ever before.
Archive for the ‘English’ Category
Islamic Cleric among Indonesian “Modernist” Muslims
Viva Religious Studies
Posted 24 Jul 2009 — by Ahmad Muttaqin
Category English, Kabar/News
Category English, Kabar/News
…closing the department on the reason to save the budget is really an unwise decision. The argument that religion can be studied alone or attached to other departments, not in single body department reflecting inter-religious relationship, means the luck of comprehension on the important of mutual understanding among various religious backgrounds amid this rapid globalization. Since religion is one of humans’ ingredients that affect their economic, political, social, and cultural manifestations, studying religion needs a strong institution.
The Best Keyword for the article:
Recreational-therapeutic Spirituality vs. Religious Moral
Some people are worry about the burgeoning of spiritual centers in urban areas. They question why do people living in a modern city drifted by rationalism, individualism and secular point of view participate in spiritual groups considered as irrational and backwards? Does not it reflect the ambiguity or even paradox of modern people? While, may be it is true that modern people are full of paradoxes, or they are even have lost their modern orientations, but the trend is indeed a sign of natural cultural process.
Human beings, wherever and whenever, cannot be reduced into just technical parts of society. Man and woman posses mind, body, and spirit (soul). To some extent modern cultures have successfully provide minds and body’s needs but unable to feed spiritual thirstiness. A huge number of modern people are now living in anxious and continuously searching for medium to balance their life. Spiritual centers appearing in neo-Sufism, yoga, meditation, holism, reiki, Human Potential Movement, and many others, are sort of urban institution to furnish modern people.
It seems, however, that current urban spiritual centres are not merely for balancing modern life. Due to high demand of spiritual markets and the ability of urban people to purchase whatever spiritual cost, the centres develop programs that are suitable for the modern: instant, systematically programmed, easily to be performed, and commodified. The result is spiritual hybrid form greater emphasis on practical efficacy rather than piety and morals for social control. Participating in spiritual centres is narrowed just for recreational and therapeutic purposes. Spirituality is seen as a panacea of exhausted modern culture.
For many people, involving in spiritual centre will be more interesting and enjoyable than performing religion. For them, religion only teaches restrictions and rules; forbids people doing this and that in order to follow certain tenet. Will religious values as social control lost out and be replaced by pragmatic spiritual efficacies? Will spirituality successfully take over religion (Carrette and King, 2005)? As long as religious elites neglect this socio-religious and cultural shifts and are failed to provide appropriate spiritual canals for urban people, the fate of religions are really in “danger.”
The Best Keyword for the article:
Academicals Slave
“Hi there…, another academicals slave.” These cynical words are shouted by a PhD student, a friend of mine, when we meet each other. He is a very senior Australian, more than 60 years old. I and my Chinese friend always laugh hearing that “sarcastic” joke. Although it is just a joke, I think it reflects actual protest behind the words.
In Australian context, PhD students are doubting about government ability to provide job that suitable for Ph.D graduates. The amounts of scholarships are also questioned because they got scholarship, according to them, in relatively low. In fact, monthly stipend from Australian government for Australian students is twice times more than that is provided for non Australian. Let’s say Ausaid scholarship gives about $20 thousand AUD per non Australian students per year; its mean Australian students can receive about $40 thousand AUD a year. Nevertheless, they are still protesting because, as a comparison, a low level air conditioning technician can earn more than $50 thousand AUD a year! They are questioning why the government do not appreciate PhD students’ brain because they actually also work, developing new theories and inventories.
Let’s do another comparison and take a glance looking at scholarship from other institutions. A Brunei student told me that they got about $6 thousand AUD a month. Saudis students got scholarship including family allowance that I guess no less than $10 thousand AUD a month. A friend of mine who is studying in Uni of Wollongong reporten to me that Indonesian army who studying there receive $3,000.00 AUD a month. Comparing to other scholarships, then, who are the real ‘academicals slave’? Are I and many friends of mine who got only $1.5 thousands AUD a month, which is frequently coming late, are the real and low level of ‘academicals slave’?
For me, academicals slavery is not based on how much stipend we get every month, but it is based on how free we are to develop theory and knowledge in our project. We are not academics slave as along as we can access information we want freely. We are not academicals slave as long as we can determine our own intellectual trajectories. Otherwise, no matter how much one earns monthly stipend but his/her intellectual vision are banned and restricted by certain body, he or she is the real ‘academicals slave’.
