By Muhammad Basir Roslan
As reported by astroawani.com on 5 November, one person was killed and seven others injured in a stampede that occurred following a peaceful demonstration against Ahok in Jakarta this month as this incident is shocking to the entire world!
Are we fully aware of current international issue like this, where it just happened at our very nearest neighbour, the Republic of Indonesia?
To start with, what is the issue all about?
On 4 November 2016, about hundreds of thousands of people from all corners of the Republic of Indonesia flooded the city of Jakarta after Friday prayer for a massive demonstration to protest the governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or Ahok who allegedly had insulted Islam.
The protest was using #BantahAhok as their hashtag in the social media to attract attention and create awareness all around the world. A tense situation erupted when the riot police fired tear gas towards the peaceful protests against Ahok.
Participants said the peaceful protest had become uncontrolled due to dissatisfaction when the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, refused to meet the demonstrators. Jokowi was said that he did not give any response to Ahok’s statement which was considered an insult to Islam.
Here are the big question, who is Ahok and what had he done to enrage anger among the masses of Indonesia? Ahok, or his real name Basuki Tjahaja (Cahaya) Purnima who was previously the deputy governor of Jakarta, who won the Regional Head Election (Election) five years ago, was the only candidate for Governor of Chinese descent and a non-Muslim in Indonesia.
Ahok was later elected as governor of Jakarta in 2014 when Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, resigned to run for President. In this upcoming February 2017 elections next year, Ahok will maintain his position as governor, contested on party PDI-P which is supported by Megawati the former president, Golkar and Nasdem. He will be challenged by two couples who contested on two more coalitions of political parties which are Anies Bsawedan-Uno Uno and partner Agus Yudhoyono Harimurti-Sylviana Murni.
Ahok will be greatly challenged by both couples and due to the high pressure to win the election and to gain support of Muslims. In a campaign at Pulau Seribu last month Ahok reportedly asked Muslims not to be fooled by certain groups who use some verses in the Holy Quran in Surah Al-Maidah that mentioned Muslims cannot choose and vote a candidate among non-Muslims to be their leader.
But guess what? His words had given rise to controversy and angered the Muslims in Indonesia and he was also alleged to have insulted Islam when questioning the verses from the Quran.
Although Ahok later apologised and explained that he did not mean to insult Islam but it remained a hot issue, and non-governmental organisations on the basis of Islam, that include the Muhammadiyah still wanted Ahok to be penalised. Even Indonesian Ulama’ Council or MUI said in their statement that Ahok’s speech is unlawful because it is considered to have insulted the Holy Quran and the clergy or ulama’ who devoted themselves to make the interpretation of the meaning of Surah Al Maidah.
As we can see from this recent incident in Indonesia, it is not impossible to happen in our beloved Malaysia. As we can see anywhere and everywhere, Islam and its teachings, as well as its believers, have been oppressed and mocked all around the world.
I believe that we can still remember how our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had been insulted in cartoons by an anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders, the case of Charlie Hebdo where our prophet had been nakedly portrayed and the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten that had published 12 editorial cartoons on 30 September 2005, most of which depicted him as the principal figure of the religion of Islam.
As for example for Geert Wilders’ case, as reported by wsj.com, Dutch politician Geert Wilders on Wednesday, in June 2015, aired cartoons of Prophet Muhammad on Dutch national television as his latest provocation against Islam. Mr. Wilders, who is the leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom, aired the cartoons in a programme reserved for political parties. He said he broadcast the drawings to defend freedom of expression, even as Islam holds that any physical depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous.
“The Islam, the terrorists, don’t want us to show these cartoons. But terror and violence may never defeat freedom of speech,” Mr. Wilders said. “We must precisely do what the terrorists prevent us to do.” In that three-minute film, Mr. Wilders showed nine cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. One caricature had the accompanying text: “I have been made victorious with terror.”
The broadcast came six months after the attacks on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo by Islamic extremists who killed 12 people, including some of the publication’s most famous cartoonists.
These are just some of all the cases that we can see right in front of our eyes, our Prophet and Islam have been attacked, accused and underestimated from all directions. Did we realise that we had become weakened as the time passed by? What are the reasons behind all of these?
There are at least some prominent reasons why Muslims have become weakened and easily manipulated by the world. The most prevalent diagnoses and remedies for the weakening of Muslim society fall into four reasons.
The most popular reason as stated by many scholars seems to be that the Muslims have veered away from the teachings of Islam. As we can see nowadays, most of us today prefer to imitate the lifestyle of the West. The remedy that can be offered is, “If only we became good Muslims, we would regain the momentum and revive the grandeur of the past.”
The second conventional reason is that our downfall started with the ascendance of the West. It led to Western colonialism on Muslim lands and its materialistic hegemony stifled the Islamic civilisations. The popular remedy suggested is that we should get away from materialism, and also we must support an education system with spiritualism of Islam installed in it so that Islam and the Muslim community will rise and bloom again.
Another reason is that our Islamic community had been split by many sectarian and deviant beliefs such as Shiite, Khawarij, Qadariah and others until it reached up to 73 groups! As stated in one hadith of Rasulullah S.A.W, from Abu Hurayrah, he said: “The Prophet S.A.W has said,’ The Jews were divided into seventy-one (71) of the class or seventy-two (72) people, and Christians were divided into seventy-one (71) or seventy-two (72) people, and my ummah will split into seventy-three (73) categories.
As for the remedy, we should strengthen our belief in Allah and His Messanger’s teachings, and try our best to be a good Muslim guided by Quran and Sunnah. It has to be clear that only Ahl Sunnah Wal Jamaah is the righteous pathway in Islam and it should be followed by us, because other than this, are deviant teachings because they are man-made and not from Allah and Rasulullah S.A.W. We must be united to protect our God and our Islam so that the world cannot beat us easily. That is why Allah mentioned in His Holy Quran, “And hold firmly the rope of Allah, and do not become divided.” (3:103)
And the last reason is that because Muslims do not have a control on the economic power. As we can clearly see today, the world economy is controlled by non-Muslims especially the Jews even though their population is just 40 million compared to Muslims that 30 times bigger than them!
Natural resources and wealth of Muslim countries today such as oil, gas, gold, copper, silver and others are virtually managed by Multi-National Company (MNC) from Western countries whose economies are dominated by a handful of Jewish collaboration with corrupt Muslim leaders.
But what our Prophet did was unbelievable. He not only organised a boycott of foreign products but even prohibits the unbelievers to enter the city of Mecca even though the economy is still dominated by them. Rasulullah S.A.W tried his best to increase and empower the domination and control of the economy by his own followers until the Muslim community can stand on their own feet.
We can follow similar step starting even with a little step and progressing to strengthen our economic power globally and gain control of natural resources so that we have enough power to not depend on the West and the Jews. And with this, they will not underestimate us again.
Now is not a time for us to feel bad for our community and just be like a cry baby, because the time has come for us to unite and be strong again! Let Islam rise again! Let the words of Allah spread throughout the world until it shakes the hearts of unbelievers! ***