umj.ac.id -- Chancellor of Muhammadiyah University of Jakarta (UMJ), Dr. Ma'mun Murod, M.Sc., was present at the Muhammadiyah University of Lampung to convey his political thoughts on the Religious Moderation Seminar and Workshop agenda organized by the Muhammadiyah Regional Leaders (PWM) Lampung, at the PWM Lampung Office, on Saturday (8/10 /2022).
On this occasion, Ma'mun explained about the political dynamics of Muslims. He said, “Muslims too often play on other people's issues and drums, in the end they are always disappointed. There is no effort to build one's own power, including in the political field.
Apart from that, Ma'mun also stated that many discourses were offered and packaged in such a way, as if they were good and free of 'sponsored messages', even though there were very strong messages with the intention of cornering Islamic groups. Furthermore, he gave examples of three things, namely religious radicalism (a more neutral term is actually religious extremism), Islamic wasatiyah, and identity politics.
In Islam, wasatiyah basically means a middle attitude between two extreme camps. Wasatiyah as a basic religious attitude has a strong footing in the Al-Quran verse about ummatan wasathan in QS. Al-Baqarah verse 143. When there is an issue of religious radicalism, it is almost certain that those accused of being radical are Muslim groups. According to him, the discourse on Islamic wasatiyah is good and should be campaigned on a massive scale, because actually Islam is a moderate religion, it is not always about religious moderation.
“This will narrow the meaning of Islam. The Islamic wasatiyah campaign should not only talk about religious moderation, but also talk loudly and massively, for example about political moderation and economic moderation. When talking about wasatiyah Islam is only about religious moderation, it will be easy to read that there is indeed a silent agenda, namely to corner Islamic groups. If you want to be fair, also campaign massively and loudly about political moderation and economic moderation. Moderating our politics and economy is even more important, because in these two sectors the practices are very extreme, radical, far from moderate. Our politics is very liberal and our economy is very capitalistic,” explained Ma'mun.
After attending the Seminar and Workshop on Religious Moderation, the Chancellor of UMJ continued the conversation with the Lampung PWM board, which also discussed politics and Muhammadiyah. Furthermore, Ma'mun continued his journey to Palembang. Apart from having an MoU with UM Palembang, his presence in Pempek City was also for a friendly visit and to chat with the Secretary of PWM South Sumatra, H. Suroso PR, M.Pd.I., and the Musi Rawas Muhammadiyah Youth Generation. (QF/KSU)
