SHORT SPEECH ON THE THEME "PEACE ON EARTH"
Den Haag, The Institute of Social Studies, 19 December, 2007
By: Amansur Gresik from Indonesia
Email: amansurgresik@yahoo.com and ma07029@iss.nl
It is indeed enormous honour for me to be given a chance to deliver a short speech in this occasion to celebrate unity in diversity with the theme peace on earth and in relation with religion as a source of inspiration. Let me begin by saying that whatever culture we come from, whatever nationality we belong to and whatever religion we are attached to, this differences should not make us disunited, ignorant and being far to each other but rather this differences should make us be united, help and support each other and the most important is promoting the fraternity and brotherhood in line with the motto of unity in diversity, as diversity amongst individuals, cultures, values and civilizations are truly blessings bestowed upon us by God, Allah the Almighty.
As a Muslim and as far as Islam is concerned, I will say that Islam recognizes plurality of faiths, promotes moderate and tolerant way of life, lays the guiding principle of love, compassion, tolerance and peace and asks Muslim to respect others just as what is inspired by the Holy Qur’an.
“For Allah has created you (Muhammad) and sent you to this Ummah to be nothing but a blessing for all creation” (Surah al-Anbiya’ verse 107).
وماأرسلناك إلا رحمة للعالمين.
Upholding Islam as a blessing for the universe is also believing that the Islamic norms and teachings oblige us to deem peace, love and caring each other, justice, equality, freedom of expression, moderation, tolerance, balance and consultation (shura) as fundamental principles of Islam.
Being brought up in the traditionalist Muslim family that is the Nahdatul Ulama (NU), the biggest Muslim organization in Indonesia with more than fifty million followers and is also well known for its moderate orientation, I find no room for being hatred and intolerance in relation to religious and human relationship bearing in mind the principle of fairness that people will treat you just as you treat them. In other word, treat other people as you would like to be treated.
The essence of tolerance, like what the former president
In my opinion to be tolerant means that we have to be open minded, willing to accept other culture, modernity and many things we see them as beneficial in our lives as long as it is in line with our belief. Religious tolerance does not mean and does not require us to embrace other religions. We behave and act just on we believe of course in the frame of tolerance. I am now for example, experiencing and have been exposed to western culture, and to some extent westernized in term of my clothes, my fast food and the like, but I am still a Muslim in the sense that I refrain myself from drinking alcohol and eating pork, and keep holding Islamic values and norms.
The values taught by Islam which I have mentioned above such as peace, tolerance, moderation, justice and equality, are the important elements that should inspire people to serve as the vanguard and to be at the forefront in the global movement to achieve a better global environment characterized by enjoining what is good and forbidding what is wrong in constructive and sustainable way alongside the millennium development goals set by the United Nations that is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to promote gender equality and women empowerment, to reduce child mortality, to improve maternal health, to combat HIV and AIDs, malaria and other disease, to ensure environmental sustainability, and to develop global partnership for development.
Unfortunately, many of the Islamic teachings have been misinterpreted not only outside the world of Islam but also within Muslim themselves. For example, they misinterpret he word jihad or the concept of jihad which is generally translated as a holy war, whereas it is not.
The word Jihad come from Arabic language means struggling or striving and applies to any effort exerted by anyone. In this sense, a student struggles and strives to get an education and pass course work is said to be doing jihad, an employee strives to fulfill his/her job and to work as self employed is said to be doing jihad, people strive and struggle to earn money and good living for them and their family is said to be doing jihad. So jihad may be used for/by Muslim as well as non-Muslim, and the term jihad is applied to all forms of striving and struggling, but the best jihad is the one who strives and is able to control his/her own evil desire or is able to control himself/herself for not doing evil deeds. It is also considered jihad if someone strives to wrestle with his/her passion at the time of anger, as anger most of the time leads to wrongdoings.
As far as Islam is concerned, there will never be compulsion for anyone to embrace any religion. Everyone is free to decide either to be Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or any religion he or she likes to embrace. One probably says that you could be Muslim because you have been brought up in the Muslim family, you could be Christian because you have been brought up in Christian family and so forth and so forth, but the essence is that Islam will never force anybody to embrace Islam, but let everybody has his or her own freedom of choice in respect of his or her belief, as it is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an.
“Let there be no compulsion (coercion) in the religion (Islam). The right direction is distinctly clear from error.” (Surah al-Baqarah, verse, 256.)
لا إكراه في الدين قد تبين الرشـد من الغي.
For me, I appreciate the differences and diversities amongst individuals, values, nations, cultures and civilizations as part of what I call the existence of global village. We must see ourselves as part of a global family, promoting the spirit of brotherhood, building capacity of each individual to embrace a commitment to universal love, to create mutual understanding and caring each other, to embrace compassion, to respect life and to live in peace and harmony with one another. We need to celebrate our cultural diversities rather than using it as a reason for conflict.
There is saying that peace begin at home. I believe that it is true, and we must begin our search for peace within ourselves, our family, and our community. When we find peace within ourselves, we surely can live at peace with others. As a student of the Institute of Social Studies The Hague, I will say that it is here at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) community where many people who come from different cultures, values, nations and civilizations get and join together to build a global family. ISS is a melting pot and a meeting place of the heart bringing together people of all faiths, backgrounds and cultures to embrace the oneness of what I call ISS family which can be extended globally.
I believe that every individual member of ISS can bring about a better world in terms of peace, tolerance, justice, equality and many other positive values on the ground that they have been facing and experiencing their lives in such way that they are able to build mutual respect and understanding, going hand in hand with different people and taking differences and diversities as blessing from God.
I realize that it is not enough to talk about peace. We must work at it however difficult it is. We need an action to make it real and present in our global village, just as Eleanor Roosevelt said, “It isn't enough to talk about peace; one must believe in it, and it isn't enough to believe in it; one must work at it.” So, start within and from yourself, by doing a good example to follow or enjoining what is good and forbidding what is bad and evil, conveying message of peace, tolerance, equality, participation and other positive values, expand it to your family and the surrounding people, then expand it further to your community and society and then to whole people in the world.
The last but not least, being present to this festival of unity in diversity in relation to religion as a source of inspiration, I would like to call upon all of us to enhance the constructive and interactive dialogue, to build mutual trust among religions, and to foster mutual understanding and mutual respect among the followers of all religions and nations particularly between Muslims and other communities.
Imagine if everyone were religiously tolerant, if everyone were loving and caring each other, if everyone were free to express their human rights and enjoying their worship according to their belief, if everyone were supporting and respecting each other and if everyone loves others as he or she loves himself/herself, there will be no hatred, no enmity, no animosity amongst us, and the world will witness a harmonious, prosperous and peaceful life. You may say I am a dreamer but I am not the only one. Thank you.
