Arif Maftuhin

I just called my mother back home in Indonesia because I wanted to talk about my brother. Yes, it's just a family stuff and I will not write about that. It was raining now there in my village and with my bad connection through skype, we both had to talk louder. " Koq yo pas lho. Aku lagi ndeloki gambarmu ki ." My mother said "I am looking at your picture now." It sounds weird to hear that she needs to look at my picture (does my mom miss me?). It is more like in a movie in a scene when a mother desperately looks at a picture of her son who lives far away from her -- I imagined. " Mbak Mah wae sampek bolak-balik nelpon ngomongi aku kon rono ndelok fotomu ." Mbak Mah is my neighbour. She called my mom insisting that my mom need to see the picture. But, why does she has my picture? Strange huh? Then, she told me that my picture is on the front page of Jawa Pos , the largest paper in Eastern Indonesia. Oh!... I know, Redhi must do this. Redhi is a reseache...

Seminggu yang lalu, hampir bersamaan denga berita soal Turkey, harian New York Times menurunkan sebuah laporan tentang "Indonesia, Islam, dan Demokrasi". Foto yang ditampilkan, tentu saja, yang bisa mengundang perhatian pembaca, seorang perempuan berjilbab duduk tak berdaya dihadapan algojo yang siap mencambuknya. Kontak pertama si jurnalis pun dipilih dari pertemuannya dengan seorang anggota Front Pembela Islam: SEVEN years ago, in the pre-9/11 fall of 2000, I was retrieving my luggage at the airport in Jakarta when a tall Indonesian man in a flowing white robe and green scarf accidentally bumped me off my feet. He apologized and helped me up. Then I noticed he was part of a gang of grim young men stalking the airport with wooden rods. He said they were from the Islamic Defenders Front and were searching for Israelis to kill. I doubt they found any, but I was shocked. Such bullying and militancy contrasted sharply with the Indonesia I had come to know on previous reporting ...

Saya berusaha untuk memahami dengan baik berita yang saya baca tentang Turkey hari ini: More than 200,000 Turks protested against Turkey's Islamic-rooted prime minister Saturday, demonstrating the intense opposition he could face from Turkey's secular establishment if he decides to run for president next month. Protesters called on the government to resign and chanted slogans including, "We don't want an imam as president." Turkey adalah negeri Muslim pertama yang mengadopsi dengan sepenuh hati sekularisme ala Barat, dan bahkan lebih daripada rata-rata negara Barat. Radikalisme sekular Turkey hanya bisa disaingi oleh Perancis. Tetapi Turkey penuh dengan paradoks. Selagi militer dan sekularis negeri itu berjuang keras mempetahankan warisan Kemal, perlahan namun pasti partai Islamis memperoleh dukungan akar rumput. Bahkan, dalam pemilu parlemen terakhir partai ini berhasil menang telak untuk memperoleh kursi mayoritas. Sekarang, Turkey tengah memasuki masa kritis. T...

Beberapa hari yang lalu, harian the Wall Street Journal menampilkan sebuah wawancara dengan judul yang membuat saya penasaran, "The Last King of Java". Kalimat pembukanya pun eye catching : Suppose for a moment that the single most influential religious leader in the Muslim world openly says "I am for Israel." Suppose he believes not only in democracy but in the liberalism of America's founding fathers. Suppose that, unlike so many self-described moderate Muslims who say one thing in English and another in their native language, his message never alters. Suppose this, and you might feel as if you've descended into Neocon Neverland. In fact, you have arrived in Jakarta and are sitting in the small office of an almost totally blind man of 66 named Abdurrahman Wahid. A former president of ndonesia, he is the spiritual leader of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), an Islamic organization of some 40 million members. Indonesians know him universally as Gus Dur, a title of a...

Seorang teman di Calgary (Canada), mengirimkan email beberapa hari yang lalu kepada saya. Begini bunyinya: Btw, Rif...pernah tau/denger kalo nama pake "Siti" itu artinya apa? Kenapa orang-2 Indonesia,khususnya Jawa-Muslim, juga orang Malaysia/Brunei pake "Siti" juga. Saya udah sering cari tau di internet & tanya pak Ustad, tapi kok gak ada yg tau ya? udah gitu orang-2 Arab juga kagak ada yg tau kalo "Siti" itu dipake sbg nama Islam atau yg berhubungan ama Islam. Misalnya dulu guru saya menyebut nama Siti Hawa atau Siti Chadidjah, dlsb, tapi kan kalo di kisah-2 nabi, belum pernah deh nemu-in ada nama "Siti". Masak sih di google Nggak ada? Baiklah, biiar nanti di-google ada, saya akan menulisnya di sini. Berikut adalah jawaban yang saya berikan: "Siti" untuk perempuan, itu sebenarnya sama dengan "sidi" untuk laki-laki. Anda pernah mendengar nama "Sidi Gazalba"? Kalau nggak salah sih dia penulis sezaman deng...