Arif Maftuhin

Tulisan Suki di Washington Post ini segera mengingatkan saya ke Seoul dan teman sekelas saya dari Korea, Ju Song. Suki menulis: I remember looking through the window of our fifth-floor apartment in Seoul as a child and finding the night sky peppered with bright-red neon crosses.  Saya tiba di Incheon pagi hari, dan segera meluncur ke hotel tempat saya menginap di tengah kabut tebal yang meliputi kota pelabuhan itu. Tak banyak yang saya lihat karena pekatnya kabut, tetapi begitu siang menjelang saya sempatkan berjalan-jalan di sekitar hotel.  Dalam benak saya Korea adalah negara Budhis, tetapi saya benar-benar heran bahwa di sana-sini yang saya jumpai justru salib-salib yang bertebaran di berbagai sudut kota. Kita bisa menjumpai hingga dua salib terpancang di atas satu apartemen. Korea sepertinya memiliki lebih banyak gereja daripada Amerika.  Dalam kunjungan kedua saya ke Korea, saya sempatkan ke Seoul dan sekali lagi kesan saya tentang gereja di Korea semakin jelas. Kor...

School holiday is always a right time for many Islamic organizations in Jogja, and other cities indeed, to reach out the teenagers and promote Islamic values. The most popular activity is khitanan massal. Khitan (circumcision) is believed, like other Abrahamic religions, as one of Islamic teachings, shariah. Male Muslims have to be circumcised before they reach an adult age (baligh). In other part of the world, the male babies are circumcised in their earliest age, the day there are born. But in Indonesia, boys are not circumcised that way. The typical practice in Indonesia is that they are circumcised when they are in 5 to 7 grade. Khitanan massal is an activity to observe that religious obligation in a group of tens boys. Islamic organizations, like NU and Muhammadiyah, use this school holiday to help those pre-teenagers to observe that religious obligation. During this holiday, NU and Muhammadiyah in Jogja organize some khitanan massal for their youths. We, Indonesian Muslims, have ...

“Sejak bertahun-tahun, baru kali saya bangga menjadi orang Indonesia” (For many years, I have never been so proud of being Indonesian like today). This is an interesting statement of an Indonesian supporter after the national team beat Bahrain 2-1 last week. Proud of being Indonesian has been decreasing as the Indonesians look at the current political and economic developments. On the one hand, we may be happy that since 1998 we have enjoyed the luxury of democratic freedom. On the other, the fact that democracy has not facilitated the expected changes (good governance, better economy) is a problem for the nation. The Indonesian economy may look better statistically. The Economist, for example, praised the nation: Indonesia's external position is far more comfortable than it was before the Asian financial crisis. Its current account recorded an estimated surplus of 2.6% of GDP in 2006, compared with a deficit of 3% of GDP in 1996. Its foreign-exchange reserves now cover 5.2 months ...