Majlis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) bahagian Lebak, di wilayah Banten Indonesia mengharamkan Pokemon Go, permainan yang kian mendapat perhatian ramai.
Langkah tersebut diambil berdasarkan pendapat para ulama secara amnya, bahawa permainan yang tidak bermanfaat hukumnya haram.
MUI bahagian Lebak menyifatkan Pokemon Go sebagai tidak bermanfaat dan boleh menyebabkan si pemain menjadi lalai terhadap kewajipan bersolat lima waktu serta pekerjaan mereka.
“Kami meminta MUI pusat segera melakukan kajian juga mengeluarkan fatwa terkait dengan Pokemon Go,” menurut Setiausaha Agung MUI bahagian Lebak, KK Ahmad Hudori, seperti yang ditukil laman Antara.
Menurut beliau, ajaran Islam mengharamkan permainan yang membazirkan waktu dan juga yang boleh membahayakan diri sendiri.
Demam Pokemon Go sudah sampai ke Indonesia dan sejauh ini, pemerintah negara itu berasakan masih belum ada keperluan untuk melarang permainan tersebut.
Namun, permainan itu tidak dibenarkan di tempat-tempat berhampiran pejabat pemerintah dan bangunan-bangunan utama negara itu.
Sebelum ini, kerajaan Arab Saudi turut mengeluarkan fatwa mengharamkan permainan Pokemon Go.
Menurut para ulama, kartun pokemon menggunakan simbol-simbol seperti “garisan silang menyerupai salib, segi tiga yang melambangkan Freemason dan simbol Shintoisme Jepun, yang berdasarkan kepercayaan terhadap lebih daripada satu Tuhan”.
Saw this secondary students from a neighbouring school near the mosque.
The first reaction i felt was, “masyaAllah”. Two buddies, in a mosque, one is revising school work while the other is reciting the Quran.
How having good companies around you play a major role in your struggles in this world.
May Allah broaden their knowledge and love for each other and may they grow up to be a contributing role models for the betterment of our ummah.
“The example of a good companion (friend) in comparison with a bad one is like that of one who sells musk and the blacksmith. From the first, you would either buy musk or enjoy its good smell, while from the blacksmith you would either get burned or smell a bad scent.” Saheeh Al-Bukhari
They write provocative things against Jews and people of other religions.
In a place like Singapore, where there is no prominent Muslim organisation for Bangladeshis or any influential cleric who they can follow, many of the overworked expatriates struggle to find spiritual comfort in their everyday life.
As the pent-up stress and frustration of living in a foreign culture continues to grow, Islamist radical groups swoop in to brainwash these vulnerable expatriate workers into believing that hatred and violence are paths to salvation.
In the city-state of Singapore, most militant propaganda are spread through books that speak of radicalised interpretations of Islam, the Dhaka Tribune found during a recent visit there.
“It is easier to brainwash those of us who live in a foreign land. It is because we do not have any organisation here. We do not have any Pir [religious preacher] or religion-based group. So, different kinds of books are often distributed among us,” a young Bangladeshi expat told the Dhaka Tribune at Mustafa Centre, a hotspot for local Bangladeshis.
“Even last Sunday [July 3], several thousands books were distributed in the Mustafa Centre area. A group of young men came and quickly distributed these books among everybody. One of the books is titled ‘Uphold Islam even in a foreign land.’”
Several other young men who also spoke with the Dhaka Tribune at the Mustafa Centre said many Bangladeshis take these books back to their rooms. The books are written in a way that anyone getting a glimpse would be wanting to read more, they said.
Fearing for their safety, the men requested that their voices not be recorded and that their names be excluded from the news report.
Asked to describe what is written in these books, they said the authors mentally blackmail the Bangladeshis, writing provocative things against Jews and people of other religions. Sometimes references from the Qur’an are mentioned and words in Arabic are included.
Even though no one understood what the Arabic words meant, many Bangladeshis believed whatever translation or interpretation was included in the books.
“The books push Muslims to boycott Jewish products and offer namaz, and speak about jihad,” one of them said.
Some of the youths, however, had a different explanation about the source of the books.
They said these books might be distributed by Bangladeshi shop owners around Mustafa Centre to encourage Bangladeshis to boycott Singaporean products and buy stuff from their own stores instead.
Several of the men also voiced their opposition against such books.
“In Bangladesh, such books would have been known for spreading militancy. But since there is no such scope in Singapore, these books are now spreading fast,” one of them said.
So far, at least 35 Bangladeshi nationals have been arrested in Singapore in connection with plotting terrorist activities.
Earlier this month, a Singapore court convicted four Bangladeshi workers for financing terrorism and sentenced them to jail terms between two and five years.
‘Malaysian students being targeted’
A different scenario was found in Malaysia, where university students told the Dhaka Tribune that they were the main brainwashing targets for extremists. Speaking on condition of anonymity, several of them said they receive many anti-Semitic messages regularly.
The Bangladeshi students who regularly offered prayers and fasted were the ones usually targeted by militant recruiters, they said.
But since it was revealed that Nibras Islam – one of the killers from the Dhaka terror attack – used to be a student in Malaysia, everyone has been on high alert, they added.
The founder and incumbent president of Bangladesh Students Union Council, Mohammad Mohiuddin Mahi, told the Dhaka Tribune that monitoring of Bangladeshi students in Malaysia has been increased since the July 1 attack.
“We have news that around 8,000 Bangladeshi students in 60 private, two public and six semi-public universities in Malaysia are being monitored. Malaysian police are secretly collecting information on where these students were living and who they had contact with, as well as tracking their mobile phones.
“We have Bangladeshi student organisations at 29 Malaysian universities. Through these organisations, we have asked all expatriate Bangladeshis to stay alert,” Mahi added.
A newspaper linked to the Islamic State Group has been gazetted a prohibited publication under the Undesirable Publications Act.
Al Fatihin, which is published by Furat Media, an ISIS affiliated media agency, has been circulated across South-east Asia including in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, southern Thailand, as well as southern Philippines, according to reports.
It will be an offence to distribute or possess the newspaper, or come into possession of the newspaper, but fail to deliver the copy to the Police. Those convicted of an offence may be liable to a fine, imprisonment or both.
“The Singapore Government has zero tolerance for terrorist propaganda and has therefore decided to prohibit Al Fatihin in Singapore,” said the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) said on Friday (July 22).
“ISIS’ intention to use the newspaper, Al Fatihin, to spread extremist ideology in the region is deplorable. The contents of Al Fatihin and the fact that it is published in Bahasa Indonesia, which is used by many in this region, confirm the objectives behind the publication to influence the people in this region and to cause disharmony,” said Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Communications and Information and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs.
“Extremism has no place in Singapore – it cannot and must not take root here,” said Dr Yaacob. “We take a very strong stance against terrorist propaganda and we will take decisive action as necessary. Hence, I have instructed for the publication to be prohibited in Singapore.”
The spate of terrorist attacks and the attendant violence witnessed in the last couple of months, including the recent attacks in Dhaka, Kishoreganj and Ektarpur in Bangladesh, and Nice in France, brings home the truth that something perverse is happening within Islam and Muslims alone can fight that scourge.
Analysts attribute the growth of Islamist radicalism to Muslim grievances about their culture and way of life not being given what they consider their rightful place in their own societies; transnational links with organisations like Al-Qaeda and now an even more dangerous phenomenon called the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or Daesh; hostility towards the policies of the West, in particular the United States and its support of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians, the occupation of Iraq and now intervention in Syria; and opposition to crackdowns on domestic militancy like in Bangladesh.
These factors have, undoubtedly, contributed to a sense of growing alienation and feeling of victimisation and oppression among certain Muslim groups, and to an attempt to redress their grievances and frustrations through violence and terror.
More importantly, a fundamental transformation is taking place within the Muslim community all over the world – an identity formation based on a world view taken from early Quranic precepts and a code of conduct resembling a way of life that was prevalent in the Arab world in the mediaeval period during the formative stage of Islam.
This form of identity is premised on an understanding and belief that to be a true Muslim, one has to be different from “others” in every aspect of life and that there cannot be a meeting ground between Islam and other religions. Adaptation to other customs, traditions and cultures in its path towards the expansion of the religion had only led to aberration and corruption of original and pristine ideas of Islam. It is only through the practice of mediaeval Arab traditions and way of life that the evil eyes of other religions can be kept at bay.
A group of Indonesian women with their children offering morning prayers during Eid al-Fitr celebrations in Tangerang, Jakarta, earlier this month. Since the first Muslims were mostly Arab, everything associated with them has been associated with Islam, even though the vast majority of Muslims today are not Arabs. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Such an exclusivist world view may not be the most predominant among the Muslims of the world yet, but is surely gaining slow and steady ground. The external manifestation is the wearing of Middle Eastern clothes by men and women. Strict observance of fundamentalist Islam is also a means of asserting identification with reform and protesting against upper-class corruption in many societies, which might somewhat explain the fundamentalists’ prescription for an austere way of life free from temptations and pleasures.
Since the first Muslims were mostly Arab, everything associated with them – their culture, names, and family structures – has been associated with Islam, even though the vast majority of Muslims today are not Arabs. The niqab ( face-veil) was rarely seen outside the Arab world until most recently. Most Muslims see the niqab as a by-product of Arab culture. The practice of wearing veils can be traced from a Quranic prescription given at the time of Rasullulah, who saw Arab women wearing veils – not due to any religious motives but rather due to the harsh and dusty desert climate – but leaving their bosoms wide open. He then urged the women “to wear their veils over their bosoms” for modesty, but this was not necessarily a particular dress code. It is only recently that the veil has been interpreted as religiously authentic, instead of a cultural expression, and therefore a must for all Muslim women.
Arabisation and Islamisation are inseparable parts of a single cultural ideal that now pervades the Arab world. In their drive towards authentication and uniformisation of Islam, the transmitters (Saudi Arabia and other Arabic countries) and the recipients (non-Arab Islamic societies) are equally emphasising “Arabisation” as the norm of the pure and ideal form of Islam to be followed by Muslims all over the world.
The Hadith, or records of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad, is the basis for the development of notions of syariah (Islamic law) that are heavily influenced by early and mediaeval Arab cultural norms.
Arabisation poses a threat to all Muslims who believe in Islam’s divine character and universalism, and can be combated only by them.
It is not a crisis between civilisations as Samuel Huntington noted, but a crisis within civilisation, and it needs to be fought from within.
Arabisation’s major appeal emanates from Islam’s millenary expectations and the unfounded utopia of a just and prosperous society under Islamic rule. This is also fed by the silence of the moderates in the face of the more vocal minority trying to hijack Islam for their perverted gain.
Christianity has passed through this phase and the contradictions between the sacred and the profane were resolved by separating the Church from the State during the period of renaissance and reformation.
If the powerful, modern ideas of “jihadi” Islamism are not met in the marketplace of ideas with an equally vigorous, contemporary articulation of peaceful, syncretic and inclusive Islam, then “the centre of gravity” of public discourse will inevitably slide towards those ideas that appear most powerful and relevant to the modern world.
The progressive interpretation of Islam developed by the late Nurcholish Madjid and former president Abdurrahman Wahid in Indonesia, Anwar Ibrahim and Dr Chandra Muzaffar in Malaysia, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, the former secretary-general of Asean, in Thailand, and progressive intellectuals from India and Bangladesh, represent a powerful alternative to “jihadi” Islamism.
The need of the hour for Muslims in Asia is to de-Arabise Islam from its exclusivist mould and promote a more inclusive Islam based on their own indigenous cultures and traditions blending with the universal message of Islam, as was the case in Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Bangladesh in the period before the inroads made by the Islam of the desert.
There is also an urgent need for the moderates to break their deafening silence against the tyranny of the small minority who are bringing shame and a bad name to the religion, and shed their inertia and fear of being branded as not “good Muslims” by the perverted radical minority.
In this project, Indonesia and India, the two largest Muslim countries in the world, can make a positive contribution in projecting their composite culture manifested in Borobudur and Prambanan in the former and Ajmer Dargah Sharif and Fatehpur Sikri in the latter.
The writer, Baladas Ghoshal, is secretary-general of the Society for Indian Ocean Studies based in New Delhi, India.
