Almost a week after an unprecedented attack that struck the capital city of Paris, scored were reportedly killed, diverting the world attention, leaving the whole nation in mourning as well as the whole world, leave anti-Muslim forces swept out around the world, particularly in Europe, where Muslim are mostly in minority community.
The aftermath of the attack we have witnessed series of anti-Muslim sentiment reportedly happened. In Canada it was reported that a mosque was set on fire on Saturday, in Oregon, an anti-Muslim protesters held a rally outside the Portland Rizwan mosque, in France, several incidents of mosque, Kebab restaurants and halal butchers shops being vandalised, where many of them associated with hate and rude messages.
This is what the Islamic State wants, to create anger toward Muslim community among the Western society, so that they become isolated and marginalized where ultimately the Muslim will turn against their own communities. A marginalized society become ideal condition to recruits more radical new recruits within the western Muslim communities. Where four of the terrorist identified as French and Belgian nationals, clearly affirmed that terrorist group are present within their community. On an interview with AFP, the European Union’s Counterterrorism chief Gilles de Kerchove affirmed that nearly about 4000 Europeans are estimated to have joined ISIS, mostly young people. This further lead into the strong wave of anti-Muslim sentiment and farther distancing the western Muslim society from their society.
The process of alienation can due to a mixture of subnational identities from different backgrounds and social traditions across the globe, living together on European tradition, where sometimes lead into social frictions in the community, either because of economic sentiment, different social traditions or norms that sooner or later would instantly alienate a particular community. The principle of liberty, equality, individualism, representative government and private property has resulted in the loss of communal solidarity and the ethnic minority either feels alienated or subordinated.
The feeling of “being alienated”, being “the other” could bring out the solidarity of “the other”, as they have the same feeling and form an exclusive community. Often this community goes beyond the ordinary community and later on could create an extreme mind-set, which may stimulate radical action. Living in an environment that highly respects human rights, particularly freedom of the individual and freedom of expression, indirectly gives rise to community organizations that actually emerge from the alienation of identity.
Therefore, this situation can quickly become a recipe for radicalization as a quest for personal signficance, because when their position are marginalised and isolated from the community, they could not fulfil their basic need for self esteem, self-respect.
The tragedy of Paris Attack will give some important implication, firstly, it further escalating tension between Muslim and the non-Muslim, secondly, as a means to justify the Western intervention in Syria and Iraq, which obviously against the international norm of the respecting other state sovereighty.
We can observe that violence which emanated from part of the Muslim world doesnt mean it is a product of the basic tenet of religion, rather it is a product of complex political and social circumstances, some region inherited the problem traced back from the legacy of colonialism, where artificial border was drawn by the collonial power which subsequently leave acute social friction within society. Another reason of violence caused by the collapse of domestic governmental institutions and above all the role of global politics also have strong contribution in destabilizing the region. The acute combination of the above problems will lead into several outcomes, for example high unemployment, injustice, discriminations, corruption, an abuse by the security forces in the name of social stability.
These social phenomenas subsequently will create a hopeless society, where often religion considered becomes very powerful panacea for the whole social malaise. Extremism usually draw an ideal state based on twisted interpretation of particular basic teaching of religion, often recruits the new recruiters from a despair society.
Therefore for those who claimed that Islam is inherently violence religion, ignored the overwhelming majority Muslim of more than 1,5 billion Muslim worldwide life peacefully, where this very small group of extremism constitute only 0,009 percent of the whole Muslim population.
However, this tragedy should remind us, that as a nation with Muslim majority nation, we still experienced several incident which often directed to our segment group of minority within our border. Although, according to the Wahid Institute report, throughout 2014, the number case on religious intolerance are dropped around 42 per cent as compare to the previous year, where about 158 cases with 187 actions, from that number, 80 cases involve state apparatus while 78 cases involve 89 non state apparatus. But these number does not rule out the possibility of injustice and discrimination toward our minority groups, which might grow the feeling of alienation.
A fair and just policies should be adopted in order to guarantee the protection of the minorities, by recognising their existence, accomodating their basic right as part of Indonesian citizen, while always maintaining the promotion of religious tolerance within our society, because the very basic precondition of the culture of peace is tolerance. Although, tolerance is perceived as an abstract idea, even with the help of social indicators it obviously hard to measure and observe, we could perceive intolerance when it result into human right violation, social destruction, social discrimination which may lead into more lethal conflict in a society. But such is not the case with tolerance, because tolerance requires not only the observable conditions, it also requires refraining from dan restraining the humanly destructive consequence of intolerance manifest in both personal behaviors and public policies.
Thus, solving the problems means embracing the complexity of the problem and adressing the problems from various different angle and not blaming the core tenet of particular religion, but above all putting religion as part of the solution.
Kamilia Hamidah
Lecturer and The Director of Study Centre ‘Peace Promotion’ IPMAFA (Institute of Pesantren Mathaliul Falah) Pati, Central Java.