Strategi Amerika Memecah-belah Ummat Islam

Walan tardaa 'anka alyahuudu walaa alnnashaaraa hattaa tattabi'a millatahum qul inna hudaa allaahi huwa alhudaa wala-ini ittaba'ta ahwaa-ahum ba'da alladzii jaa-aka mina al'ilmi maa laka mina allaahi min waliyyin walaa nashiirin

[2:120] Orang-orang Yahudi dan Nasrani tidak akan senang kepada kamu hingga kamu mengikuti agama mereka. Katakanlah: "Sesungguhnya petunjuk Allah itulah petunjuk (yang benar)". Dan sesungguhnya jika kamu mengikuti kemauan mereka setelah pengetahuan datang kepadamu, maka Allah tidak lagi menjadi pelindung dan penolong bagimu. (AL BAQARAH (Sapi betina) ayat 120)

Berbagai cara dilakukan oleh kaum yang tidak ridla terhadap ummat Islam agar kita mengikuti millah mereka, baik itu dengan cara halus dan menipu (persuasi dan hegemoni), maupun dengan cara-cara kekerasan dan konfrontatif (represi dan dominasi), diantaranya dengan memecah-belah ummat Islam dan mengkotak-kotakkannya; memberinya label-label “kelompok fundamentalis, ekstrimis, tradisionalis, modernis, moderat, liberal, dan seterusnya.” Karena sebagian dari kita kemudian memang dengan mudah tertipu dan terperangkap dalam jebakan ini, akhirnya ummat-pun dengan mudah dikuasai dengan taktik ‘belah-bambu’, setelah berhasil dibelah, sebagian kelompok diangkat (dipuji-puji, bahkan difasilitasi), sedangkan sebagian lainnya – yang tidak bisa dibeli hatinya, diinjak dan dimusuhi, bahkan, kadang dengan menggunakan tangan-tangan sesama muslim sendiri.

Strategi ini adalah rekomendasi yang dimuat dalam buku yang diterbitkan oleh Rand Corporation. Ia cukup jelas menggambarkan rencana dan tindakan yang diambil oleh Amerika dalam mengkooptasi dan menjalankan strategi devide et impera (politik “belah bambu” dan “adu domba”) atas umat Islam dengan merangkul apa yg mereka sebut sebagai Islam moderat atau modernis dan memerangi apa yang mereka sebut sebagai ‘terorisme’ dan ‘fundamentalisme’. Sumber: Cheryl Benard, Civil Democratic Islam: Partners, Resources, and Strategies (Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 2003), 61-64, dalam “Khalif Muammar, Atas Nama Kebenaran: Tanggapan Kritis Terhadap Wacana Islam Liberal” (Malaysia: Akademi Kajian Ketamadunan, 2006), 345-349.

STRATEGY IN DEPTH

The following describes, in somewhat more detail, how the recommendations in Chapter Three could be implemented.

BASIC POINTS OF THE STRATEGY

Build Up a Modernist Leadership

Create role models and leaders. Modernists who risk persecution should be built up as courageous civil right leaders, which indeed they are. There are precedents showing that this can work. Nawal Al-Saadawi achieved international renown enduring persecution, harassment, and attempts to prosecute her in court on account of her principled modernist stand on issues related to freedom of speech, public health, and the status of women in Egypt. Afghan interim minister of women’s affairs Sima Samar inspired many with her out-spoken stance on human rights, women’s rights, civil law, and democracy, for which she faced death threats by fundamentalists. There are many others throughout the Islamic world whose leadership can similarly be featured.

Include modern, mainstream Muslims in political “outreach events, to reflect demographic reality. Avoid artificially “over Islamizing the Muslims”; instead, accustom them to the idea that Islam can be just one part of their identity.

Support civil society in Islamic world. This is particularly important in situation of crisis, refugee situations, and post-conflict situations, in which democratic leadership can emerge and gain practical experience through local NGOs and other civic associations. On rural and neighborhood levels, as well, civic associations are an infrastructure that can lead to political education and a moderate, modernist leadership.

Develop Western Islam: German Islam, U.S. Islam, etc. This requires gaining a better understanding of the composition, as well as the evolving practice and thought, in these communities. Assist in eliciting, expressing, and “codifying” their views.

Go on the Offensive Against Fundamentalists

Delegitimize individuals and positions associated with extremist Islam. Make public the immoral and hypocritical deeds and statements of self-styled fundamentalist authorities. Allegations of Western immorality and shallowness are a cherished part of the fundamentalist arsenal, but they are themselves highly vulnerable on these fronts.

Encourage Arab journalists in popular media to do investigative reporting on the lives and personal habits and corruption of fundamentalist leaders. Publicize incidents that highlight their brutality such as the recent deaths of Saudi schoolgirls in a fire when religious police physically prevented Saudi firefighters from evacuating the girls from the burning school building because their not veiled and their hypocrisy, illustrated by the Saudi religious establishment, which forbids migrant workers from receiving photographs of their new-born children on the grounds that Islam forbids human images, while their own offices are decorated by huge portraits of King Faisal, etc. The role of “charitable organizations” in financing terror and extremism has begun to be more clearly understood since September 11 but also deserves ongoing and public investigation.

Assertively Promote the Values of Western Democratic Modernity

Create and propagate a model for prosperous, moderate Islam by identifying and actively aiding countries or regions or groups with the appropriate views. Publicize their successes. For example, the 1999 Beirut Declaration for justice and the National Action Charter of Bahrain broke new ground in the application of Islamic law and should be more widely known.

Criticize the flaws of Traditionalism. Show the causal relationship between modernity, democracy, progress, and prosperity. Do fundamentalism and traditionalism offer Islamic society a healthy, prosperous future? Are they successfully meeting the challenges of the day? Do they compare well with other social orders? The UNDP social development report (UNDP, 2002) points clearly to the linkage between a stagnant social order, oppression of women, poor educational quality, and backwardness. This message should be energetically taken to the Muslims populations.

Build up the stature of Sufism. Encourage countries with strong Sufi traditions to focus on that part of their history and to include it in their school curricula. Pay more attention to Sufi Islam.

Focus on Education and Youth

Committed adult adherents of radical Islamic movements are unlikely to be easily influenced into changing their views. The next generation, however, can conceivably be influenced it the message of democratic Islam can be inserted into school curricula and public media in the pertinent countries. Radical fundamentalist have established massive efforts to gain influence over education and are unlikely to give up the established footholds without struggle. An equally energetic effort will be required to wrest this terrain from them.

SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES TO SUPPORT THE STRATEGY

Thus, to accomplish the overall strategy, it will be necessary to Support the modernists and mainstream secularist first, by

· Publishing and distribute their works

· Encouraging them to write for mass audiences and youth introducing their views into the curriculum of Islamic education

· Giving them a public platform

· Making their opinions and judgments on fundamental questions of religious interpretation available to a mass audience. In competition with those of the fundamentalists and traditionalists, who already have web sites, publishing houses, schools, institutes, and many other vehicles for disseminating their views

· Positioning modernism as a “counterculture” option for disaffected Islamic youth

· Facilitating and encouraging awareness of pre- and non-Islamic history and culture, in the media and in the curricula of relevant countries

· Encouraging and supporting secular civic and cultural institution and programs.

Support the traditionalists against the fundamentalists, by

· Publicizing traditionalist criticism of fundamentalist violence and extremism and encouraging disagreements between traditionalists and fundamentalists

· Preventing alliances between traditionalists who are closer to that end of the spectrum, increase the presence and profile of modernists in traditionalist institutions

· Discriminating between different sectors of traditionalism

· Encouraging those with a greater affinity to modernism- such as the Hanafi law school as opposed to others to issue religious opinion that, by becoming popularized, can weaken the authority of backward Wahhabi religious rulings

· Encouraging the popularity and acceptance of Sufism.

Confront and oppose the fundamentalists by

· Challenging and exposing the inaccuracies in their views on questions of Islamic interpretation

· Exposing their relationships with illegal groups and activities

· Publicizing the consequences of their violence acts

· Demonstrating their inability to rule to the benefit and positive development of their communities

· Targeting these messages especially to young people, to pious traditionalist populations, to Muslim minorities in the West, and to women

· Avoiding showing respect or admiration for the violent feats of fundamentalist extremists and terrorists, instead casting them as disturbed and cowardly rather than evil heroes

· Encouraging journalists to investigate issues of corruption, hypocrisy, and immorality in fundamentalist and terrorist circles.

Selectively support secularists, by

· Encouraging recognition of fundamentalism as a shared enemy, discouraging secularist alliances with anti-U.S. forces on such grounds as nationalism and leftist ideology

· Supporting the idea that religion and the state can be separate in Islam, too, and that this does not endanger the faith.