Neo Azzam

1.     Normative study of religion is another language for emic way concerning the examination of religious study. This way tries to examine religion from within, which is trying to be deeper and broader area than another way of examining religion called descriptive or etic way. The differences between normative and descriptive study of religion emerged about the methodology of study. Descriptive way plays role in scientific methods, which contains many ideological values such as objectivity and universality of scientific knowledge. Those values are very important for many scientists because it can warrant the accuracy of research by using a set of scientific methodology which is so tight from the first research until the last by conducting several stages of those methodologies. The good example for normative or emic study of religion is theology. According to Davaney, Theology is a kind of study of religion which is trying to examine religion from that religious ...

Identifying Judaism is so difficult for us. Term of Judaism can be referred to religion, ethnicity or political movement. In Indonesia, term of Judaism is more political than religious term. For instance, many Muslims in Indonesia worried about the conspiracy for destroying Islam (Bruinessen : no year. p.2). This worrying usually arose from the propaganda from radical movement of Indonesia. They tend to spread that the root of decadency in Islamic world is based on the Jewish conspiracy, called Zionist. This is really wrong judgment because Judaism is different from Zionism. Many people just believe that Judaism and Zionism are similar. Of course, this blind judgment disserves Judaism at all. Many Jewish people recognize that they are Jews, but they are not Zionist. Of course, our duty now is how to make a better understanding about Judaism. There is no doubt that Zionism and Judaism are interesting term for getting much attention of Indonesian Muslim. It will be difficult beca...

Interfaith peacebuilding is possible everywhere, but it will be effective only with making a link between religious teaching about peace and locality such as value, history and culture for reaching the core aim: free from physical and psychological oppression. Making a link between religious teaching and locality is tricky. The basic need of this effort is how to dig our depth understanding about peace not exclusively only for their adherent, but also inclusively for broader community from different religion, culture or tribe. After that, we can make a bridge to connect every religion for committing peace as their daily activity. The locality plays important role in this phase because the goal peacebuilding always depends on the situation and problem there. The locality drives how interfaith peacebuilding should be directed, what are the areas they can solve and finally how to make better life in that area. Interfaith peacebuilding in Papua and Kaduna, Nigeria gives the clear exp...

Religious community has important role for Peacebuilding because of the power of their understanding about non-violence teaching and location in the whole world and teaching that contain much violence from the understandings until practices of religious teaching they do. The power of understanding non-violence religious teaching can be traced from the text or tradition they have. I do believe that there is no violence teaching which would be basis of violence action. For instance, Islam understands Jihad more as an internal struggle from our own desire (in Arabic word: nafs ), not for killing each other. When Islam command us for killing, it must be a reaction for the injustice condition we get from the other, and still that it is a final action, not a first reaction. This teaching can manifest in the tradition of the history of Islamic community when they always do non-violence as first choice and do violence of the last choice. The location of religious community also contrib...

Gandhi’s teaching about non-violence and peacebuilding is truly non-violence itself. Gandhi wants us to finish with ourselves first, then we can do or spread the non-violence to others by Satyagraha, Ahimsa and Tapasya, the real values deep-rooted from Hindu’s teaching. To facing injustice and violence repression from others, those three values consequence us for finishing ourselves first. Gandhi implies that we have to be aware for violence and repression as part of ours, so we do not need to reject it, but we need to confront and reduce it. Much violence occurs because we are usually busy for looking our enemy as different part of us. We consider that our enemy is always wrong, cruel and dangerous. It is not for Gandhi, because our enemy is like mirror for ourselves, we can see ourselves there, in order to define that our enemy is not different from us. This perspective will make us comfortable to see that their action of non-violence and injustice is bad, so we have to give ...

Identity and the politics of scholarship explain the correlation between science and study of religion according to identity’s perspective. This correlation arises among the scholars of religion by facing at least two conditions: the first is facing the universal value of scientific knowledge; the second is facing the problem within their identity itself. The first correlation is facing universal value of scientific knowledge. Scientific knowledge as an official truth is based on the value of enlightenment, Reason. Reason is the essence of human being as universal value which exists within human life. The universal claim then bore the claim truth which only can be reached by scientific knowledge. The scientific knowledge has critics because its methodology excludes other form or aspect within its object of research. The historicity of every object of research is one of the earliest perspectives which criticize the universal value of scientific knowledge claims such as ahistoric and...

The most interesting explanation from Geertz is about Thick Description. It is a way to depict in-depth , an approach to understand , interpret , and explain ( not merely observed ) phenomena , events, ideas, social customs or anything ( religion, politics , etc.) that prioritizes the depth data from the various aspects of the phenomenon, which are often bizarre , irregular, and not explicit as much as possible to understand the objects that are not superficial and shallow .   Based on that, Geertz defines culture as a system of meaning . One of his concepts is about religion. The concept of religion is not merely understood as a system of divinity / theology , but as an embodiment of the cultural system . According to him, religion is a system of symbols that make up the feelings and desires in man , the conception of governance that has a nuance of real existence , so the feelings that seem realistic .  Geertz ha...