Neo Azzam

Response paper to Religion and Identity Charles Taylor: The Self in Moral Space Taylor thesis about the process of identity is as the dialectical process between us and our environment. He differs between condition and orientation (p.34). Those two are interwoven and make our identity based on our choice to choose what we feel the best for us. It means that there are no natural conditions that constitute us without our active action for those. In this sense, it seems to me that that Taylor tries to put the agency as the axis of life, which gives less for the role of structure such as society since we have and get our identity by choosing from our “conversation” with the situation outside. Although there is a dialectical process, we can see that the choice is coming from someone, rather than the influence from conditions outside. In his paper, Taylor questions are more started with “Who.” I do not think that this question word is the best representation to question the ident...

The First World Conference on Muslim Education at Mecca, 1977 concluded that the purpose of Islamic Education is “to create a good and pious human being, who devotes Allah, builds their personal structure compatibly with Islamic Sharia and gets all of their daily life as the manifestation of their obedience to Allah”.   The key word for this conclusion is that the purpose of Islamic education tends to build a good character of human beings. Is that true? Yes! Everybody will agree that our Islamic education is about making a perfect human from all sides, here and hereafter. However, what factor that has been missed from that statement? The first, we can see that the ideal purpose is about human beings. How to make good and pious human beings is the central issue for Islamic education. In this sense, we have forgotten the other factor in every education; it is the structure of education itself. Why is the structure important? The answer is that there is no education system with...

Response paper to Religion and Identity Order and Disorder in Global System Name    : Anwar Masduki Azzam Class     : CRCS 2012 At the first time, this article has attracted me strongly with its prelude that our era is “an era of disorder” (p. 233). It automatically brings me into the perspective that there is different view between now and past, today and yesterday. I would like to say that this article tends to differ and compare the reality. After reading into the conclusion, I see that this article truly emphasizes the disorder as a result of the process of fragmentation (p. 252). The conclusion above actually can answer my first question about what disorder we have already had recently, and why this disorder seems different from the past. However, using the second question as the main point, I think that this article has not given me a comprehensive understanding about the reality we have today. I would argue that the process of disorder...

Response paper to Religion and Identity Gregory Hooks: Can Grand Theories of The State Help Us Envision A Grand Theory of Peace? Name    : Anwar Masduki Azzam Class     : CRCS 2012 Reading this article, I found the pessimistic conclusion that there is a blur future to make peace around this world. Hooks argues that if we merely rely on the Westphalian states, we should be aware that those states will always wage war for ensuring and reaching the sovereignty and autonomy from other state. Thus, the function of several states organization such as United Nations is very unrealistic to make peace in the world. I would argue that this is very different from my understanding about the role of state and the effort to make a peace. If we merely see states as only the contestant for the other state, I could say that there are a lot of states which can build a peace each others. For example, the peace relation between Indonesia and Timor Leste recent...

Belum kering kubur R, anak perempuan dari Jakarta berumur 12 tahun yang diduga diperkosa dengan brutal sehingga membuatnya sakit menahun sampai meniggal, kita lagi-lagi dikejutkan dengan statemen super ngawur dari ruang DPR terhormat kita, seorang calon hakim agung RI, mengatakan bahwa pelaku perkosaan tidak perlu dihukum mati, dengan guyonan garing; karena baik yang diperkosa apalagi yang diperkosa itu sama-sama menikmati. Astaga! Komedi apa lagi yang ditontonkan secara telanjang di depan ruang public kita. Fit and proper test calon Hakim Agung adalah kegiatan resmi kenegaraan, menampilkan sosok-sosok pemimpin yang seharusnya cerdas dan bijak, tapi lihat, bahkan para anggota DPR pun banyak yang tertawa mendengar jawaban ngaco pak calon hakim agung ini. Bisa diduga kemudian, kontroversi merebak, pak calon Hakim Agung ini jelas saja mendapat badai hujatan dan kritik. Jejaring sosial seperti Facebook (satu-satunya jejaring sosial yang penulis ikuti) juga ramai membahana d...