THE ADVANTAGES OF GOOD MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN RELATIONS IN INDONESIA AND PHILIPPINES

(Jakarta, Indonesia)

 

Bismillahirrahmaanirrahiim, Assalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb.

 

I am greatly honored and fortunate for having been invited in this ‘Third International Conference of Muslim Leaders’. I must admit that I am overwhelmed by the list of Muslim dignitaries and luminaries gracing this momentous event, and I am indeed very grateful to the organizing committee for the invitation.

 

Honestly, after having been informed to speak before a great audience, I had been perturbed for the past weeks because I am neither a Muslim scholar nor a Muslim leader. But Alhamdullilah, I have been provided with a lighter and non-theological topic of ‘The Advantages of Good Muslim-Christian Relations in Indonesia and the Philippines’. The Honorable CMM and UNESCO Commissioner, Mr. Mohammad Taha Basman, believed that I am in the best position to talk about the peaceful co-existence between the Muslims and the Christians mainly because I have lived in both Indonesia and the Philippines for several years.

To provide a better understanding of what the Honorable Commissioner was trying to say, I am an Indonesian national born, raised, educated, and married in the Philippines. My father was an Indonesian and a native of Aceh and my mother is a Filipino who hails from the province of Lanao del Sur in Mindanao. I have lived in the Philippines for 30 years, almost entirely in Manila, and the remaining years up to the present in the sprawling city of Jakarta, Indonesia.

 

As bastions of both Christianity and Islam, the Philippines and Indonesia are countries with the two largest communities of Christians and Muslims in Southeast Asia. The followers of these faiths live in close proximity, even sharing several traits of culture and language and living under the same political system.

 

With this background, I will speak in my personal capacity as an Indonesian citizen and share my experience and thoughts. Moreover, to give justice to the topic, I will only be speaking of particulars encompassing events while living in both countries.

 

Generally speaking, the presence of good relations and peaceful co-existence among people of different religions and ethnicities bring about peace, freedom, harmony, justice, and prosperity. However, it is a tall order to achieve such a scenario if there is no tolerance, understanding, and recognition of respect and dignity of all human beings.

 

I was born at the time when relations between Christians and Muslims in the Philippines were at its worst. I was taking my secondary level of education at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran, a school owned by fathers of the Dominican Order, when war was creating havoc in Mindanao.

 

My life then was miserable for the plain reason of being a Muslim. It was not actually entirely due to the war but it was because we were reading in our history books that the Moros, a branded term attributed to the Muslims before, were robbers, pirates, killers, amoks, nemeses, and a threat to the Christian world. Naturally, I had to deal with all the hecklings, insults, and occasional maltreatments all those years. However, I had no choice; there was not a single school where Muslims were treated otherwise. But Alhamdullilah, I still graduated in one piece. I felt at that time that Muslims were treated not just as second-class citizens, but as aliens as proven by the passports they carry, which says ‘Muslim Filipino’. And, I remember that the once tranquil and scenic place where my mother was born was simultaneously turned into a little Vietnam. Farmers and fishermen instantaneously became refugees. Livelihood and economic activities had stopped. In came poverty and endless misery.

 

What was ironic was that we were reading passages from the Bible about being good, friendly, and helpful to the humankind on a daily basis in school. The Apostle Paul advised Christians to live in peace with everybody. In the Gospels of Luke 6:27-28 and Matthew 5:44, it say, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” In Romans 12:17, Paul advised his congregation not to repay evil for evil, but to do what is noble in the sight of all. In 12:21 it further said, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Moreover, what was most meaningful to me was Jesus Christ’s teaching of throwing back bread when stoned and giving the other cheek when slapped. Clearly and unfortunately, my schoolmates never learned anything from these great teachings. What mattered most were the corrupted history books they read. But strangely, I got the most out of it for I learned that Christianity teaches love, compassion, forgiveness, and tolerance.

 

The hatred towards the Muslims, which actually spanned almost five hundred centuries old and counting, had been embedded deeply among the Christians in the Philippines. And consequently, this had extremely impinged on the Muslims’ development, educational advancement, and socio-economic welfare until I left for Indonesia in 1990.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers and Sisters in Islam,

 

Ever since I stayed in Indonesia with my wife, who is by the way formerly a Catholic before reverting to Islam, I immediately saw a stark contrast of relations among Muslims and Christians in the Philippines and Indonesia.

 

Indonesia is a country where Muslims and Christians have lived side by side in peace for centuries. Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people, are treated equally in the country’s pluralistic society. There are no books of history in schools where other religions are degraded or even corrupted. Instead, all citizens are required to respect other people’s religion, rights, and freedom as enshrined in the country’s ideology of Pancasila. Citizens of the Christian faith are accorded high positions in government, in the military, and in every organization that you can imagine. In predominantly Christian East Nusa Tenggara, Central and North Sulawesi and in other notable areas, Christians are living prosperous lives as compared to their Muslim counterparts. This kind of situation exists due to the presence of peace, understanding, and tolerance. Therefore, there is certainly a good and peaceful co-existence among the Indonesian populace, which did profoundly not exist during my stay in the Philippines.

 

Undeniably, the religion of Islam, where a majority of the Indonesian people adheres to it, played a major role in the establishment of good relations among Christians and Muslims in that country.

 

As a Muslim, it is a foremost duty to recognize the respect and dignity of all human beings. The Quran says “Verily we have honored the children of Adam (human beings).” The Quran admits of racial, geographic, and national differences among peoples, but firmly disowns them as the basis of the classification of mankind.

It further says, “O men! Behold, we have created you all out of a   male and female and made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another (not despise one another). Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the one who is deeply conscious of Him.”

 

The requirement and importance of justice lapse under no condition. The Quran clearly warns:

“O you who believe! Stand out firmly for Allah, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to piety, and fear Allah (5:9).”

The true basis, the Quran tells us, of inter-group relationships are the three cardinal values of Al-Qist (Equity), Al-Adl (Justice), and Al-Birr (Kindness).

 

The Quran says, “As for such that do not fight against you on account of your faith and neither drive you from your homelands, Allah does not forbid you to behave towards them with full equity, for verily Allah loves those who act equitably.”

 

The mere reality that none of the world’s great religions teaches violence, and in situations that there seem to be no strong casual political, social and economic factors, how come that non-good relations and non-peaceful co-existence among Muslims and Christians still exists not only in the Philippines but in many countries as well?

 

My experience tells me that it is due to ignorance and bias. Such bias is often the result of lack of knowledge, misunderstanding, intolerance, and non-recognition of respect and dignity of all human beings. It also leads to the propping up of stereotypes. Through it, it is easy enough to create mental pictures and identify anybody as the ‘enemy’. Ignorance and bias breeds rudeness, which in turn can lead to violence in forms that are catastrophic.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers and Sisters in Islam,

 

As long as the world keeps spinning, there is always hope for change. And, with the blessing of Allah (Subhanahu Wa’Ta ala), I firmly and fervently believe that this Forum will bring about ideas and wisdom in addressing and giving light to the Contemporary Concerns of the Muslims.

 

I am truly thankful for the Center for Moderate Muslims of the Philippines for providing me the chance to be a part of this historic and indispensable forum. Congratulations for a job well done.

 

Wassalammu’alaikum Wr. Wb.