---OPINION------TheJakartaPost Ahmet Kuru: Early more open to diversity, creativity! e have finally und his ilk, for example. reached the end Kuru also w1-ote, under the of , the Ummayah and Abbasiah dynas­ fasting month for By ,Julia Suryakusuma ties, state rulers had limited 1>0w­ W Muslims all around the world! er to sacra.lize their 1>0wer. But Many Muslims consider it o mo­ this gradually changed in the 11•• ment of victory. Over what? A ' Theaulhoro/Julia'sJihad and 12•h centuries. month ofbeing hungry from sun­ ~ The p1-omincnt ulcmas Al rise to sunset ond then overin­ into Persian, while the Arabic, pct for the National Police, but it Ghau,li and Al Mawardi promot­ dulgingwhen you break the fast? Bosnian and French versions ore amounts to the same thing. ed a more hierarchical and pnlri­ ldul Fitri, the end of Rama­ in progress. Kuru continues, this alli­ urchal approuch. Kuru suggests dan, has for the most part been Basically, his book is asking a ance "gradually hindered in­ that their political ideas be reject­ stripped of its spiritual meaning question that has bothered - in­ tellectual and economic ed today, also because they arc al­ and reduced to being an orgy of deed vexed - Muslims and non­ creativity by marginalizing intel­ most misogynistic towards wom­ consumerism. ls this what beinga Muslims alike. lectual and bou rgeoisclasses in the en, as well as being exclusionary Muslim has been reduced to? "Why do Muslim-majority Muslim world". against non-Muslim minorities. The other thing that Muslims countries exhibit high levels of One of the things I love about The power of the intellectu­ in cannot refrain from authoritarianism and low levels the study ofhistory is how it helps als and ulema waned, followed doing is the yearly mudik (exo­ ofsocioeconomic development in us to understand today's world. by a wave of oppression and per­ dus), when urbanites return to comparison to world avcragcsr Kuru does precisely that in his secution. There was an obsession their hometowns to be with their Critics and detractors of Islam book, by linking his historical ac­ with military power and a weak­ families. This year as weU as last, say it is because of something in­ counts to the contemporary Is­ ening of science, technology and due to CO\11O-19, the go~-ern­ herent in Islam itself. This does lamic world where ulema-state economic power. ment issued a ban on mudik. But not make sense as historicaUy, alliance is still a stumbling block Intellectuals and ulema who by hook or by crook, people try Islam in its Golden Age - tradi­ to creativity and competition in did not toe the line were declared anyway, even if it means hiding in tionally dated from the eighth to Muslim countries. apostates or infidels, some were a vegetable truck! the Uth century, was not exactly It is true that only one-fifth of even executed. Thus developed How come we Muslims have a flash in the pan. Furthermore, the 49 Muslim countries in the a Sunni orthodoxy that became become so incapable of self-re­ "Muslims were philosophically world are electoral democra­ a tool for repression to punish straint and rational thinking. re­ and socioeconomically more de­ cies. Many suffer from socioeco­ dissenting opinions. ducing us to not just being"back­ ,--eloped than Western Europe­ nomic backwardness in terms of In the West, the absolute power wardn on a personal le,-el but also ans between the ninth and 12'h literacy, years of schooling. low of the state (in most cases, a mon­ as a nation? Even ~1a'ruf Amin - centuries," Kuru states. gross domestic product and life archy) and the church evolved to our Vice President, who is not ex­ become the separation between actly known for his scintillating the church and the state. This al­ repartee, quick wit let alone pro­ The beauty was that this freedom was not just for Sunni lowed universities to flourish gressive views - stated that we Muslims but also for other streams ofIslam, and the bourgeoisie and business arc lagging behind because ofour community to grow, leading to narrowrnindedness. non-Muslims and even agnostics - sounds like the Renaissance in the 14th centu­ "This is one of the reasons diversity, pluralism and hey, even democracy! ry-which was not unlike Islam's why many Muslim countries are Golden Age. still classified as underdeveloped So, what is the lesson to be countries and are lagging behind Tragically, it ended with the expectancy. drawn from Kuru's rich and fas­ in the fields of economy, educa­ collapse of the Abbasid caliph­ What were the socioeconom­ cinating book? He says, there tion, science and technology and ate due to the Mongol invasion ic conditions that allowed sci­ is no other way than to have an other fieldst he said in February. and Crusades. ence and the arts to flourish in open and democratic society, a I wonder if he's been reading Was it colonialism that caused Islam's Golden Age? Ulema and competitive economy. This is not Ahmet Kuru's book, Islam, Au­ the Muslim world's decline? Kuru intellectuals kept their distance westernization, on the contrary, thoritarianism and Underdevel­ argues that even before coloni­ from state power. Funds came it is totally in line with the spir­ opment: A Global and Histori­ zation began, Muslims had al­ from the business communi­ it of Islam. Muslims just need cal Development'? Well, it's been ready suffered political and ty and 70 percent of the ulcma to remember their history, how translated into Indonesian, pub­ economic problems. themselves were entrepreneurs we were able to achieve a Gold­ lished this year, so Ma'ruf may So, how did the problem start? anyway. This guaranteed free­ en Age in the past and how we have read it Fn>m what I hear, Kuru argues that in the 11•• cen­ dom of thought. The beauty was can achieve a Renaissance in this his English is at the level of•little• tury, an alliance emerged be­ that this freedom was not just for day and age. little I conn, at best tween orthodox Islamic scholars Sunni Muslims but also for other "We really need to be open Ahmet T. Kuru is a professor of (ulema) and military states. streams of Islam, non-Muslims minded, diverse, creative, political science and director of Hmm, why docs that sound so and even agnostics - sounds like tolerant." the Center for Islamic and Ara­ familiar? Oh yes! Ma'ruf Amin diversity, pluralism and hey, even Wise words from this brilliant bic Studies from San Diego Uni­ and President Joko "Jokowin democracy! Muslim scholar. Religious dogma­ versity, who has written a num­ Widodo's administration has fa. According to Kuru, the free­ tism, persecuting minorities, sui­ ber of important award-winning cilitated what was called the dom of the ulema and intellectu­ cide bombings and fo1-ced "j ilbabi­ books.His latest is the one I men­ "dual function of the military" als prevented the monopoly of zation" is not the way to go. tioned above, published in 2019, that dominated Soeharto's New (religious) interpretation in the Oh by the way, Pak Ma'ruf, which has taken the Muslim in­ Order authoritarian regime hands of those in power, or even a what would you be willing lo do tellectual world by storm. Besides 0966-1998). The difference is fundamentalist minority who arc to pave the way for a Muslim Indonesian, it's been translated that Jokowi laid out the red car- close to state power. Like Ma'ruf Renaissance?