Defending Army Chief Of Staff Dudung 'God Is Not An Arab', Ade Armando Criticizes Imam Shamsi Ali, Lectures Basic Syllogisms

KSAD General Dudung Abdurachman (Capture Youtube Screen of Deddy Corbuzier)

JAKARTA - A lecturer at the Department of Communication at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia (FISIP UI), Ade Armando defended the statement by the Army Chief of Staff (KSAD) General Dudung Abdurachman regarding "God is not an Arab."

Ade Armando's defense also criticized Shamsi Ali, Imam at the Islamic Center of New York and Director of the Jamaica Muslim Center and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) figure in Pasuruan, East Java, Habib Abubakar Assegaf.

Ade said that Dudung's critics were logically flawed. Army Chief of Staff Dudung obviously never said 'God is not an Arab.' What is conveyed is a categorical syllogism which is a basic logic lesson. To conclude (conclusion) we must study the major and minor premises.

"For example, the major premise is that all foods containing pork are haram. The minor premise is that bacon is pork. So the conclusion is that bacon is haram. Now we use this syllogism in Dudung's statement. The major premise is that Allah is not human, the minor premise of Arabs is human. Arabs must not be Allah. Or Allah must not be people, keep it simple?", Ade Armando said on the CokroTV Youtube channel, quoted by VOI, Friday, December 3.

Using this logic, according to Ade Armando, where is General Dudung's fault? Or, referring to Shamsi Ali's criticism that God is not an Arab, not an Indian, or a Malay. As a result, God should not be associated with a particular ethnicity or nation.

So, said Ade Armando, where is General Dudung's fault? Until this former Commander of the Army Strategic Command (Pangkostrad) is said to have committed blasphemy? Didn't Dudung ensure firmly that God transcends certain ethnicities and races?

"How is it (Shamsi Ali), right? Dudung said that prayer doesn't have to be related to any ethnicity or race. Dudung said that God is above nation and race, so communicating with God doesn't have to be in the language of a particular nation. It's not clear what else Why is Dudung's statement considered wrong?", Ade Armando said.

Ade added that there was a confusion of thought that came from these Islamic priests so they were unable to read simply what Dudung meant. Dudung just wanted to say that communicating with God is simple, using the language we usually use.

"You don't have to be tired of praying in a language we don't know. God is great and all-knowing. He certainly understands if we speak to Him in his own language",

"It should be noted, yes, that Dudung said the Indonesian prayer he said after the prayer. So the prayer in his prayer is in Arabic but the prayer after the prayer is in Indonesian", said Ade Armando.

However, according to Ade Armando, what was said by the imam who criticized Dudung was a reflection of the struggle for Islamic discourse in Indonesia.

Shamsi Ali and his friends seem to have come from anger when there are figures like Dudung who are considered to separate the Araban identity from Islam.

Shamsi Ali, according to Ade, is a person who believes in the importance of building Indonesian Muslims based on sharia to build an Islamic state in the future. For that, continued Ade, according to them, Muslims must return to Islam, namely Islam which developed in their ancestral land, namely Arabia.

Dudung's statement 'God is not an Arab' was delivered when he was present on Deddy Corbuzier's podcast which was broadcast some time ago.

"When I pray after prayer, my prayer is simple, oh God, just use Indonesian, because our God is not an Arab", said Dudung.

In response to this statement, several figures such as Shamsi Ali and Habib Abubakar Assegaf expressed criticism. Shamsi says praying in any language is not a problem. The problem is when Dudung associates God with a certain ethnicity or nation (Arabic).

"Mr. General, praying in any language is fine. But there is no need for God to be associated with ethnicity/nation", Shamsi tweeted on Thursday, December 2.

Shamsi then corrected Dudung's statement that God is not a person, so it cannot be limited to a particular ethnicity or nationality.

"General's Statement is Wrong: 1) God is definitely not a person. Because he is not a person, 2) God is not limited by nationality/ethnicity/race. It is better to complete the KKB in Papua", said Shamsi.