Islamophobia And Kafirophobia Legacy Of Hundreds Of Years Of Conflict History, Chairman Of PBNU: The New Moderation-Tolerance

PBNU Chairman KH Yahya Cholil Staquf (Photo: Nailin)

JAKARTA - Chairman of PBNU KH Yahya Cholil Staquf said Islamophobia is not a new history, it has been settling for a long time and has even been used as a mentality among non-Muslims in various parts of the world. And it has also been established in their religious discourse.

"This is reciprocal if on the one hand we see Islamophobia from non-Muslims to Muslims. On the other hand, we have to admit that there is also kafirophobia. And this kafirophobia also settles as a mentality among Muslims and is even included in religious discourse in Islamic circles," said KH. Yahya in a discussion entitled "Turn back Islamophobia: Mainstreaming Moderation to Counter Islamophobia" online, Wednesday, March 30.

"So this is something reciprocal with Islamophobia and kafirophobia," he continued.

KH Yahya explained, Kafirophobia can be called to anyone who is non-Muslim. Likewise, kristophobia or hinduphobia and so on are generally included in the religious discourse of Islam itself.

"Why do we have something like this, both in non-Muslim circles there is Islamophobia and in Muslims there is kafirophobia, because we inherit a history from a long conflict for centuries between the Islamic world and the non-Muslim world," he explained.

For example, he continued, as during the Ottoman era. From 700 years of Ottoman rule, it never stopped military competence against the Christian empires in the west.

"This is all history that we have inherited, a history that has been going on for hundreds of years and has settled into our mindset now. Meanwhile, the discourse on moderation and tolerance is actually something new," he said.

KH Yahya said that in the past, this world was indeed a jungle of competition between identities, including religious identities. There, kingdoms with religious identities were in conflict with each other, politically and militarily in conflict with their respective religious labels.

"Islamic Ottoman Turkey, then in Europe there are Catholic empires like Spain, Protestant Christians and Anglican empires like Britain, each has a label. And each other competes fiercely and sharply colored by military battles throughout the ages," he explained.

"This history has been inherited for a long time, then the dynamics of identity conflicts peaked until the first world war occurred, followed by the second world war. A huge humanitarian tragedy occurred. This is like giving awareness to the international community about the need for a world order that can better guarantee global stability and security globally. more reliable, then the United Nations Charter was born in June 1945. And the United Nations was born as an organization in October 1945," he continued.

According to KH Yahya, there are two most important components of this UN charter which later became the foundation of the world order after the second world war. Namely, first, the national border regime. It was agreed that every country has a definitive border and it becomes a marker of the country's sovereign territory that should not be violated by anyone.

Second, the value of universal humanity. This is also only after the second world war. Previously the world did not recognize universal human rights.

"We know that until 1947-1949 the Netherlands, for example, still felt entitled to colonize Indonesia. In other words, at that time the value of human rights had not been accepted by Europe like the Netherlands. Because this was a completely new thing," he explained.

Then, continued Yahya, this awareness to build a more peaceful, stable and secure world order gave birth to the need to develop moderate religious insight. In a sense that does not promote hostility and conflict against other religious groups.

After that to build tolerance among different groups because a stable and secure world order is impossible without tolerance without different groups.

"For us in Indonesia, this may be something that was normatively known to our civilization, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika. But for other civilizations in other parts of the world, this is something new," he said.

"Therefore, the condition for tolerance is equality of dignity rights among human beings. That differences in identity background including religion should not be a reason to discriminate against the group concerned," he concluded.