Coordinating Minister For Political, Legal And Security Affairs Mahfud MD Calls Islam 'Wasathiyah' A Dam To Communism And Radicalism

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud MD believes that the Islamic teachings of wasathiyah among Indonesian Muslims have formed a communal power, so that extreme and anti-God communism cannot control the Indonesian nation.

"Although it has developed and formed a political party, it has not succeeded in carrying out a revolution and forming a ploretariat dictatorship," Mahfud said in a statement received in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Tuesday, April 19.

Likewise with radicalism in Indonesia, he continued. This understanding is not easy to develop because the Islam believed by the Indonesian people is Wasathiyah Islam or moderate Islam.

Currently, he added, there are still radical thoughts and groups that show manifestations in the form of acts of terror to sacrifice humans and social harmony. However, the development of this understanding can still be controlled.

"If this understanding of radicalism is not controlled and becomes the belief of the majority of Muslims, of course Indonesia will easily become like Syria and Afghanistan," he said.

He also emphasized the importance of maintaining the social and moral life of civilized society in accordance with Islamic teachings, as the main agenda to prevent the development of communism and radicalism.

"Communism and radicalism, as views and ways of thinking, of course have the opportunity to rise and spread. If there are the right social situations and conditions, namely when injustice occurs or when people's lives experience a moral decline, then maintain the social and moral life of society's civilization in accordance with with the teachings of Islam is the main agenda to prevent the development of communism and radicalism," he explained.

In the webinar with the theme "Communism and Radicalism in an Islamic View" organized by the Center for Information and Development Studies of the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (CIDES ICMI) in Jakarta, Monday (18/4), the former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court said that to achieve this goal, classless society, communism is at an extreme point by justifying all means.

Radicalism is also against the teachings of Islam, from the most principal point to the practice, he said. Islamic teachings put absolute truth only belongs to Allah SWT, while human truth is relative.

"Therefore, everything that is believed to be the truth by humans must always leave room to see and dialogue with other truths. This does not apply in the view of radicalism which stems from a single truth claim, which is in their own group. Other groups must be wrong and must submit to the truth they believe in. If they do not submit, they must be destroyed by justifying all means, including torture and murder," he said.