JAKARTA History today, 34 years ago, March 18, 1989, an Islamic scholar, Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) reluctant to condemn Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses (Ayat-Ayat Setan). He wrote the narrative through a novel audience in Editor Magazine.
For him, the novel, published in 1988, was able to disguise reality and the world was amazed to be one. Previously, many Islamic leaders strongly criticized the presence of The Satanic Verses. Iran's great leader, Ayatollah Sayyid Khomeini, one of them. The novel is considered blasphemy against Islam.
Gus Dur's love for books is second to none. All because Gus Dur grew up in a family that likes to read. Instead of just studying religious books, Gus Dur actually studied and enjoyed all kinds of books. In fact, his love for books has been going on since he was a teenager.
Gus Dur's reading at that time counted more than his peers. He perpetuated the activity of reading books anywhere and anytime. From reading books at home to bus stops. Favorites for books increased when Gus Dur chose to study abroad, Egypt.
Akivitas in his world of lectures at Al Azhar University is considered not very interesting. He often skips college to be able to watch movies and read books. Gus Dur felt that from films and books there were more valuable lessons than on campus.
He often visits many libraries in Egypt. As a result, Gus Dur's knowledge is not only related to religious affairs, but also other matters. From politics to culture.
If he doesn't read in the library of the University of America, he is often in the library of the University of Cairo or in the French library. Gus Dur still remembers that at that time he reads anything and anywhere, without choosing a place. He also reads around the house or in a place waiting for the bus. If there is no book then a newspaper cut or an old magazine can quench his thirst for reading.
Gus Dur can read quickly. Even when he was still studying at Islamic boarding schools in Java he could still set aside time for his favorite to read this. In Cairo, thanks to his relative freedom and also his busy schedule as a result of his naughty way of dealing with the classes he should have followed, he could have read as much as he wanted, "said Greg Barton in Gus Dur's Biography (2003).
It is this knowledge that includes the world of bookkeeping that makes Gus Dur's perspective unique. When he made a resensitory for the novel The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, for example. Gus Dur's writing was in Editor's Magazine on March 18, 1989.
He dared to choose to argue with the world's clerics, such as Khomeini. Gus Dur also refused to condemn the novel. Even though he was faint, there was an insulting tone. Gus Dur sticks to the fact that Salman Rushdie's thoughts are a typical cinema. He told the story of two people who survived the plane crash. The only one became an angel. Others became demons.
As a result, there is no need to exaggerate. Moreover, the fatwa must die like what Khomeini did. Because, Salman Rushdie was considered by Gus Dur to have succeeded in disguising the facts and joy in the novel. According to Gus Dur, this matter is not a big problem. Book connoisseurs as believed by Gus Dur will be able to separate which facts and which are the boasting of Salman Rushdie.
"Often I think why Gus Dur did not hesitate to condemn Salman Rushdie's novel, The Satanic Verses. I suspect because he found in the novel four inseparable elements: delinquency, intelligence, provocation, and humor."
Gus Dur has no objection to the four elements because he believes that God is not the same as those who are disturbed by delinquency and humor. I think God for Gus Dur is not God who is imagined in the Old Agreement, God who celebrates Amir Hamzah's poem: A 'gray' and jealous God, "explained Goenawan Mohamad in his writing in Tempo Newspaper entitled Gus Dur (2010).
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