Tales from the Holy Land
By
Al Makin
16
Mar 2011
In
Indonesia, religious piety has become a public norm. Indonesian Muslims pray
five times a day, fast during Ramadhan, and perform pilgrimage (haj) to the
holy land, Hijaz, a province in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, once or more in
their lifetime.
No Indonesian
Muslim dares to say in public that he or she has intentionally abandoned these
Islamic religious rites. Those who are accused of ignoring these religious
duties are usually branded as Islam KTP (Muslim by ID card). This is a form of
contempt.
Mecca
and Medina, where the Prophet Muhammad was born and passed away respectively,
are regarded as sacrosanct. The Indonesian Muslims regard the two cities, which
play a central role in their religiosity, in high regard. The Kabah in Mecca is
the one direction which Muslims face during daily prayers.
During
Ramadhan many TV and radios stations broadcast the tarawih (evening) prayers
from the Prophet’s Medina mosque. The audience watches and listens the program
attentively.
During
the Haj season, many Indonesian Muslims sacrifice their properties — land,
savings, farm animals, or anything else that can be sold — in order to pay for
their journey to the holy land. Many Muslims have a dream of making a
pilgrimage to the sacred shrines of the Prophet, regarded as a spiritual
achievement.
Back
home, the pictures of the Kabah and the Prophet’s mosque are often hung on the
wall.
Besides
ritual purposes, not only do Indonesians go to the holy land to seek for
knowledge at the universities, they also go to find jobs. In terms of numbers,
we export more migrant workers than scientists or students.
However,
the tales from the holy land are not always wonderful. The image of the sacred
cities has been tainted by some accounts of tragic events that have befallen
Indonesian migrant workers.
Last
year, Sumiati, a domestic worker from West Nusa Tenggara, was tortured. Her
suffering was described to have been worse than “slavery” (The Jakarta Post,
Nov. 18, 2010). More detailed accounts, which are too horrible to be recounted
here, are abundant on the Internet.
Various
Indonesian media reported that many Indonesian workers are stranded under the
bridge in Jeddah. Their dream of finding work in the holy land ended up in such
a place where they stayed during the days and nights. Some were then sent home.
Eny
Binti Katma, a domestic worker from Sukabumi, West Java, who was accused of
killing a baby, faces the death penalty. So does Darsem from Subang West Java,
who was charged with the murder of his master, who wanted to rape her.
Beheading
is a common practice in Saudi Arabia, which has a record in discrimination
against women, religious minorities and human rights violations, among which
are those related to the abuse of Indonesian domestic workers. House of
Representatives (DPR) Speaker Marzuki Alie once put it that “the torture has
humiliated us as a nation” (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 20, 2010).
The
holy status of Hijaz should not prevent the Indonesian Muslims, and
particularly the government, from speaking of what befell their fellow citizens
abroad. In the name of humanity and human rights a concrete step should be
taken to save Darsem from execution and to prevent similar violence from
occurring. To deal with the issue, besides collecting coins to pay the ransom
of death penalty, as “Migrant Care” Indonesia did, diplomatic and political
pressure should be on the table.
Yes,
Arabic is a sacred language, by which God in the Scripture speaks to us.
Muslims believe that an angle guards every Arabic letter. But, not all of those
who speak the language, like some of us, commit good deeds. Some, just like
some of us, violate the divine law.
Although
the Muslims’ direction of prayers is the Kabah in Mecca, it is hard to take the
holy land as an example of democracy and human rights. By contrast, whereas
other Muslim countries, such as Turkey and Indonesia, have advanced in blending
democracy, secularization, and local Islamic characters, the kingdom remains
kingdom.
An
ongoing wave of democratic protests in the Middle East has hit Tunisia, Egypt,
Yemen, Bahrain and Libya. The sacred land remains sacred.
Source:
The Jakarta Post
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