Paradigma terhadap sejarah bisa berubah dengan kepelbagaian seminar dan madrasah yang kita hadiri.

Albert Einstein pernah menyebut bahawa musuh kepada proses pendidikan seseorang adalah pengalamannya yang silam (yang membentuk tabir penghalang pada dirinya untuk terbuka menanggapi sesuatu dari sudut pandangan yang berbeza).

Abdullah bin Mubarak pernah menyebut : "Seseorang itu akan sentiasa menjadi alim selama mana dia (dalam proses) menuntut ilmu. Tatkala telah datang padanya persepsi bahawa beliau sudah menjadi alim, maka (saat itu bermula) jahillah dia."

Selasa, 13 Julai ini, 8.30 pagi - 1 petang di Senate Hall UIAM, selaku pengkaji tegar hubungan Islam-Barat di era Muhammad Al-Fateh dan Sulaiman Al-Qanuni, saya akan hadiri seminar disampaikan Prof. Dr Tariq Ramadhan. This lecture will focus on the very long history and traditions between Islam and the West. Seperti biasa, fokus saya pada "the law of challenges & responses" untuk dimanfaatkan pada perjuangan Islam kini.

Historically Islam was shaped by men in politics to legitimize their power, to make the state an instrument of faith, and to invest those in power with an aura of sacred authority. This tendency has led to the prevailing trajectory in Islamic history that turned toward authoritarian politics and the construction of an Islam supportive of politics that are contrary to the core value of liberty that Islam intrinsically represents.

In the dialectic of many traditionalists and salafis alike, concepts of human rights, democratic principles, equality before the law, and religious freedom are incompatible with Islam. On the other spectrum, there is a great intellectual movement within the Muslim world that considers liberty as one of the higher objectives of the divine law, the maqasid asy-syari’ah, reverberating through societies, providing the moral basis upon which the institutions of democracy and civil society to be established. And this includes the freedom of conscience, freedom to speak out against tyranny, and a call for reform and renewal.

This lecture will seek to clarify the debate by examining the compatibility of the religion of Islam with classical liberal values of individual liberty and religious freedom, and will focus on trends and developments related to the concept of liberty in Muslim societies and prospects for the future.

The relationship between the West and the Muslim world is a critical dynamic of our time. The factors creating tension, doubt and misunderstanding are many and varied, as are those who would exploit them. The architects of “global chaos theories” forecasted a world divided along religious, civilizational lines that seemed to be slipping over a precipice into an epoch of ethnic and cultural violence. Muslims would predictably contest and clash with non-Islamic world. According to this argument, Islam operates as a collective agent whose tendencies to violence and traditionalism transpose the religion as an intransigent enemy to global pluralism, representing its greatest threat and most defiant opponent.

Yet there is nothing inevitable about this state of affairs. All our authentic religious traditions uphold the value of peace. History has shown it is quite possible to live with a diversity of cultures and religions and that societies can be enriched rather than threatened as a result.

This lecture will focus on the very long history and traditions between Islam and the West, and the necessity to build upon the humanistic commonality even as we better understand and address our real differences. The affirmation and realization of universal human principles is a challenge that goes beyond Muslim-West relations to encompass the state of the world as a whole.