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Some Indonesian bloggers still talk about Eid ul-Fitr, or something to do with it, days after it passed for various reasons. Agus Setiawan at Blogonesia, for example, discusses the recent fatwa (religious decree) made recently by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Indonesian Muslim organisation, in which it stated that watching gossip program on TV is considered haram or ‘unlawful’.
Agus Setiawan agrees to such fatwa on the ground that (a) 80 percent of Indonesians are Muslim and (b) that doing or listening to gossip news are clearly forbidden or highly discouraged in Islam. Besides, he observes, that watching such program is highly time-wasting and unproductive.
Most commenters in the particular post agree with his statement but Hartanto who thinks that gossip culture is as old as human existence; so let it be as human are made of angel and evil:
Biarkanlah gosip, yang sudah ada sejak manusia ada… Kalo gosip dilarang, kasian mahluk yg berasal dari api, susah cari celah…
Muhammad Ali, an Indonesian student in Honolulu, Hawaii in the meanwhile, enjoys the Eid celebration in what he calls as a ‘Multifaith Lebaran Feast’, as he celebrates Eid this year along with his brothers and sisters from other faiths. Says he:
For Muslims in Hawaii, a multifaith, multiethnic and multinational lebaran feast (concluding the fasting month of Ramadhan) is not something unusual. As you can see in the pictures, they are mostly Muslims, but some probably Catholics, Protestants, Hindus, Buddhist, Confucians, Agnostics, spiritualists, and possibly atheists too, joined the Indonesia’s lebaran feast on Saturday, October 28th, 2006, organized by PERMIAS-H (Indonesian student in America – Honolulu chapter)
He rightly observes that such practice of tolerance needs to be preserved and sustain for better understanding among people from different community:
This practice of a multifaith lebaran is truly enlightening. It is indeed revealing to the fact that most people have interacted with others regardless of religions, ethnicities, nationalities, etc, and the lebaran feast tradition seems to be a good opportunity for them to share sympathy and ask and give forgiveness, in case they have acted or said something hurting or insulting others, consciously or unconcsciously. People say “human errs”, but the best human is the one who asks and gives forgiveness and then try not to repeat the same errors.
Juwono Sudarsono, Indonesian Defence Minister, made “happy Eid” statement not through posting; rather he changes his blog skin appearance with brighter colour with a “Eid Mubarak” in the header.
As far as Juwono’s latest posting, he prefers to talk about his favorite topic i.e. politics in which he wrote about “Democracy, Poverty & Radical Politics.” An interesting post and a must-read one for those who are interested in Indonesia, politics and Islam in the largest Muslim country.
Originally posted in Global Voices Online