A Simple Path of Pluralism By Indro Suprobo

Entering ramadhan, villagers of Tegalmindi a small village located in Sardonoharjo, subdistrict of Ngaglik, Sleman, Jogjakarta expressed their happiness in some activities. They repainted their local mushala, and made the environment of this mushala tidy. These villagers came from different religious background but they done these activities happily. During ramadhan, each family will provides foods and drinks usually called jaburan to all villagers. These foods and drinks will be distributed to them after tarawih prayer. They took these meals together at mushala. Local Values These kind of habits had been done for long time. Mushala and ramadhan became a place and an event belongs to all villagers whatever religious background they had. Mushala and ramadhan do not only give religious function to moslem people, but also give social and cultural function to others. In everyday life, mushala became a center of all villagers activities. They conducted some meetings at mushala. They made political conscientization facing the legislative or local elections at mushala. They celebrated Syawalan of Idul Fitri and commemoration of August 17th at mushala. Mushala became the only representative place to conduct villagers gathering. The minaret of this mushala also had social and cultural function. Through this minaret, villagers usually launched informations and news to others. Even, two years ago, through the minaret villagers launched the requiem a catholic hymne to the dead for an hour and launched Al Quran verses after that, when a catholic member of the village was dead. The villagers had done these habits as an ordinary. The differences of religious backround are also accepted as ordinary things. They could do these as an ordinary because of local values they held in an extra-ordinary way. These local values included brotherhood, cooperation, sincerity, willingness to engage in common activities, and respect for the uniqueness of others. Sharing the harvests to neighbors is a manifestation of brotherhood that still be found today. Sharing roles in repairing houses is a manifestation of cooperation. Giving other people the freedom to choose their way in doing tarawih at the same mushala during ramadhan is a manifestation of respect for the uniqueness. These local values became common platform and criteria in manage to live together. When a villager respected for these local values, all other villagers would respect for him or her, and guaranteed the fulfillment of his/her rights. This is the way they manage to live together. Recently, these villagers who comes from different religious background, had succeeded to buy land together and gave it to the mushala as a waqf. This is a manifestation of sincerity.

A simple path These villagers are simple and live an ordinary way. They are peasants, workers, and only a small numbers are civil servants. They implemented pluralism in a simple way but with joy. In their praxis, pluralism is not an attitude or a view which assumes that all religions are the same. Pluralism is an attitude and a view which assumes that people of different religions should be treated equally. They assumed that every single religion is unique, even that every single person could have a unique interpretation and understanding of religious teachings. The differences in many aspects are sunnatullah or Gods grace. Respect for differences and uniqueness is a manifestation of honoring Gods grace. Based on this view, they did not believe that religion should be the main criteria in manage to live together. The main criteria that must be made within the community are brotherness, cooperation, sincerity, willingness to engage in common acitivities, and respect for the uniqueness of others. These pratices of the villagers may be a simple path of pluralism. They provided a simple ideal of civil society. In this Ramadhan and commemoration of the Independence day, it might be better if we learn more from these simple people about how to be a pro-existence people, how to be sincere, how to respect for others. Maybe they are the so-called religious and independent people.*** Indro Suprobo, Institute for Interfaith Dialogue in Indonesia (Interfidei) Jogjakarta