edited by Yafeng Shan.
This paper aims to discuss the history of Acehnese wars and the progress of peace in Aceh after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Aceh Freedom Movement, or Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM), and the Republic of Indonesia in Helsinki on August 15th, 2005. Prior to this, Aceh was a tense region and home to the longest armed conflict in Southeast Asia – underway since 1982. The…
The verse lâ ikrâh fî al-dîn has been one of the most contested verses with regard to its meaning and definition by the ‘ulama (religious scholars) from the past to the present. Basing on this verse, progressive ‘ulama maintain that the idea of freedom of religion introduced by modern society does not contradict the Qur’ân. For them, freedom of religion includes not only freedom to c…
This article cancentrales on the history of Persatuan Pemuda Muslim se-Eropa (PPME, Young Muslims Association in Eropa), depicting its founders'qualification, historical, and nature, which bas been against pratical politics, and restructure and exspansion. This association remains the largest Indonesia Islam-oriented Muslim association in Europe. However, there bas been little research done on …
Al Qur'an is interpreted in different ways and approaches. Progressive Muslims, for instance, pay attention to three themes, namely social justice, gender equality, and pruralism. They propose their arguments based on the fundamental understading from [al Hijr/15:29 Sad/38:71, and an Nahl/16:90], namely: 1)every human being has the same intrinsic glory, 2)the main mission of human presence in t…
Polytheism and unjust social power haven been conceptually rejected by the Qur'an. Unfortunattely, its religious message is not properly understood by many Moslem scholars. They interpret it to legimate their own interests which are sometimes contradictory to the spirit of the Qur'an. This phenomenon happens in South Africa. Farid Esack, a Muslim intellectual in this region, proposes to read th…
Demokrasi sebagai ungkapan lain dari penghormatan hak-hak asasi manusia, telah diterjemahkan dalam dunia pendidikan, yaitu dengan menciptakan kebebasan intelektual antara pendidik dengan peserta didik dalam proses belajar mengajar. Filsafat progessivisme yang diklaim sebagai the liberal road of the culturepun mengajarkan agar akal dan kecerdasan peserta didik harus dikembangkan dengan baik, den…
In distance education system, the learning process should be assessed using a self-learning instrument for the reason to measure learning competency. So, it should not be measured by the instructors or tutors feeling. In practicing writing III course, students are demanded to practice writing, whereas measuring the writing competency is needed to identify the progress of writing practice. To me…