Labeling Game to Silent Muslim Youth

Public in Indonesia shocked last week by the video footage from a University of Indonesia (UI) student named Boby Febrik Sedianto. Boby - who claimed to be a member of UI's chapter of nationwide student Islamic group Gema Pembebasan (1) and wore the university's yellow jacket- expressed his rejection to Ahok – a non-Muslim Jakarta Governor incumbent who would come forward again in the closest election. “I urged the people not to vote for Ahok and replace [the current governance system] with a new political system, which is Sharia and Khilafah "Caliphate",” Bobby spoke in the video, referring to governance based on Islamic ideology and the Quran.

The video went viral as various media such as BBC Indonesia, Jakarta Globe, Tempo and Kompas proclaim it as a discriminative video and contained racial intolerance elements. University of Indonesia spokeswoman Rifelly Dewi said the circulated video was illegal and did not represent the university. She added Boby had violated the student ethics regulation which says: "the people of University of Indonesia are prohibited to discriminate others in base of their religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, political orientation and physical disability.” said Rifelly Dewi on September 7, 2016.

This student video is actually an original aspiration from the Muslim youth, along with a campaign and long march entitled "Reject Kafir Leader!" driven by Hizb ut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) where on September 4 about 20 thousand people followed this long march on Horse Statue, Monas, Jakarta. At that time, Ismail Yusanto – Official Spokesman of HTI - made a statement, "We call upon all Muslims, in Jakarta in particular, to come together, shoulder to shoulder, to reject (candidates) infidel leadership in this region, where Islam always attached within the history of Jakarta.” This campaign successfully mobilized the people, sparked anger of the liberal follower, thus the hashtag #MahasiswaTolakAhok became a nationwide trending topic on twitter for a few days.

The Governor of Jakarta Ahok was also piqued, he reacted angrily and encouraged the University of Indonesia to sack student whose evocative video refused Ahok on Youtube and claimed it as an act of provocation, even Ahok’s staunch supporters on social media also strongly reacted and labeled Boby and its video as a racist.

Labelling Game

Secular major media, such as BBC Indonesia, Jakarta Globe, Kompas and Tempo massively labeled Bobby and his video as racial, sectarian, barbarian, unscientific, and so forth. This was how the paradox and hypocrite media who worship secular-liberal values as well as the campus community as the imitator of the West. They are more enamored for an artificial label created by their idols i.e. neo-conservative western thinkers who categorized Moslems by labeling them: “moderate”, “fundamentalist”, “terrorist”, and “radical”.

Comparing with the label from Allah the Creator within some ayat in Surah Al Maidah, it was very clear that designation of “kuffar”, “zhalim”, "fasiq", and “mukmin” were legal designation given by Allah the Lord of the universe, which has a clear standard of categorization. In addition, in the view of Islam it is forbidden (haram) to elect and appoint the infidels to become the leader of the Muslims, like the words of Allah:

(وَلَنْ يَجْعَلَ اللَّهُ لِلْكَافِرِينَ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ سَبِيلا ...)

“...and never will Allah give the disbelievers over the believers a way [to overcome them].” [TMQ. An-Nisa: 141]

In truth the labeling maneuver which played duet by liberal media and academia in Indonesia - has an epistemological roots to western ideology. They are playing the political identity strategy to divide Islam and silent the revival of Muslim youth as revealed by Louay Safy in his paper Blaming Islam, which expose the efforts of neo-conservative groups in US for the labeling game against Islam to divide the strength of Ummah.

Freedom of Expression: NONSENSE

The representative of UI (University Indonesia), with the help of liberal media network, apparently was making efforts to canalize opinion for criticizing those who vocalize "Kuffar label". Labeling game was being played, the young Muslim students should be alert of this game and to the cunning of secularists. In addition, democracy application in Muslim world has always applying a “selective” and “picky” freedom of expression. They amplify the opinion of LGBT, hedonist lifestyle and devotee of freedom values which they do support, while pure aspiration of a Muslim student who reject the Kuffar leader they keep it silent. This was remind us of what was said by Noam Chomsky in his book "The Political Power of Media" that reveal the role of mass-media propaganda to engineer public opinion, in which the rulers actually had purposes that were counterproductive to public/citizen desire for continuing preserve power.

This frenzy media and academia obviously will only publish the voices of people who agree with their values, but at the same time continue to find fault with those who have a different point of view and those who oppose secular values. On the other hand, this was a form of their despair toward the stretching of Islamic revival including among the young students. Those who are longing for Islam and their true Muslim leader are now more and more in number, wave of Islamic ideological opinion now is more vigorous. Meanwhile, the mantra of secularism was being worn out, and Capitalism was increasingly irrelevant to this modern times.

The Subordination of Revelation amidst Secular Education

Frankly, the reaction of UI academia was actually very "natural". It was due to the secular academic world always subordinating even omitting the authority of God revelation replaced by their “supreme intelligence and knowledge”. Education of this secular era that very western-oriented have been omitted the Islam revelation as a supreme and sublime of knowledge that should be understood by every Muslim. In the Muslim world, secularization of education has transformed into ‘enemy in the blanket’ of Muslims which undermine the faith and identity of Ummah. Many campuses in the Islamic world have long been transformed becomes the center of westernization.

But revolutionary ideas and struggles seem to be getting heated, because Islamic revival is everywhere. This phenomenon also experienced by Western campuses in US and UK, where they are also working hard against the rise of Islam and the narrative of dawah (preaching) in their campus. This western paranoia was also exported to the Muslim countries, so the double standards and hypocrisy would be more prominent and always be used against Islam. This was really the failure of the liberal secularism idea, either in their own country in the West or in Muslim countries such as Indonesia. Daniel Jacobson, a professor at the University of Michigan, noted that the world of academia and campus today "were very dominated" by the progressive liberalist, which was known for his skepticism from freedom of speech and "intolerant toward the contrary opinion.” So the question is “Who is the real Intolerant?” This point was just another explanation of why Muslims -including Muslim students- who refuse secular democracy was growing in number, rejected Kuffar rulers and chose Islam as a system which was able to determine the future of their politic, economic, and social.

Muslim students need to be constantly alert to this narrative attack and labeling game. Awake that this is an integral part of global setting agenda against Islam!

Fight back with your narration of dawa! Continue in forging yourselves with Islamic culture (thaqofah) that you will never get in the secular campus, and build your focus on the rise of Ummah of Muhammad all over the world.

( يُرِيدُونَ لِيُطْفِئُوا نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَاللَّهُ مُتِمُّ نُورِهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ)

“They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it.” [QS. Ash-Shaf 61:8]

#RejectAHOK #RejectKuffarRuler #RejectDemocracy #SyariahandKhilafah "Caliphate"

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Fika Komara
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

1 Gema Pembebasan or Gerakan Mahasiswa Pembebasan means Student Movement of Liberation