Memahami Agama Lain : Tujuan Dan Syarat Dari Perspektif Pemimpin Agama Di Malaysia (Understanding Other Religions : The Aim And The Term From Religious Leaders Perspective In Malaysia.)

Abstract

Kertas kerja ini menjelaskan keperluan terhadap memahami agama lain  sebagai asas keharmonian agama di Malaysia. Tidak dinafikan bahawa usaha untuk memupuk keharmonian antara penganut agama di Malaysia kerap dilaksanakan sama ada secara teori mahupun praktikal merangkumi program yang melibatkan pelbagai agama akan tetapi isu dan konflik tuntutan dalam isu antara agama di Malaysia masih lagi berlaku. Sejajar dengan situasi ini, beberapa sesi temu bual telah dijalankan bersama informan yang terdiri dari wakil pemimpin- pemimpin bagi agama Islam dan Kristian di Malaysia. Data temu bual ini telah dianalisis secara tematik dengan penggunaan perisian Atlas Ti.  Hasil kajian ini mendapati bahawa hubungan antara penganut Muslim dan Bukan Muslim khasnya Muslim –Kristian di Malaysia masih dipenuhi dengan syak wasangka dan salah faham. Fakor utama berpunca dari salah faham terhadap dasar Islamisasi yang dilaksanakan dalam kerajaan. Salah faham ini seterusnya membentuk kumpulan yang terlalu ekstrem sama ada kepada pemisahan agama dan negara atau membawa kepada taasub kaum dan agama sehingga tidak sedar akan hak-hak agama lain yang turut diiktiraf oleh agama yang dianuti.  Justeru, bagi menimbulkan semula kepercayaan antara dua penganut agama ini, pemimpin agama bersetujua bahawa memahami agama lain adalah penting terutamanya dalam hal-hal yang melibatkan urusan harian SERTA mempunyai syarat agar kelangsungan hubungan sosial dapat berjalan dengan harmoni tanpa menggangu batas-batas sensitiviti agama.

Kata Kunci: Memahami Agama Lain, Hubungan Muslim –Kristian, Toleransi Agama, Sensitiviti Agama, Hubungan Antara Agama Malaysia.

Abstract

This paper explains the necessity of understanding others as a basic religious harmonization in Malaysi. There are many efforts have been done previously including discussion, social dialogue and seminar that involve all of the religious believe, however these efforts were unable to reduce the conflicts and issues related to Muslim and Christian relationship in Malaysia. Therefore, to clarify on this matter, we conducted an interview session with several representatives of religious’ leader from Muslim and Christian respectively in each chosen states of Malaysia. By using Atlas Ti software, the content of the dialogues was analyzed thematicly. The result revealed that there is a lot of skeptical and misunderstanding among religious followers of Muslim and non Muslim especially Muslim-Christian in Malaysia. The biggest problem highlighted in this study is lack of understanding on concept of Islamic country introduced by the government of Malaysia. This leads to the formation of extremist group that is too obsessive with their races and religious believe, thus giving a negative influence to the society and divide them according to their own religious believe without realizing the rights of other religion that have been authorized by their religion. Hence, to reinstall the religious harmony among Muslim and Christian, we need to educate the followers for each religion to have a better insight on what other religion practice and guide them on respecting each other rights to practice according to the constitution of Malaysia. The religious leader should be free from this extremist group and create a guideline on respecting other religion. 

Keyword: Understanding Others, Muslim –Christian Relation, Religious Tolerance, religious Sensitivity, Interfaith Relation, Malaysia.