Fikes Webinar: Pandemic Situation Needs Religious Moderation

Ciputat, UIN News Online – Student Council of the Health Sciences Faculty (FIKES) UIN Jakarta holds a webinar entitled ‘Moderasi Beragama dalam Mitigasi COVID-19: Pendekatan Teori dan praktis’, Monday (05/18/2020). The webinar is expected to formulate a new perspective on religion in the midst of a pandemic situation that threatens the safety of the humanity.

Opened by the Dean of Fikes Zilhadia, this webinar presented two speakers, namely Tb. Ace Hasan Syadzily and Muhammad Adlin Sila. Ace is a member of the House of Representatives Commission VIII, while Adlin is the Principal Researcher at the Indonesian Ministry of Religion's Research and Development Agency.

Zilhadia in her remarks hoped that this webinar could be a guideline in contributing the role of the university to people's lives in a pandemic situation. “In addition, I also hope that all academic community of UIN Jakarta can work together to become pioneers in preventing the spread of Covid-19,” she said.

In their presentation, the two speakers agreed on the importance of religious moderation in the midst of a pandemic. Religious moderation is needed to maintain the safety of the humanity without having to sacrifice the implementation of religious obligations itself.

In a presentation entitled "Moderasi Beragama: Konflik dan Demokrasi Covid 19", Ace stressed the importance of society to be rational in carrying out religious rituals. The rationale is to carry out religious obligations by following the health protocol established by the government.

According to Ace, this attitude does not conflict with one's own religion, in the teachings of Islam, there are rules of relief or rukhshoh that apply when we are facing a difficult situation “In conducting prayers for example, in a threatening pandemic situation like this, the implementation of the salat jamaah can be replaced by salat munfarid,” he said.

In the Indonesian Parliament itself, he continued, his party continues to encouraged the government in implementing policies related to pandemics. The Indonesian House of Representatives, he said, encouraged the government to be more unified in issuing and implementing a pandemic policy in order to break the chain of Covid-19 infection.

Meanwhile, Adlin in his presentation entitled 'Strategi Kemenag dalam Implementasi Moderasi Beragama di PTKI', stressed the importance of all members of PTKI to become an agents of religious moderation. "Each of us, educators, education personnel, even PTKI students have to become agents of religious moderation," he said.

Adlin also reminded that religious moderation should not be misunderstood as a movement that reduces religious principles or the implementation of religious obligations. “Moderation needs to be understood as the attitude of every religious community to take the middle ground between maintaining personal safety and continuing to carry out religious orders in accordance with the rules of health and relief in carrying out obligations,” said Adlin. (usa/zm)