Children and Gadget by Mahaputra Nanto

Do you ever see or find a child who can play gadgets when reading by him or herself alone is not fluently? It is confirmed that the child was not the only one in the world, most of them certainly is not the only children with a similar toxicity in Indonesia.  Though not necessarily a positive impact, Children and gadgets it has become the norm.

Children today are very familiar with the gadgets. I know that this is not entirely justified. I also still agree with the opinion that the child should spend their free time playing outside the home with peers, or run around until exhausted or play bike. But in reality, many of those who spend their time playing video games or watching Youtube in gadgets.

Children who struggle with a lot of gadgets in excess can have negative things like potential eye pain, lack of movement, resulting in obesity, until it difficult to absorb the lessons at school.

Not that using the gadget to no avail. Skilled Children in using gadgets will keep up with technology. Children can also learn English because English dominates the gadget. In addition, a number of studies also have shown that those who play the game have a better focus and can do many things (multitasking) at once.

Charge an error to the parents who gave the gadget (at least given permission to use the gadget) also does not solve the problem. The problem is the gadget is getting attached to everyday life, not to mention the life of a child

Parents should be able to determine what content is worth (or should) be consumed by children in order to support the development of children according to age. Not just block access to adult sites and applications, parents are also able to balance that with the introduction of a ban on websites or applications educative and entertaining.

 

The Palestinian Issues

Question: What is the way to proceed regarding the Palestinian issue, which has, as the days pass, escalated in terms of complexity and violence?

Response: Certainly, the Muslim(s) feel much pain and great sadness at the deteriorating situation in Palestine, with matters going from bad to worse, escalating in complexity as the days pass, such that it has reached where it has (today). This is due to the differing (occurring) between the neighboring countries, and their lack of united resistance against their enemy, and (likewise) their lack of adherence to the Sharee’ah which Allah has linked to victory (and success). (This is also in addition to) the enemy vowing to oppose (the Palestinians) and remain upon the (Palestinians’) land. And this entails great danger and adverse consequences. 

The neighboring countries need to rush to unite in their resistance (against the enemy) and adhere to the Sharee’ah in confronting this issue, which concerns them and all of the Muslim world.

And that which is worth mentioning here, is that the Palestinian issue is an islamic issue from the beginning (right through) to the end. However, the enemies of Islam have strived immensely to distance it (this issue) from the lslamic path and convey to the non-Arab Muslims that this is an Arab issue, and that it does not concern the non-Arabs. It appears they have succeeded in this to a certain extent. This is why I feel it is not possible to reach a solution regarding this issue unless it is deemed an lslamic issue, and the Muslims support one another in salvation, and make jihad against the Jews in an Islamic manner, until such time the land (of the Palestinians) is returned to its (rightful Palestinian) owners. (In addition to) the trespassing Jews returning to their (own) lands where they dame from, thereby leaving the true Jews to remain in their lands under the rule of lslam, and not communism and nor secularism. Thereby, truth shall prevail and falsehood will be abandoned, and all rightful owners shall return to their lands under lslamic rule, and not under any other (rule).

.

And Allah is the Expounder of Success.

SATURDAY NIGHT WITH EGO (Awaluddin Syamsu)

I write this paper as a result of our Saturday night discussion at sister Yukiko’s house. One of way to be happy is by controlling our ego. And it is said that to have a control on something we need to recognize it. Therefore this paper will present two ways of detecting whether we are doing something due to our ego or pure intention to Allah SWT.

To begin with, I would like to summarize Hasrul’s comment which was based on Ismail Raji Alfaruqi’s perspective on ego. There are two kind of ego. The first one is ego-centrism and the second one is universal ego. Ego-centrism means doing something to pursue a personal pleasure, whereas universal ego is that to do something for the sake of community. Having said that ego-centrism is bad while universal ego is good. In this paper, ego-centrism will be our focus. The reason is because by controlling our ego-centrism. We can step forward to universal ego.

As it is said by Ismail Raji Al-faruqi that ego-centrism is bad therefore we need to recognize it. There are two ways to do it. The first one is by asking ourselves “do I do this activity for my pleasure?”. If the answer is yes, it means that we need to change our intention. The second one is by asking ourselves “do we put ourselves as a victim based view?”. If the answer is also yes. It is a must for us to change our intention. One example of victim based view is that when you are working in one company that you feel uncomfortable with something that make you complain, while you are saying “uncomfortable and complaining” it means that you are not free. It is because you put yourself as a victim based view.

Purifying our intention will free us from ego-centrism. Doing something for the sake of Allah SWT will free us from ego-centrism because we do things to please Allah SWT. Not to please ourselves, also it can help us to get us from victim based on view. It because of we do things only to pursue reward from Allah SWT. Whatever the result, we do not put ourselves as victim because since the beginning we are not there but Allah SWT.

In conclusion, to escape ourselves from ego-centrism we need to purify our intention to the God and do not ever put yourself as a victim based view. Doing something is only for Him. 

THE POWER OF POWER! (Habib Muhammad Shahib)

As time goes on, we can see many ideologies and paradigms coloring our history that also make our relation within people become dynamic and colorful until nowadays. As the positive effects, those paradigms can make people have many perspectives to solve their life’s problems and also they can use the paradigms to be studied by many scholars to create a better civilization in the future. But as a negative effect, there is a black side behind each paradigm which has ever existed on this planet. Popular, we call it as the tool of power.

The socio-history scientists around this world have a similar definition for “the tool of power”. Those experts believe there are no civilizations which have existed until nowadays without using or making a paradigm to rule their people. As an effect of using or making the paradigm, we can see from many historical books that the violence actions always exist behind each paradigm which is totally supported by the power of authority to support the existence of paradigm that authority in one society (country) believes in. Even with the religion paradigms. We have to be honest. There are no religions in this world without bloody stories to support their existence.

Based on the above, we have to be aware that the relation between the authority and a paradigm are so close. Maybe, in the beginning the paradigm is a free value but with using authority, the paradigm can be changed to be a value that is not free from the interest, especially, the authority’s interest that leads in a society. So, we have to be ready to prevent the movement from government’s bodies or other parties (including religion parties) that will use their paradigms (ideologies) to push their people or followers to obey their power (rules). Even, if the governments or the other parties use violence in pushing or controlling their society (group) because, in this world, we have to fight the people who use their power (violence) to control their society. May Allah bless them. Amen.

WHY WE LEFT BEHIND? (Agus Putra Gowa)

The difference between developed and progressed country do not depend on how old the countries are. India and Egypt for examples, both are more than 2000 years old but they are still left behind (poor country). On the other hand, Singapore, Canada, and New Zealand are countries which are less than 150 years old, but they become some of the most progress countries in the world.

The availability of Natural resources is not the guarantee that a country will be rapidly progress or rich. Japan, a modern and progressed country, has a restricted area. 80 %of its area is mountains and it is not enough for farming and animal husbandry. However, Japan is like a huge “floating industry”. They are importing raw material from all over the world and exporting the finished product. Switzerland, a small country in Europe, has only 11% productive area. But it can process high quality milk (Nestle), on the other hand, many rich people trust to save their money in some Swiss Banks. Race or ethnic is not the important case. Lots of people argue that African immigrants are lazy workers. But the fact, they are very productive in progressed countries. So, what are the differences?

The differences are related to the people’s attitudes. Based on the analysis upon the progressed country’s attitude, they obey the following fundamental principles of life, such as, Honesty, Be responsible, Respect to the rules, Respect to the other people’s right, love the work/job, Investment, Work hard, and be on timer.

In a developed or poor country, only certain people want to apply these principles. In Indonesia, it is too hard to find anybody who wants to apply the principals above. We have a lot of smart people but we are lack of honest people since corruption becomes an old case which has never been overcome. The question is: are we ready to be a progressed country? Can we apply the fundamental principles of life? Changing start from our self, from a small thing and do it right now!!

• Left behind : Terbelakang
• Animal husbandry : Peternakan
• Raw material Barang mentah
• Honesty : Kejujuran
• Investment : Investasi
• Progressed country : Negara maju
• Developing country : Negara berkembang

1. As a young generation, how do you take a part in developing our country?
2. Why are Indonesians easy to break the law and disobey the rules?
3. How to change the people’s attitude? 

Be a Better Person With Etic and Emic Perspectives (Awaluddin Syamsu)

For this time, I would like to write about the cultural judgment. The judgment is known as the etic and emic perspectives. This essay would present the definition of etic and emic perspective. Then, it would present how these two perspectives lead a better person. And finally, it would bring the concept into personal issue.

The terms are related to outsiders’ perspectives about other people culture while the other one is from insiders’ perspectives about other people culture. The outsiders’ perspective about other people cultures is called as an etic perspective whereas the perspective from insiders is called an emic perspective (Xia, 2010, p.T1).The terms of emic and ethic were coined by Kenneth Pike, an anthropologist (ibid, p.76). Example for the etic perspective is that American people judge the Japanese culture from their perspective as American whereas if Japanese judge their own culture by using their perspective as Japanese called emic perspective.

People should not choose either emic or etic perspectives. Both of them have to be combined. It is because; emic perspective, is a comprehensive way to understand the culture because people from that culture know more about their culture than people from outside. However, etic perspective is also needed in order to know how other people picture the culture from their background. This is to enrich information about the culture.

These ways of looking at one particular culture from two different perspectives can be brought to personal life in order to create a better person. For example, if you want to do something, take time a little while to think about other people. What will other people respond or how they think of my actions? In short, put yourself into other people shoes. This is important to behave properly. However, it is not always the case, sometimes we need to do something without thinking too much about other people because what we think may be not what they think. Or it could be also they do something wrong then we try to do things correctly and many more other possibilities.

To sum up, both in cultural and personal life, we need to consider to kinds of perspectives, the etic and emic perspective. This is to lead people to be a better person. Xia, J. (2010). An anthropological emic-etic perspective on open access practices.

Journal of Documentation, 67(1), p. 75-94. 

The True Friends (Awaluddin Syamsu)

This writing is inspired by YOUTUBE short video entitled qualities of a best friend. This short video is very touching for me and I believe it is very important to be understood by every single of us. That is why, I write this paper in order to make all of us, I myself in particular, to recognize people who should be our friends. There are three characteristics that should be attached in a person or people in order for them to be our true friends. These three characteristics are based on hadist from the Massanger of Allahutaala, sallallahualaihiwassallam.

1.       The person when you look at him, his appearance reminds you of Allah swt. Not the person who enslaves his/herself into their lust or any other things than Allah swt.
When this person appears, at least it will make you change your talk, from useless talk to a talk which is more beneficial.

2.       The person when he/she speaks, your knowledge about Allah increases. The question is how many of your friends make you conscious about your creator and makes you understand to stand as an upright Muslim in society? Many of our friends, when they talk they talk nothing. Most of the talk is all about joy that make us forget Allah swt. However, we cannot stay away from them, but what we have to do is to engage with them accordingly. We should not spend a lot of time with them. We talk and hang out with them if we think it will make things better for us and/or for them.
. This second character does not mean that the person always talk seriously and sophisticatedly. He/she may like playing a joke or talk in very simple words. Because the prophet himself liked to played joke and talked in simple words with his ummah.

3.       The person when you look at his/her deeds, you will remember akhirah.
This person will always behave beautifully according to Islamic teaching. This does not mean someone who just spends life for worshipping God in Masjid but someone who can embody Islamic teaching in their daily activities. This person might not wear clothes such as the prophet’s clothes but he/she behaves as the prophet’s teaching.

As Muslims, we have to think of to whom we always get together with. The reason is because your friends will define who you really are. They will influence your thought and also your future. Therefore, we have to be careful to choose friends. The characters above should be taken into account when we befriend with other people. Wallahualambissawab.

In the discussion section, I would suggest these two questions; what we can do in order to be a true friend and create an environment that makes us help one another in order to be the true friend.

Rebellion in the Context of Demonstration and Writing (Mas’ud Kallolona Sawitto)

Rebellion, this word is not strange at ears; there are many perceptions about rebellion. Perhaps someone wants to destroy a system of one country or someone wants to kill each other due to some purposes. In this essay the writer tries to differentiate two types of rebellion. According to the writer the two kinds of rebellion are: rebellion through demonstration and rebellion through writing.

 The first one is rebellion through demonstration. Demonstration is our aspiration that said by demonstrators because there is something wrong done by stakeholders so that’s why they are going to make sure its going the right way. Demonstrators are like cconnective tongue of society or voice of God because they do the demonstration just for protecting small societies or sometime they disagree with the obligation or policy made by government. On the other hand, demonstration has a bad effect, for example when they are burning tires on the street that affects traffic jam and they often disobey the rule such as fighting with the same demonstrators. Oh my God!!! Make me sad.

The second one is rebellion through writing. It is believed that the nice way ever in fighting against the government is through writing. Someone may criticize the government in order to tell their inspiration, critic or protest by writing, such as poetry, essay or short story. Poetry is one way to kill someone without touching, that’s quoted from a poet. With writing we can express our feelings especially our heart to government, we can say as ‘Freedom of writers’. Just like demonstration, writing has a bad effect too. We have to wait for responses from the government for a long time and it means that we waste our time to wait for something that there is no guarantee. According to someone who likes writing, after we have written, there’s something amazing or free on our mind that we can share whatever we’re thinking. Writing is a weapon for those who understand what writing is, and according to poets Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s words “just by writing I become hero for myself’, and “how smart you are if you don’t write you will be left by this world”.

Finally, I do agree that every single person has a perception between writing and demonstration, so I don’t like saying which one is better, because writing and demonstration have weakness and benefit, so it’s up to us because we are leader for ourselves. You know more than others do.

Teacher, High Dedication Low Appreciation (Agus Putra Gowa)

Twelve years studying at school makes me know many things. I can write, read, count and speak. It’s because of dedication of a hero called Teacher. They are heroes in our nation. Because of their dedication, I, you, and all of us can enjoy this brighter life. Some of us become a trader, a doctor, a policeman, even a president. We realize it or not, teacher has given crucial contribution in our success. When we were in elementary school, teachers patiently taught us how to write and read. They educated and led us to be a better person. Thus, whatever you are, either farmer, doctor, minister or president, we will never get loose from the service of teacher.

Teacher has rendered a lot of service to this country, but appreciation given is not really satisfying. In fact, there still many teachers spend their spare time to find another job. Some teachers in remote areas become a farmer or tukang ojek to fulfill their daily needs and education for their children.

Looking at the fact above, the government should do improvement of the teacher’s prosperity. One of the ways to make teacher more prosperous is certification program. It is considered as the best solution to increase not only the quality but also the income of the teacher. Those who pass certification program will get double salary and automatically increase their income. However, this program just gives a negative impression. It is about the “integrity” of the teacher. Many people argue that teachers nowadays are not sincere anymore. In fact, many teachers more emphasized to arrange portfolio than prepare a good method for their students in the classroom. Yet, I think it is humane. Teacher is a human being. They need to eat, drink, and absolutely need money to fulfill their needs. On the other case, some teachers are being criminalized, reported to the police officers because of giving physical punishment to their students.

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed by the ally’s force, the government of Japan talked to his people. Neither shoulder nor minister he was asked, but He asked how many teachers remained. It indicates that the teacher has crucial contribution to develop a country.

In conclusion, teacher is a teacher. They are Hero in my life. We cannot do anything without them. Teacher is a normal human being. They need money to fulfill their needs. They need to eat, drink, to buy clothes, and so on. Thus, respect your teacher.

Dedication (n): Pengabdian
Patiently (adv): Dengan sabar
Prosperity (n): Kesejahteraan
AIly(n): Sekutu

Police Officers on the Street (Saddam Husain)

Nowadays, when we go around the city we may find there are many police officers on the street. They stand to arrange the traffic so that the rider or driver can go back and forth on the street all day long. Sometimes, the police arrest the road users to ask their driver license, and sometimes the police will ask them many questions if they don’t have any license or there is something wrong with the vehicle such as the rearview mirror, valve lid and directional signal.

It is said that the police officers on the street are disasters because they just look for money by arresting the road users and then asking them whatever problem that can bring money. For example, there is a rider who passes the red lamp, the police will arrest him, ask some questions and then tell the rider about the law that the rider disobeys. After that the police reads how much should be paid while giving two options, the first one is finishing the problem through legal law with fine Rp. 250.000, the second one is finishing the problem through negotiation way which cost only Rp. 50.000.

 In spite of that, police officers on the street have many functions and roles. They can help the driver who seeks the right way to go. Especially in the city, there are many ways that forbid to be passed so if there is a policeman standing on the street, the driver can ask. Moreover, the road user will obey the traffic laws because they are afraid of the police.
In conclusion, the assumption that police is a disaster or angel depends on the situation. When the police can portray their duty as good as possible the society will respect them as the protector but if they disobey their own role as the protector the society will not respect them at all.

ISLAMOPHOBIA (Sulaiman)

Islam religion has developed entire world. In America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Australia every year population of Muslim grows faster than other religion. Many people convert to Muslim because they want to learn more about Islam. Despite Islam has been liked by many people, in other side there are few people fear Islam or Islamophobia. They dislike all Muslim. Their paranoid emerge because there are many incidents involve Muslim people like incident of WTC (World Trade Centre) in September 11^th.

Terrorism issue is one of factor that causes Islamophohia. WTC attacks had given a negative stigma for many people in America and some countries because there are many victims over this incident. Although few people assume that is a part of conspiracy to overturn Islam.

Islamophobia has mushroomed in Europe and America. It was listed as a form of intolerance. Hatred and dread of Islam stimulate discrimination, for example in the airport. Securities suspicious on Muslim people, rigorous investigation always happen over Muslim people in the airport. Muslim people also get discrimination in public services. Few Muslim even change their name so that they get good treatment, they also hard to get a job because of their identity as Muslim.

I think lslamophobia emerge because misunderstanding about Islam values, some people only assume that Islam is a radical religion. Islam is a part of terrorist, Islam identical with jihadist. That paradigm should be eliminated with explanation about Islamic values.

To conclude, Islamophobia is an irrational fear. As Muslim, we bear the obligation to explain about Islam values so that people can accept the existence of Islam in their life.

Should Burqa or Niqab be Banned? (Sulaiman)

Muslim women have an obligation to cover their aurat. They usually wear veil to cover their face. It reflects them as a Muslim woman. Nowadays, there are many trends of veil but few Muslim women still use traditional Niqab or Burqa (Full-Faced veil). It is commonly worn in many Muslim countries especially in the Saudi Arabian peninsula. Wearing Niqab or Burqa is a choice, made by individual Muslim on a personal basis. In Holy Quran in Surat AI-Ahzab verse 59:

“O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused. And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful

            This surah describe to women that how important cover their aurat; it is their obligation in Islam. Muslim woman who wear veil also must maintain their good behavior so that can reflect a good Muslimah. There many cases or issues that ban wearing the traditional Niqab, especially in UK. If Muslim woman as a witnesses or defendants, they must remove their Niqab when she gives evidence in front of the trial, but she may wears it other times during the trial. Only the judge, legal counsel, and jury will be able to see their face when she gives evidence. On the other hand, many people complaint with Judge’s ruling to remove Muslim woman Niqab in the trial, It reflects discrimination and they don’t give women rights in religion as set out by article 9 (Freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the European convention on human rights. Discrimination over wearing veil also had happened in some countries, like France which prohibits all children from wearing religious symbols such as Muslim headscarves in schools

As a humane being we must respect each other, we need mutual understanding. Muslim women have a same rights like other people, they should get their freedom to manifest their religion in daily life.

PROSTITUTION (Vee)

Prostitution is an act of providing sexual service in exchange of money (or other beneficial payment) between two or more people. Prostitution sometimes referred to as “world’s oldest profession”, nevertheless the legalization of prostitution itself is different from one county to another. Some countries prefer to illegalized and criminalized prostitution while others may varies from decriminalized to regulated (legalized) prostitution. Until now ongoing pro-contra debates and opinions regarding legal prostitution are still spread wide across countries as they include human rights, personal choice liberation, moral degradation, human trafficking, poverty, law enforcement, violent/rape cases, religion and HIV/AIDS into the equation.

People who favor the legal-prostitution argue that the benefits come from legalizing prostitution are enough to protect the society in general and the persons actively involve in the act itself in particular. Regulated prostitution will provide law protection for the sex-worker and legitimate prostitution as a decent work along with the benefits that come from it; it will reduce the act of violence from the clients or the pimps, because the female sex-worker can report the abuse without being charged as a criminal for selling sex herself. It will also reduce the number of HIV/AIDS transmission because the sex-worker is finally granted regular health checks as a mandatory requirement for the profession. Economically, it will also benefit the sex-worker because they can earn their income legally and pay the tax which will also benefit the government. This pro legal-prostitution stated that it’s ridiculous to keep prostitution as illegal while the demand of sex service increasing each day, it will only lead to illegal human-trafficking. While human-traffic is wrong because it’s a coercion act, prostitution is seen as a decision between two consenting adults; it’s a human right for people to choose what they want to do with their bodies.

On the contrary, people who support the decision to keep the prostitution as illegal argue that prostitution needs to stay illegal because the destructiveness of prostitution outweighs its benefits (if any). Prostitution devalues all of our moral standards and thus legalizing it will mean legitimizing the idea of some women as commodities to be exploited. And grant implicit approval to a dangerous and immoral practice in society. Sex-workers are often forced into the industry by sex-trade, pimps or poverty, so it’s indicating some underlying problems within the society. Instead of legalizing prostitution as a legitimate work, we should provide adequate education for everyone to ensure them options to a better work than being sex-workers. Religion also hold strong opposes to the legal-prostitution as it’s a sinful act for selling sex when it should have held sacred within marriage, it’s not a legacy we would pass down to our children. It’s also wrong for the government to gain economically from legal-prostitution since it’s no better than encouraging government to involve in other unlawful trades such as the trafficking of drugs. Moreover, legalizing prostitution will increase demand which will increase the rate of human-trafficking to meet the demand and will eventually endanger our society health as it’ll increase the probability of HIV/AIDS transmission

The Women (Hasrul)

Every single religion and culture has an owned different premise about woman.  Even less, the history had told that before holy Quran was relegated, there were lots kind of big civilizations such us Greek, Romani, India, and china. And the world also knew some religions such us Jew, Christian, Buddha, and Zoroaster.

In Greek, the woman had got an intimidation from the ruling government; they could do whatever they would like to do. Such us, the women was put into the prison without any problem, the women could be sold by their husband, the sex relation at public place was fairly, the localization had become a central of politic and art. It is proven that the number of naked sculpture of women in Greek was increasing well.

The civilization of Romani, the parents of woman had proprietary right to sell their daughter. After marrying the proprietary right moved to the husband. In this situation the husband had authority to sell, to hit, to chase away, to kill, and to ill treat. These circumstances were occurring up to 6^th century of Masehi.

In my point view the story of Hindu and china were the worst story. Why? Because of the age of wife was determined by the age of husband. It means if the husband pass away of course the wife as well. The wife should be burnt while her husband was burnt too. It terminated in 17^th century of Masehi. At the time the women also became a ritual offering to which was named as the God. The ancient history says that the poison, the snake, and the fire are less evil than the women. Meanwhile the ancient of China says that you are able to listen to what the women say but do not trust what they are talking about.

In teaching of Jew, the status of women was like a servant. The father had a right to sell his daughter if she had no brother. In their thought of teaching that the women as a source of curse because the woman engendered Adam evicted from the heaven.      

On the hand, the Christian’s view the woman was devil’s tool in misleading human being. The 5^th century Masehi had been held a church council which was talking about whether the women had the soul or not, finally the women had no holy soul. It continued in the 6^th century Masehi was held the same activity which was talking about whether the women were human being or not. The conclusion was the women were created by the god only for being the servant of the man.   

To sum up, the living condition of women from the 5^th century up to the middle century were really concerning. The man did not think that if they were born by the women. And of course, behind the great man there is a great woman. Save the women from exploitation.  

BULLYING BECOMES STUDENTS’ BEHAVIOR (Saddam Husain)

It is not difficult to find bullying in junior high school, senior high school and even in university. It is important to address the issue because bullying has become a culture in school and university. The definition of bullying it self is a form of aggressiveness behavior that is intentional, hurtful and threatening someone. Bullying is not only in physical form but also in psychological form. Boys tend to do physical bullying such as hitting, kicking, slapping, elbowing, shouldering (slamming someone with your shoulder), etc. Otherwise, girls tend to do psychological bullying such as name-calling, insulting remarks, putting down, teasing in order to inflict psychological pain.

Have you got bullies in your school or university? In particular university, there is a culture to welcome new student, that we call Ospek or Pengkaderan. Formally, Ospek is held for at least 1-2 weeks, but in fact, this is going to be held for 6 months. Even in certain department it will spend 1 year. There is no essential benefit comes from this culture except pain because the new students are not treated well as human being.

Is it good to hit back if you get hit from your senior or someone? People who answer yes think that it is important to make bullies become wary and will not bully you again next time. Bullies will think that you are strong enough to maintain your self and it make them afraid of you. Contrarily, people who answer no think that when you hit back it will make the situation become worse. Bullies would hold grudge and can call all of their friends to attack you next time.

Actually, what makes people bully someone? Bullying is a culture and also popular thing for certain people. They will be so proud of themselves if they have done bullying. They feel they are the most powerful human in that place. Besides, some of bullies come from a broken home. They bring their problems to their school or university and conduct their anger by bullying someone to feel better and satisfied. People who are being bullied tend to hide this incident, although they are supposed to tell this incident to their teachers, lecturers, dean and of course parents. They don’t want to make people especially their parents worry. They love their parents. They do want to make their parents become proud of them by telling good news, not bad news. 

Treating Fun Places In Fasting Month (Saddam Husain)

Fasting month is a very great month among others in a year. Billion Muslims are waiting for this moment to refresh the spirituality, to reflect their behavior and to do the worships in order that they can get closer to the GOD. Muslim society needs peaceful condition to perform worships because this holy month is a momentum where all Muslims in the world want to focus without any trouble. Before holy month comes, the solace activities are operating for a long time. The solace activities here are some activities that said as sinful acts such as localization, prostitution, drunk in a bar and gamble. Thus, these are the troubles for Muslims to do their worships in fasting month because these activities can disturb the peace, devaluate the rituals and give negative influences.

            It has been said that solace places can work in fasting month so long as they don’t disturb anyone directly. There is no invitation to join them, or disturb the worship by playing music loudly, and prohibit someone to do praying. So these solace activities are not the problems or troubles for Muslims at all because in fasting month, someone’s piety is not measured by those things but it depends on someone’s own intention to do the best. Moreover, the more you get challenged the more you get rewards by God.

            However, some Ulemas think that solace places must be closed because they disturb the sense of Ramadan. It’s known that environment gives a big contribution to human behavior. Thus, Muslim will be influenced to do useless things instead of doing prayers if they are in bad condition or situation where the solace activities still work. Moreover, the concept of tolerance in religion should be applied well. The one who has a business which potentially disturb religious activities should understand and appreciate religious one by closing the places.

            In conclusion, fasting month as a holy month for Islam should be clear from the dirty activities. Tolerance of religion must be implemented not only for other but also for Islam because sometimes people focus how to treat other religion well whereas Islam is under pressure. Otherwise, Islamic organization that wants to control them in order should take care for human right in order that people both Islam and businessmen can respect each other.     

Holy Month of Ramadan (Dwi)

Marhaban ya Ramadan, welcome to the month of greatness, the month where  Muslims learn to practice their awareness; emotional, hunger and thirst. And the soul practice to always be patience in the face of any temptation. Ramadan seems to create moments of togetherness, where people usually gather for iftar or commonly referred to as bukber, whether it is held in a small environment such as between friends or family, or up to a broader scope such as gathering with colleagues or community, both small and large scale.

Bukber seems to become a tradition in this grace-filled month. Bukber usually held by people who come from upper class society, they form the committee and gather money to fund the bukber. Ta'jil served are not just a glass of water, small cakes or sweet appetizers like commonly found in mosques, but a complete meal from appetizer (syrup, cakes, fruits, dates) until main dishes and desserts. If you go to the mosque, after sipping a drink and eat a few pieces of cakes provided from residents around the mosque, you will directly perform maghrib prayer and went home afterwards to eat main meal and side dishes at your home, unlike in bukber -which I had attended several times- after the drink and appetizers presented, we will directly presented with the main meals even before performing maghrib prayer.

During the fasting month, many people choose to finish eating the main meal first and do Maghrib prayer afterward. And it seems like this habit is pretty common. Many people took up this habit when attending bukber. This is slightly different from the example given by the prophet Muhammad SAW.

From Anas RA, "Rasulullah SAW break fasting with a few rutabs before praying. If there was no rutab, Rasulullah will do with tamar, and if there was no tamar, Rasulullah SAW will do with water." (Reported by Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi.)

"Rasulullah SAW hastens Maghrib prayer by doing what is stated in the above hadith; Rasulullah SAW does iftar with a few rutabs before praying”.

Month of Ramadan teaches us to care about other people. In Ramadan we’re obligated to perform fasting to remind us about other people suffering, the less fortunate people, the disables, orphans, and the poor people live in slumps. Hopefully the month of Ramadan can preserve and increase our faith and prevent us from damaging our relationship with God by restraining ourselves from doing useless things.