London – The Chairman of Muhammadiyah Special District Executive of UK (PCIM UK) held DarulArqom for Muhammadiyah members resided in the United Kingdom. This activity aimed to raise the awareness of Muhammadiyah members in UK about the vision of Muhammadiyah in the context of Islamic teaching, nationalism, and modernity. As a part of Islamic movement and element of Indonesia, PCIM UK hoped to raise the spirit of spiritual teaching of the members and created new innovations in Islamic movement on the modernity focus. Besides the strengthening in internal ideology, the activity was also media to recruit new members.
The event took the theme of: Important Role of Muhammadiyah in Modernization and World Peace Realization (PeranPentingMuhammadiyahdalamModernisasidanPerwujudanPerdamaianDunia). This was held on two different time and places, which were on August 30, 2014 in London, and on September 14, 2014 in Leeds. This was attended by Muhammadiyah members from some cities in UK such as London, Leeds, York, Newcastle, Sheffield, Hull, Nottingham, Huddersfield, Birmingham, and Colchester.
On the first event in London, the DA was filled with the presentation by The Chairman of PCIM UK, M.HilalyBasya, on the Dynamics of Modernist Islamic Thought in Muhammadiyah (DinamikaPemikiran Islam Modernis di Muhammadiyah). The event was continued with workshop on some problems encountered by Indonesian people: (1) Politics and Economy, (2) Religion and Education, (3) Health and Gender Equality. On the discussion about Economy and Politics, the participants focused on the economy gap in Indonesia, hence the equity of construction and economy was suggested to be the priority of economic development in Indonesia based on the potential in each region.
Muhammadiyah was hoped to be able to participate in the economic development in Indonesia by creating a generation of Muhammadiyah with entrepreneurship in their hearts. The participation in politics could also be done by Muhammadiyah by giving political education based on Islamic values to the members and students of Muhammadiyah. The rule of law in Indonesia was considered as important aspect that should be realized sooner, one of them was by synchronizing the law products and its enforcement. Interesting discussion happened in the religion and social life, where the attendees focused on Muhammadiyah’s lack of participation in mediating violence happened in religious life. Furthermore, Mauhammadiyah was still considered as failing in supervising cadres who were able to interpret the vision of Muhammadiyah in existing business. It was hoped that Muhammadiyah would own a standard and curriculum, which could be used in Islamic teaching to grassroot level.
On the other hand, the second speaker, MD Hilal (the grandson of Muhammadiyah founder, KH AchmadDahlan) presented his experience and the development of Islamic teaching in UK through the organization of Steps2Allah. In this event, they also included experience sharing of the muallaf who became the students in Steps2Allah, in finding the truth in Islam. This experience sharing became important lesson of all participants who were Muslim since they were born. Even, one of the muallaf, spread Islamic teaching in the roads of London as an effort to spread the teaching in UK.
The second DarulArqom was held in University of Leeds (9/14), inviting four keynote speakers from Muhammadiyah Central Executive; they are HaedarNashir (The Chairman ofMuhammadiyah Central Executive), Zamroni (General Treasurer of Muhammadiyah Central Executive), Muhadjir Effendi (Rector of Muhammadiyah University of Malang) danKasiyarno (Rector ofUniversitas Ahmad Dahlan Yogyakarta).
HaedarNashir presented the history and the role of Muhammadiyah in purifying and performing renewal in Islam, which often times encountered grave problems and needed long time to solve. Next, Zamroni, in his presentation, highlighted that in order to achieve the good purpose of Islamic teaching, they needed two things: cultural and structural factor.
On the next session, the rector of UAD showed how challenges should be faced by Muhammadiyah in spreading Islamic teaching in Western World. On the other hand, MuhadjirEffendy reminded the attendees to not only learn the knowledge they were studying, but also emphasize the importance of leadership, understanding national history and be open-minded in facing national problems. After the official event ended, the participants and the keynote speakers had informal discussion in the home of one of Muhammadiyah members in Leeds. After attending the event in PCIM UK, the groups of Muhammadiyah Central Executive continued visiting Muhammadiyah members in Netherland, France, and Spain. (dzar)