10.47313 Extended abstract/2nd ICOSOP, Jakarta, Indonesia, 26 October 2022 The Culture of Deliberation Amongst the Muslims Society and the Challenge of Mutual Respect Among Cultures: Social & Political Perspective

Extended abstract/2nd ICOSOP, Jakarta, Indonesia, 26 October 2022 The Culture of Deliberation Amongst the Muslims Society and the Challenge of Mutual Respect Among Cultures: Social & Political Perspective

Abstract

The paper makes a brief account of what H.A.R. Gibb said the historic
event—the classical practice of succession of the Prophet employing the
procedure of al-Shura or deliberation or consultation in the seventh century;
the success of democratically electing the leader of the new emerging Muslims
society. The paper further explores several cases of the more institutionalized
or culture of deliberation amongst the (Sunni) Muslims society across the
world in the context of socio-cultural changes in the medieval century until
the present day world, in multi-cultural societies. Special attention is given to a
variety of practices in Indonesia’s setting: a few cases of al-Mawardi’s influence
in Islamic kingdom, adoption by NU organization, and a few practices in politics
and government. The account finally looks into the contribution of its culture of
deliberation to promoting mutual respect among cultures. The central issue is—in
theoretical perspective of deliberative democracy—capacity to deliberate; adat-
based deliberation is often hindered by socio-cultural obstacles that is impacting
negatively on what Habermas calls communicative rationality.
Deliberation is roughly of two type—democratic as it is theorized by
the advocates of deliberative democracy in the West and a few practices of
contemporary Taiwanese society and participatory democracy of Chavez’s
Venezuela, and the path of Scandinavian nations at the U.N. level; but also
non-democratic type in the context of Chinese political system. Al-Shura or
Deliberation is culture-bound in a given society; deliberation in Muslim society - 38 -
is firstly mandatory from the Quran, and is also a further mode of al-Shura’s
institutionalization that can give impacts on a given society. Al-Mawardi’s term
of Ahl Hall Wal Aqd (AHWA)—developed in the 10th century or three hundred
years after that—is a mechanism to elect Chief Executive officer (CEO) in state
governments convey its capacity to deliberate of the members at an AHWA with
high competence of experts in public matters. This term and concept has been
widely used by rulers in many Sunni Muslims society across the world. His term
will be described in brief and will be used in our analyses; our account will see
that several events of deliberation amongst the Indonesia people can be interpreted
as a reflective of AHWA used by cross-cultural dimensions: special envoy of
“tradisionalists ulama” to Saudi Arabia two years before NU organization was
established , sessions held by BPUPKI before 17 August 1945, entering our
nation-state system, Sekarno’s visit and deliberation with prominent NU Leader,
KH Hasyim Asy’ari resulted in Asy’ari’s affirmation to make Pancasila into
effect; governor of East Java, Soekarwo,’s informal talk or deliberation which he
thinks Gotong Royong custom in Java has been influenced by Islam’s social piety.
The study employs qualitative method, with secondary data gathered
from books and articles, especially those that are made available electronically.
Studies on the classical history of early Muslims, along with al-Mawardi’s
conceptualization of AHWA are collected from scholarly work. Data on the
subsequent practices of deliberation include those taking place in the Medieval
era and those taking place in contemporary Indonesia. Theoretical perspective of
deliberative democracy is used to interpret the data. The practices of deliberation
in non-liberal democracy function as one justifying the legacy of deliberation of
Muslims society which, in this exploration, presents influence and impact on the
societies.
The study is expected to contribute to the re-invention of the democratic
deliberation in the past for better understanding of contemporary move towards
deliberative turn in democratic politics—which eventually give positive impact
on development of mutual respect among multi-cultural societies.
The finding of the study is significant spread of the deliberation in politics
and governments among Muslims societies in the cases of the countries and
has impacted on customs of deliberation in a given society; with al-Mawardi’s
conceptualizing AHWA, the practice of deliberation has achieved comparatively
high level as in the standard proposed by Deliberative Democratic Theory, i.e. - 39 -
capacity to deliberate—thus have promoted better ways of deliberating. Mutual
respects can be promoted given characteristics of good deliberation.
In conclusion, al-Shura or deliberation in Muslims society has been in
practice since the seventh century and continue to be apply amongst Muslims
societies in various era and political systems and it has given more or less
significant impacts on democratic deliberations across cultures—thus contribute
to developing mutual respect among multi-cultural societies.