MUHAMMADIYAH.OR.ID, PARIS – The Secretary-General of Muhammadiyah presented challenges for religions in the context of Asia at the international meeting Imaginer la Paix – Imagine Peace in Paris, on Tuesday, September 24.
After the colonial era, Asian countries have had great achievements in many aspects of life, especially economy, culture, education and politics.
“Some Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and others have played important roles in regional and international arenas. Besides their economic prosperity, Asian countries have cultural, religious, and traditional sustainability,” said Mu’ti.
Even so, since the last two decades, there have been observable changes in religious and social life, especially among young generations. Asian people, as people in the world, believe that religions are important and are needed in almost all aspects of private life and happiness. Religions are also important for compassing public morality including in government and governance.
Despite the significant roles of religions, religious people and leaders could not disregard realities of growing tendencies toward multifaceted disengagement from religions.
“Such disengagement might lead to delusion of religions,” said Abdul Mu’ti.
The future of religions, to some extent, is dependent on their ability to answer challenges.
Mu’ti mentioned that, in Asian contexts, there are five challenges. First, the counties confront the challenge of mental health. World Health Organizations (WHO) states that people have mental health problems are increasing indicated by number of people commit suicide and psychological disorders. Materialistic life has caused high level of stress, decline of social cohesion, spiritual emptiness, etc.
Second, they face challenges of an aging society caused by social factors: (1) changing world view about marriage and family life while people prefer not to get married and child free; (2) better health services and healthy lifestyle that contribute to longer life expectancy.
Third, the countries deal with the challenge of humanity. The development of industries brought about negative sides such as human trafficking, exploitation, and “modern slavery”.
Fourth, the challenge is regarding environmental crises, especially climate change and all its impacts on not only the future of nature but also survival of humans.
Fifth, the challenge is dealing with economic inequality. The gap between “the have” and “the not have” is widening caused by absolute capitalism and lack of social solidarity.
“How could religions answer these challenges? Religions should be revitalized and refreshed not merely as a series of rituals and spiritual conduct but more importantly as a formula for solving real life problems. It is important to contextualize religious values so as to be relevant with the shifting of contemporary values,” said Mu’ti.
