Pemaknaan Bahasa dan Demonstrasi di Timur Tengah

Pagi yang cerah di Tufnell Park, teringat masakan sayur toge yang biasa dibuat oleh orang tua saya di Cileunyi, Bandung.  Maka saya pun bergegas ke dapur untuk membuat sayur toge atau sprouts menurut Londoners. Well Done Amateur Chef!! Begitu ekspresi untuk menghibur diri sendiri, meskipun rasanya agak berbeda dengan sayur toge buatan orang tua karena bahan masakannya tidak persis seperti yang Cileunyi.

Seperti biasa saya pun membuka internet untuk membaca berita hari ini, apa saja headline yang masih bertahan selain penangkapan dan pengunduran diri Direktur Eksekutif International Monetary Fund (IMF) karena pelecehan seksual, dan operasi militer illegal Negara barat di negerinya Muammar Khadafi. The independent, Koran harian terkemuka di Inggris, yang terkenal karena mengusung idealisme sebagai Koran yang bebas dari berbagai kepentingan, sesuai dengan namanya yang secara literal berarti bebas. Di halaman utama Koran ini terpampang judul “Cameron Embraces Tyranny”, David Cameron adalah Perdana Menteri Inggris pada saat ini yang sedang gencar “melancarkan operasi demokrasi” di Timur Tengah. Kalau cermat melihat berbagai informasi akhir-akhir ini, maka penerimaan perdana menteri terhadap Putra Mahkota Bahrain seperti yang diberitakan Koran The Independent tersebut memunculkan fakta yang problematis terhadap komitmen barat terutama US, Inggris, dan sekutunya terhadap apa yang dinamakan dengan demokrasi. Karena penerimaan tersebut terjadi di tengah-tengah protes terhadap Bahrain yang sedang melakukan tindakan kejahatan terhadap kemanusiaan terhadap para demonstran, ruang-ruang public seperti Rumah Sakit, para dokter, dan mayoritas masyarakat dengan bantuan sekutu terdekatnya yaitu Arab Saudi dan tentu saja atas restu US dan kawan-kawannya.

Kenapa Bahrain jadi pengecualian Inggris dan kawan-kawannya, Koran tersebut menghadirkan fakta bahwa nilai investasi Inggris di negeri kaya minyak tersebut sangatlah besar terutama Royal Bank of Scotland. Fakta-fakta tersebut seolah berbicara sendiri untuk mengklarifikasi setiap bahasa eufimisme yang dilontarkan oleh para actors dibalik “operasi demokrasi” di Timur Tengah tersebut. Kemudian fakta lain muncul seperti yang diungkapkan oleh Noam Chomsky dalam keynote speech nya di hadapan ribuan orang yang memadati perayaan milad yang ke- 25 dari sebuah badan pengawasan media di New York, US. yang mengatakan bahwa ada dua nilai strategis Bahrain terhadap kepentingan Barat di Timur Tengah yang pertama adalah Bahrain sebagai pangkalan ke lima dari Armada Amerika Serikat di Timur Tengah, yang kedua adalah penduduk mayoritas Bahrain yang 70% Syiah, Negara ini persis di sebelah timur Arab Saudi dimana terdapat warga syiah secara mayoritas. Dari aspek historis dan kultural, warga Syiah akan sangat dekat dengan kepentingan Iran yang selama ini menentang segala tindakan US, Inggris dan sekutunya di Timur Tengah.

Dua perspektif yang dikumukakan oleh the Independent dan Noam Chomsky kiranya cukup untuk memberikan makna terhadap apa yang dinamakan dengan “operasi demokrasi” di Timur Tengah. John Locke, philosopher Inggris, menyatakan bahwa rangkaian kata memberikan tanda konsepsi internal (internal conception) yang tidak selamanya sesuai dengan fakta menurut penilaian akal kita. Rangkaian kata-kata eufimisme seperti operasi perdamaian, operasi pembebasan dari terorisme, operasi penegakan demokrasi, perang untuk damai (war is for peace) seolah menjadi tidak berarti jika meminjam konsepsi Locke terhadap pemaknaan bahasa, karena fakta menghadirkan sesuatu yang tidak sesuai dengan kata-kata. Yang ada adalah fakta-fakta tersebut memberikan makna lain dan sebaliknya seperti brutalisme, imprealisme, penjajahan, dan kejahatan kemanusiaan.

Tufnell Park, 20 May 2011

Sumber:

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/11/noam_chomsky_the_us_and_its

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-embraces-tyranny-2286704.html

Masyarakat Komersial (Commercial Society)

Tumpukan buku Political thought, A Brief History of Liberty, the Ideas that Made the Modern World,Portable Reader of Enlightenment serasa bantal empuk yang enak dipake tidur, teringat dulu zaman pesantren, ketika buku mempunyai fungsi ganda sebagai sumber informasi dan sarana untuk tidur di kelas. Pagi ini terasa sangat istimewa, dari pukul 7 pagi cahaya matahari sudah muncul tanpa dihalangi oleh awan tebal yang konon menjadi teman setia Londoners, cahaya matahari membuat silau layar laptop yang sedang memperlihatkan website paling popular yang menyediakan berjuta files video dengan muka halaman tentang Excerpts dari Erich Fromm Interview, Noam Chomsky, Karl Marx, dan kadang-kadang David Harvey.

Meskipun tugas hampir menemui ajal sekitar 2 mingguan lagi, hot news tentang revolusi yang menyebar di Timur Tengah, dan Afrika Utara, serta Demonstrasi besar-besar di beberapa wilayah Amerika Serikat menentang kebijakan tertentu, gempa  dan tsunami Jepang serta krisis nuklir telah menjadi perhatian media dengan menjadikannya sebagai headline di berbagai media seolah menjadi pengantar harian sebelum memulai menulis. Tetapi saya tidak bisa berpaling dari hot news yang lain yang menurut saya mengeksplorasi sesuatu yang tidak ada dipermukaan, invisible, tetapi keberadaannya sangat jelas. Dari perspektif tersebut, media menghadirkan informasi tentang event-event tersebut dari berbagai sudut, dari derajat yang cenderung informatif menghadirkan apa yang ada di permukaan (surface) sampai yang bersifat investigatif menelusuri apa yang tidak kelihatan dipermukaan. Semuanya berupaya menghadirkan dan menginformasikan “fakta”.

Bagi saya, fakta sosial bisa menjadi menjadi malam yang gelap gulita, misteri, dan susah untuk diungkap tetapi bisa pula menjadi siang yang terang benderang, dan mudah untuk dikenali. Seorang bijak mengatakan bahwa jangan sampai asumsi mendahului fakta, karena kadangkala asumsi menjadi halusinasi manusia dalam “realitas”-nya masing-masing. Menyingkirkan halusinasi dari realitas hidup manusia adalah perjuangan klasik manusia yang bukan hanya dihadapi oleh kita, tetapi juga oleh para pendahulu.

Dalam skala mikro, contohnya masalah antar pribadi, keluarga, masyarakat rt, rw, sampai ke tingkat local desa atau kecamatan, halusinasi ini sering menjadi biang masalah. Misalnya percekcokan keluarga, tawuran masal, tawuran antar pelajar, konflik agama kadang-kadang didasari oleh asumsi, karena asumsi tidak membutuhkan proses yang membutuhkan kesabaran, sebaliknya mengungkap fakta dibutuhkan kesabaran, knowledge, dan keberanian.

Dalam skala makro, asumsi ini bisa menghancurkan peradaban manusia pada titik yang paling ekstrim. Karena ketika manusia secara kolektif dalam skala global telah berasumsi hidup dalam masyarakat yang benar, tidak perlu ada perbaikan yang drastic dan revolusionis terhadap kondisi sosial maka pada saat tersebut manusia berada pada tingkat ketidaksadaran akibat halusinasi dan kulminasi asumsi yang mereka pelihara dan pertahankan.

Pada skala mikro, solusi untuk menghindari halusinasi yang lahir dari asumsi tersebut bisa berkaca contohnya pada recipe dai yang pernah kondang di Indonesia, Aa Gym, yang mempopulerkan resep BAL (Benar, Akurat, dan Lengkap). Meskipun pada kenyataannya konsep ini sedikit mengalami kesulitan dalam aplikasinya terutama terkait dengan benar menurut siapa, dan derajat kevalidan sumber informasi tersebut (akurat), kalau kelengkapan juga bisa sangat subjektif terkait dari mana kita melihat kelengkapan tersebut. Tetapi paling tidak, resep awal ini akan menuntun kita untuk lebih bersabar dalam mengungkap fakta dan menghindari asumsi tanpa proses pembuktian. Dalam skala makro, solusi menghindari halusinasi tersebut tidak semudah di alam mikro, karena hubungannya bukan personal yang bersifat local, tetapi sudah menggurita, global, bahkan telah melahirkan infrastruktur yang solid plus dengan struktur institusi yang pendukungnya.  

Nah salah satu hot news yang menarik perhatian saya adalah phenomena masyarakat komersial (commercial society), mungkin jarang diantara kita yang mendengar istilah tersebut bahkan di dunia akademis seperti di Fakultas Ekonomi, karena memang phenomena tersebut bukan mainstream yang dijelaskan dan dikaji secara komprehensif di dunia pendidikan ataupun dieksplorasi dan dihadirkan oleh media.

Masyarakat komersial lahir dari rahim kapitalisme, dan selalu diidentikkan dengan masyarakat barat yang diasumsikan maju dari berbagai sisi terutama ekonomi. Para pendukung masyarakat komersial mengatakan bahwa ketika perdagangan menyebar keseluruh penjuru dunia, teknologi memudahkan manusia mendapatkan apa yang selama ini langka (scarcity) dan susah untuk didapatkan, produksi barang dan jasa dalam skala massif, institusi keuangan ikut menjadi agen pertumbuhan ekonomi dengan money creation dan revolutionary inventions-nya seperti kartu kredit, dan berbagai instrument keuangan, konklusi finalnya tidak ada kemajuan yang pernah diraih oleh sejarah manusia kecuali kemajuan ekonomi sekarang ini. Para pendukung masyarakat komersial mengklaim bahwa jenis masyarakat ini akan lebih menyebarkan nilai toleransi, menghargai liberty dan kebebasan, menghindari ekploitasi, meningkatkan keadilan ekonomi, dan melayani kebutuhan dasar orang lemah (David Schmidtz, 2010).

Notes kali ini akan melihat bagaimana phenomena tersebut dikritik oleh banyak western scholars sendiri dari berbagai aspek seperti aspek ekonomi, politik, budaya, dan analisis psikologi. Adalah Erich From salah satunya yang mengkaji essential meaning dari masyarakat tersebut tentu dari aspek psikoanalisis-nya. Kemegahanan materialistik terjaga dalam masyarakat komersial bukan penjamin kebahagiaan manusia di masa yang akan datang. Jika identitas manusia dilekatkan pada apa yang dimiliki (I am what I have), pertanyaannya siapakah saya jika saya kehilangan apa yang saya miliki (what I am If I lose what I have), itulah pertanyaan terbesar Fromm. lebih jauh lagi, identitas komersial pada titik ektrim akan mengancam manusia untuk akan selalu berupaya tidak kehilangan apa yang dia miliki meskipun hal itu menyengsarakan orang lain.

Contoh-contoh kontemporar menunjukan secara jelas bagaimana perang terjadi karena urusan komersial bukan semata-mata penegakkan demokrasi, perlakukan terhadap revolusi di Timur Tengah pun tidak sama satu sama lain, ada yang cepat ditanggapi oleh barat ada yang lambat, tergantung dari nilai ekonomis dan politik yang dikandungnya, perdagangan internasional pun ternyata tidak selamanya melahirkan apa diklaim selama ini oleh masyarakat komersial yaitu kebebasan melakukan kontrak perdagangan (freedom of contract), pihak dunia ketiga selalu menjadi pihak yang inferioruntuk memutuskan kontrak perdagangan, dan jutaan masalah lainnya yang perlu mendapat perhatian serius kita semua.

Konklusi dari notes ini saya quote perkataan Marx bahwa Capital is death sedangkan life is life.

London, 19 Maret 201

Resensi Buku_Spiritual Economies

Buku ini berjudul lengkap Spiritual Economies: Islam, Globalization, and the Afterlife of Development, dengan mengambil observasi etnografis di Indonesia tepatnya di PT Krakatau Steel dengan objek studi ESQ (Emotional and Spritual Quotiens) ala Ari Ginanjar Agustian.

Penulis secara umum mengkaji respons Muslim terhadap globalisasi dan ide yang mendasari globalisasi. Objek yang dikaji dalam buku (Krakatau Steel) adalah situasi kompleks yang dihadapi oleh stakeholders perusahaan tersebut terutama dalam menghadapi proses deregulasi pemerintah terhadap penurunan tarif impor untuk baja yang bisa melemahkan daya saing perusahaan tersebut.

Dalam proses transisi tersebut, pelatihan-pelatihan ESQ lebih menekankan inner management improvement dari perusahaan tersebut untuk meningkatkan good governance, efisiensi, dan produktifitas dalam situasi yang berubah di era globalisasi, dimana protection terhadap perusahaan-perusahaan negara semakin berkurang. Dalam perspektif tersebut, penulis berkesimpulan bahwa gerakan pembaharuan nilai-nilai Islam dalam konteks tersebut tidaklah anti dengan era globalisasi bahkan ikut mendukung ideologi yang menurut penulis disebut sebagai neoliberalism.

Hipotesis penulis bisa dimengerti karena objek kajian dari gerakan pembaharuan nilai-nilai Islam seperti yang contohkan penulis berorientasi pada inner circle (lingkaran dalam) dari sebuah situasi yang dihadapi oleh dunia Islam pada saat ini, orientasi ini cenderung mengaburkan realitas di outer circle (lingkaran luar). Contohnya adalah kajian dari gerakan ESQ lebih kepada bagaimana mengubah nilai-nilai yang dianut seseorang dalam konteks kehidupan berekonomi dalam lingkup perusahaan, seperti meningkatkan produktifitas, efisiensi, good governance, smooth management, tetapi jarang memberikan perhatian terhadap sistem dimana perusahaan-perusahaan tersebut berada. Situasi era industrialisasi, globalisasi, interconnected economy dengan berbagai konsekuensinya bukan merupakan perhatian yang serius dalam pola gerakan pembaharuan nilai-nilai Islam dalam kasus yang diambil oleh penulis.


London, 27 February 2011
YAF

Ilmu Sosial dan Hegemoni Barat: Tantangan Bagi Ilmuan Sosial Muslim

Peter Berger, salah satu mainstream thinker dalam dunia sosiologi modern, pernah mengatakan bahwa realitas dibentuk oleh teori. Implikasi teori dari pengarang buku The Social Construction of Reality ini adalah ketika ilmuan-ilmuan sosial berusaha untuk menjelaskan realitas dalam masyarakat yang mereka teliti, teori-teori sosial (social theories) yang mereka gunakan akan menjadi “bumbu” dalam hidangan realitas masyarakat yang diteliti. Dalam dunia akademik, penjelasan diatas akan sangat mudah dipahami karena dalam proses penulisan ilmiah, pemikiran penulis selalu dalam framework, atau batasan teori yang digunakan, hal ini merupakan prosedur baku dalam struktur penulisan ilmiah. Pertanyaannya sejauh mana teori tersebut mendistorsi realitas yang sebenarnya dari suatu masyarakat atau phenomena yang diteliti?

Untuk menjawab pertanyaan tersebut, banyak sekali kritik terhadap perkembangan ilmu-ilmu sosial terutama menyangkut studi-studi terhadap “dunia ketiga”. Karya Edward Said Orientalism (1978) dan Samir Amin Eurocentrism (1989), bahkan ilmuan dari Eropa sendiri seperti Maxime Rodinson bisa dijadikan sebagai referensi. Dalam diskusi ini pemikiran Edward Said, saya kira relevant dalam menjelaskan bagaimana teori-teori sosial yang dikembangkan oleh dunia barat (Eropa Barat, dan Amerika) mempunyai corak Eurocentric, artinya dipengaruhi oleh asumsi dan prejudice Barat terhadap objek yang mereka teliti, yaitu dunia Arab khususnya atau dunia ketiga pada umumnya, ketimbang bersifat objektif. Dengan kata lain, studi-studi sosial terhadap dunia ketiga cenderung tidak dilakukan secara objektif tetapi mengandung muatan asumsi inferioritas terhadap objek yang mereka teliti sehingga perumusan teori juga akan sangat dipengaruhi oleh posisi Negara penjajah dan terjajah. Dalam bahasa Said, phenomena tersebut dinamakan sebagai bentuk dari rasisme dan alat dominasi imprealis. Sehingga hasil pemikiran Said tersebut mengubah posisi dan pendekatan studi-studi sosial di Barat secara significant, tetapi bukan berarti bahwa Eurocentrism telah tereliminasi sampai titik yang tidak mungkin untuk bangkit lagi dalam studi ilmu-ilmu sosial.

Sebagai contoh gejala Eurocentrism dalam studi sosial, saya mengambil hasil studi sosial yang dilakukan oleh ilmuan yang berasal dari Belanda terhadap kondisi ekonomi masyarakat Indonesia. Pada akhir abad ke-19, timbul perhatian dari politikus di negeri Belanda untuk meneliti masalah kemiskinan yang merajalela di pedesaaan-pedesaan di daerah Jawa, Indonesia. Maka H.J. Boeke, ahli sosiologi dan antropologi ekonomi di Universitas Leiden, sebagai universitas yang paling maju dalam kajian indologie, memimpin penelitian tersebut. Hasil penelitian tersebut menekankan bahwa sebab musabab miskinnya masyarakat pedesaan di Jawa adalah kekalahan mereka dalam persaingan ekonomi akibat dari mentalitas yang rendah dalam aktivitas ekonomi, fakta-fakta sosial lainnya seperti pemerasan dan eksploitasi kaum penjajah, dan pemiskinan secara terstuktur seperti rendahnya dukungan pendidikan bagi masyarakat tidak dijadikan sebagai fokus studinya dalam merumuskan factor penyebab kemiskinan di Indonesia.

Lalu upaya apa yang harus dilakukan sebagai peneliti ilmu sosial, khususnya Negara-negara “dunia ketiga” dan dunia muslim, dalam menangkap fakta-fakta sosial dan realitas di masyarakat? Jawabannya akan ditemukan ketika para ilmuan sosial melakukan refleksi bagaimana sejarah bangsa Eropa menemukan dan memformulasikan teori. Mereka mungkin menggunakan teori-teori yang dikembangkan oleh peradaban sebelumnya, misalnya perabadan Islam, karena ketika Eropa sedang mengalami masa The Dark Middle of Ages sebelum masa Renaissance di Abad 14 dan 15 M, maka dunia Islam sedang mengalami masa kegemilangan ilmu pengetahuan, teori-teori sosial seperti yang dikembangkan oleh Ibn Khaldun contohnya, juga ikut memberikan sumbangsih terhadap perkembangan ilmu sosial Barat. Tetapi kemudian mereka melakukan modifikasi sesuai dengan posisi dan kecenderungan mereka. Prinsip la tukadzibuhuu jamii’a wala tushohihu jamii’a, atau prinsip jangan ambil semuanya dan jangan buang semuanya, ambil yang positif dan buang yang negative.

Salah satu proposal metode penelitian untuk men-spin off gejala eurocentrism dalam metode penelitian sosial adalah grounded research. Dalam bahasa Dawam Rahardjo, metode ini timbul dari gagasan “pribumisasi ilmu-ilmu sosial” (indigenization of social sciences). Ide metode ini sangat sederhana, tetapi mempunyai implikasi terhadap perkembangan teori sosial yang luas terutama bagi Negara-negara yang selama ini menjadi objek penelitian sosial. Metode ini dimulai dengan melakukan zero-mind process, mengosongkan alam intelektual peneliti dari teori-teori Barat yang telah mapan, dan langsung terjun dan menyelami alam realitas masyarakat dan phenomena yang menjadi objek penelitian, tanpa melihat terlebih dahulu teori karena dikhawatirkan akan kembali lagi kepada apa yang disampaikan Berger, teori membentuk realitas.  Kemudian melakukan konstruksi teori berdasarkan hasil pengamatan yang dilakukan secara observasi partisipatoris yang terjun langsung ke masyarakat tersebut. Diharapkan dari proses tersebut dapat menciptakan independensi para peneliti terhadap kecenderungan ber-eurocentric. Selamat Meneliti….

wallohu a'lam bishowab.

To be Continued to Part II – Grounded Research

Referensi

Koentjaraningrat, 1990, Sejarah Teori Antropology II, Jakarta: UIP

Said, Edward W. 1978, Orientalism, New York: Pantheon

Amin, Samir, 1989, Eurocentrism. Translated by Russell Moore. New York: Monthly Review

Berger, Peter, and Thomas Luckmann, 1966, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, Garden City, NY: Anchor Books

Kuntowijoyo, 2008, Paradigma Islam: Interpretasi untuk Aksi, Bandung: Mizan

Gentlemen, Learn to Dream!

Gentlemen, Learn to Dream!

Seorang bijak mengatakan beribu-ribu kali atau bahkan bermiliar-miliar kali bahwa hidup kita sekarang ini adalah mimpi kita waktu dulu. Artinya kenyataan sekarang adalah hasil dari transformasi mimpi jaman baheula. Kadang kala orang-orang meremehkan “mimpi” dengan menyebut kata-kata yang secara psikologis memenjarakan dan melemahkan potensi seorang manusia, misalnya dengan perkataan: “ah kamu mah banyak mimpi”, “jangan terlalu banyak mimpi”, atau “jangan terlalu tinggi dong cita-cita mu, yang “rasional” aja”, dan segudang contoh lainnya.

Kesan negatif “pemimpi” mungkin telah menjadi semacam kebiasaan dalam norma masyarakat. Padahal mimpi adalah kekuatan penggerak manusia dalam mencapai sesuatu. Tanpa mimpi maka tidak akan ada pesawat terbang, tanpa mimpi mungkin tidak akan ada facebook, tanpa mimpi mungkin tidak akan ada listrik. Semua berawal dari mimpi. Banyak tokoh-tokoh yang dianggap punya kontribusi besar dari sejarah manusia dari baheula sampai sekarang pun awalnya adalah seorang pemimpi, atau dengan meminjam istilah manajemen, seorang visioner. Mimpi adalah pijakan dalam kehidupan dan arah tempat kita menuju, tanpa mimpi saya “haqqul yaqin” hidup kita akan hambar tanpa makna, kalau tidak percaya silakan Anda coba!

Denise Linn, berusaha mencari kaitan antara mimpi dengan karya besar yang telah mengubah dunia. Karyanya berjudul “The Hidden Power of Dreams: The Mysterious World of Dreams Revealed”, kata orang Indonesia mah kekuatan tersembunyi dan dunia misterius mimpi terungkap. Dia meneliti kaitan mimpi dengan karya besar, salah satunya adalah Rene Descartes, yang dianggap sebagai Bapak-nya filusuf modern “ceunah” yang membuat ungkapan terkenal “cogito ergo sum”, saya berpikir maka saya ada. Filusuf penghasil banyak karya ini termasuk diantaranya Meditations of First Philosophy, mengatakan kepada temannya “Gentlemen, learn to Dream!”, atau “Tuan-tuan, mari kita belajar untuk bermimpi!”. Contoh lainnya adalah Albert Einstein, perumus teori relativitas ini ceritanya adalah ingin membuktikan bahwa mimpinya adalah benar.

Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan (kata orang Malaysia mah), Belajarlah untuk bermimpi!

Wassalam,

Yudi Ahmad Faisal

Secularization in Globalization Era

The secularization tries to displace the religion from the public sphere, but a current phenomenon shows contrary when religion gains a position in the globalization era, and interestingly it happens in a secular state. It is further argued that the ideology of secularism tends to be gradually shifted by the ideology of globalization, which is primarily based on the logic of market. The idea of modern development seems not primarily emphasized on separation between state and religion as opined by many proponent secularist scholars, but it tends to mix all values and cultures, including religious values to satisfy the need of economic ideal and development.

A secular-state progressively accommodates the religious values when it enters into an integration of the international economy in the form of globalization. This indicator can be seen in the country which states as a secular state such as France and Turkey. In the logic of globalization, there is no restriction of certain religious values as long as these values contribute to the advantage of globalization, then the state is possible to accommodate them undoubtedly. In that sense, globalization problematizes and destabilizes secularization.

Yudi Ahmad Faisal

Islamic Banking isn't Islamic

The contractum trinius was a legal trick used by European merchants in the Middle Ages to allow borrowing at usury, something that the Church fiercely opposed. It was a combination of three separate contracts, each of which was deemed permissible by the Church, but which together yielded a fixed rate of return from the outset. For example, Person A might invest £100 in Person B for one year. A would then sell back to B the right to any profit over and above say £30, for a fee of £15 to be paid by B. Finally, A would insure himself against any loss of wealth by means of a third contract agreed with B at a cost to A of £5. The result of these three simultaneously agreed contracts was an interest payment of £10 on a loan of £100 made by A to B.

I had read about the contractum trinius some months before first encountering the full documentation behind an Islamic banking murabahah contract. It was the kind of contract that Person A might use in order to finance the purchase of good X from Person B. The bank would intermediate in the transaction by asking A to promise to buy good X from the bank in the event that the bank bought good X from B. With the promise made, the bank knows that if it buys good X from B it can then sell it on to A immediately. The bank would agree that A could pay for good X three months after the bank had delivered it. In return, A would agree to pay the bank a few percent more for good X than the bank had paid to B. The net effect is a fixed rate of financial return for the bank, contractually enforceable from the moment that the bank buys good X from B. Money now for more money later, with good X in between.

The above set of legal devices is nothing other than a trick to circumvent riba, a modern day Islamic contractum trinius. The fact that the text of these contracts is so difficult to come by is one shameful fact of Islamic banking. If so clean, why so secretive? The following is an excerpt from a murabahah contract that was used frequently by two major institutions during the 1990's. The 'Beneficiary' is the client that needs finance, and earlier clauses require that the Beneficiary acts as the agent of the Bank in taking delivery of the goods.

Promise to Purchase the Goods
1 The Beneficiary undertakes to purchase the Goods from the Bank immediately after it has taken delivery thereof on behalf of the Bank on the terms specified in this Agreement.

2 The contract of sale of the goods to the Beneficiary shall be concluded by an exchange of telexes or telefax messages as soon as the Beneficiary has taken delivery of the Goods on behalf of the Bank.

3 If, for any reason whatsoever, the Beneficiary shall refuse or fail to take delivery of the Goods or any part thereof or shall refuse or fail to conclude the Sale Contract after taking delivery of the Goods, then the Bank shall have the right to take delivery, or cause delivery to be taken, of the Goods and shall have the right to sell, or to cause the sale of, the Goods (but without obligation on its part to do so) in a manner determined by it in its sole discretion and shall have the right to take whatever steps it deems necessary (including demand from the Guarantor to pay) to recover the difference between the price realised upon sale and the price paid by the Bank plus any other expenses incurred by it in relation to the Goods and/or any damage caused to the Bank as a result of the breach of undertaking by the Beneficiary to take delivery of the Goods or to conclude the contract of sale of the goods.

We see here that there is even a guarantor used to ensure that the bank does not lose money on the deal in the event that the Beneficiary defaults. So much for profit-sharing.

Yet the words 'profit-sharing' are to be heard constantly at all of the conferences. Some of the scholars, if pressed, will talk about moving towards more satisfactory products such as mudaraba. But then everyone goes home and works on another murabahah contract. We are told that Muslims must work within the existing banking system and change it from the inside. But we have been trying this for over forty years and nothing has changed. We are still fixing financial rates of return in advance using the Islamic triple contract.

One head of Islamic Trade Finance admitted to me over lunch not long ago that there is no practical difference between the murabahah business that he does now and the conventional letter of credit business that he used to do in his previous job. Just the labels are different. Then there's the Islamic banking department that uses interest-bearing financial instruments for the purpose of closing some of its deals. When deals are done the funds often go to lubricate the trading operations of large corporations such as BMW and General Motors. Meanwhile, in many countries, small and medium sized Muslim-owned businesses are offered no Islamic finance facilities at all. When they do finally encounter a financing proposal from an Islamic bank, many of these businessmen quickly become cynical because the financing cost is fixed at the outset of the financing agreement.

These are all signs that something has gone badly wrong in this industry. But I'm not saying that it is all the fault of the people on the inside. The Western academic establishment is at least partly responsible for the way that the Islamic financiers are thinking. For example, because Brealey and Myers have written a standard text on corporate finance, they are probably as big a force in Islamic finance as Judge Taqi Usmani. It is awfully hard to escape from the value judgements that the overwhelming mass of usury-based finance books contain. That's why an educated Muslim in Islamic finance can ask his client a shocking question such as 'what cost of finance are you looking for?' without thinking twice. He's been taught by Brealey and Myers that fixed-rate finance plays a part in any 'good' financing structure and so off he goes in search of a way to do fixed-rate finance Islamically. The possibility that fixed-rate finance may be completely incompatible with Islam in the first place may not even occur.

But there are two other reasons that prevent Islamic banks from giving up on the doubtful fixed rate products and adopting profit and loss sharing instead. The first is that the clients often prefer to take finance on a fixed rate basis. The second, more overwhelming problem, is the nature of the very business process underlying commercial banking itself.

To explain the first reason, let me tell you about a discussion I had with the Chairman of a major construction company in Asia. His company specialised in building toll roads. It had borrowed heavily at fixed interest in the middle of an economic boom. I told the Chairman that we could develop a toll revenue-sharing financing package. We would part-finance the toll road and share the toll receipts. No toll receipts, nothing for us to share. This would be good for his company because if no one used the road, there would be no financing cost. With the interest based alternative, whether the toll road was full or empty, there would still be a financing cost.

But the Chairman felt that 7% interest was a good deal and so our suggestion was not adopted. Probably this was because he knew that the toll road was going to provide profits of 30%, and there's no point paying out 30% in profit share when you can pay out 7% in interest instead, is there?

Well, the economy turned down, fewer motorists than predicted used the toll roads, but the interest still had to be paid. And so the company had to be rescued. The Financial Times commented a few days later that the rescue was required because 'interest costs exceeded toll revenues'. I kept that article because it summarised with a real life example everything that true profit-sharing would have avoided. The moral of the story is that the chairman wants to fix his financing cost because he believes his business is going to be profitable and he wants to keep most of the profit to himself. He's practicing financial leverage like all those un-Islamic textbooks tell him to.

The unfortunate fact is that even if the Chairman had given the go ahead for profit-sharing, no Islamic bank would have offered it to him. This brings me on to the second of the two reasons for the general failure of Islamic banking to provide profit-sharing finance.

When the first banks began lending paper money, they knew that they were taking a huge risk. They had spent many years promoting their paper money. Some of the phrases they used to persuade the public are still with us today ... 'as good as money in the bank' ... 'prudent' banking. Bankers were respectable chaps who only wanted to conduct honest business and make a reasonable profit in the process. Your paper, they promised, could be converted into gold simply by presenting it at the bank.

So the public came to believe this promise and put their trust in the bankers' paper money. And then the bankers did their little trick and began to print more paper than there was gold in the bank to redeem it with. They could then lend this paper money at interest and make a fat profit.

The banker's promise to redeem this extra paper money with the state's gold coinage was an empty promise, but one that he took because it gave him the power to manufacture money. The crucial idea that Muslims everywhere must understand is that, because this process was in itself risky, the bankers did not want to take any further risks. So they therefore avoided investing money on a profit sharing basis. Why take the additional risk that the borrower's business would fail? Better instead to create money, lend it at interest and take a mortgage on the borrower's assets as security. Then a profit would be much more likely for the banker. This has always been the business process underlying commercial banking.

Today of course the banks practice their 'business' in a different way. Remember, the bank still manufactures your cheque book and cheque card, and sends you an account statement with numbers printed on it at the end of the month. The bank tells you that these numbers can be converted into state money, but if everyone held the banks to their promise on the same day, the banks would all collapse just like the banks of old.

I propose that if banks couldn't manufacture money, they could not survive commercially. They could not survive if all they did was to rent out the entire stock of money created by the state. The banks must create extra money on which to collect interest in order to have a viable business. And they must fix their financial rate of return in advance because profit sharing is one risk too many when you're in the business of money creation. Today, at least 91% of UK money supply is manufactured by the banking system. State money supply is £30 billion, bank money supply is at least £300 billion. Even if the banking system charged a clear 20% interest on the whole £30 billion, it still could not generate sufficient revenue to survive. Hence it has manufactured an extra £300 billion on which it can charge interest.

An Islamic bank is no different. It must partake in the money creation business. And it must therefore fix 

its financial rate of return at the outset in most of its business. That's why Islamic banking cannot succeed in being Islamic. At least, not in the way that we understand the terms 'banking' and 'Islamic' today.

It gets worse. Because the banks create money by agreeing new loans, society must be in constant debt to the banks by an amount approximately equivalent to the total of a nation's money supply. But when the banks create money, they do not create the money needed to repay the loan plus the interest charge. The loans that the banks make are therefore unrepayable. The unrepayable debt in turn forces society to compete instead of co-operate since the borrowers in aggregate experience a constant shortage of money. Only one thing can save current borrowers, and that is the creation of more money, either by the state or by the banks. This provides sufficient new money with which current borrowers can repay old debts. When the banks and the state don't create enough new money, we have a recession. If they create too much, then we have inflation. And always we have more debt.

Wherever you live in the 'developed' world, look at your country's monetary statistics. You will see a steady expansion of total debt (private plus public) accompanied by expansion of money supply to a similar degree. More telling is the fact that total debt is in almost all cases showing substantial growth as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product. So despite decades of hard work, using ever more productive technology, the people are more in debt than they have ever been. Net, they own less of the wealth in their possession than they have ever done. Does this make any sense to you? Only when we understand that modern money is manufactured mostly by the banks for the sake of profit, can we understand the modern economy. Then it will all make sense.

Islamic finance is not a product to be offered to a niche market. It is a system. It must be promoted and implemented as a system. Where the monetary system is concerned, I am beginning to feel that this is something that cannot be achieved by the private sector alone, Islamic or otherwise. A lead is required from the State since we must redefine the meaning of the words 'legal tender'. We must somehow overturn the monetary system as it is. And that will require us to defeat the monster that faces us.

Some of our scholars have yet to recognise the monster for what it is. They think of the banking system as a necessary part of economic activity. They do not connect the deaths of millions of children in Africa every year with the burden of debt repayments to the banks (the United Nations Development Programme's annual Human Development Reports 1997 - 1999 do show this connection). We need a payment transmission system, a safekeeping service, and investment advisory services. To all these things, yes. To money creation for the sake of profit, no.

Which politician will be brave enough to challenge the wealthy bankers and their friends in the leveraged corporate boardroom? The prize awaiting a successful challenge will be huge. Such a nation will be a light for the world to follow. Imagine no more debt. Imagine all those bankers being released from their unproductive industry (the largest by value on the London Stock exchange) to do something useful instead. Imagine a world free of dominance by a few huge firms, huge and dominant because they have been leveraged with the bankers created money. Imagine what we once had before all of this. A world of small businesses, a world of variety, of individual responsibilities and co-operating communities.

Failure to defeat the monster means a never ending necessity for growth. A world awash in the dust of riba, ruled by the 'Money Power', paying perpetual interest on an unrepayable debt.

Oh, I know they'll say I'm being extreme, it's just that these other fellows have all been saying it too ...

"The Bank hath benefit of interest on all moneys which it creates out of nothing".

Statement of William Paterson, first Director of the Bank of England, upon receiving the Charter of the Bank in 1694: quoted in Tragedy and Hope, Carroll Quigley, MacMillan New York (1966)

The unlimited emission of bank paper has banished all specie .... private fortunes, in the present state of our circulation, are at the mercy of those self-created money lenders, and are prostrated by the floods of nominal money with which their avarice deluges us.
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Wayles Eppes on June 1813, Jefferson, Writings (1984) New York: Literary Classics of the United States

And I sincerely believe with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Taylor 28 May 1816, Writings (1984) New York: Literary Classics of the United States

The distress and alarm which pervaded and agitated the whole country when the Bank of the United States waged war upon the people in order to compel them to submit to its demands cannot yet be forgotten. The ruthless and unsparing temper with which whole cities and communities were oppressed, individuals impoverished and ruined, and a scene of cheerful prosperity suddenly changed into one of gloom and despondency ought to be indelibly impressed on the memory of the people of the United States. If such was its power in time of peace, what would it have been in a season of war, with an enemy at your doors? No nation but the free men of the United States could have come out victorious from such a contest; yet, if you had not conquered, the government would have passed from the hands of the many to the few, and this organised money power, from its secret conclave, would have dictated the choice of your highest officials and compelled you to make peace or war, as best suited their own wishes.
President Andrew Jackson, Address to the American people, 4 March 1837, recorded in Richardson's Messages, volume 4, p. 1532

The government should create, issue and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the government and the buying power of the consumers. The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of government, but it is the government's greatest creative opportunity. By the adoption of these principles, the long-felt want for a uniform medium will be satisfied. The taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest, discounts and exchanges ... money will cease to be the master and become the servant of humanity. Democracy will rise superior to the money power.
President Abraham Lincoln, Senate Document 23 1865

I am afraid that the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that the banks or the Bank of England can create and destroy money.
Post-war Banking Policy, p. 93 (1928) William Heinemann, by Reginald McKenna, Chancellor of the Exchequer of Great Britain, later Chairman of Midland Bank

In the abstract it is absurd and monstrous for society to pay the commercial banking system interest for multiplying severalfold the quantity of the medium of exchange when a) a public agency could do it all at negligible cost, b) there is no sense in having it done at all, since the effect is merely to raise the price level, and c) important evils result, notably the frightful instability of the whole economic system.
Saturday Review of Literature, p. 732 (1927), Frank Knight

By allowing private mints to spring up, Parliament has fundamentally and perhaps irretrievably betrayed democracy. Before the War it was customary even in the works of apparently respectable economists to find absolutely dishonest hair-splitting distinctions between the invisible money so created and paper notes. The latter were really money and the former was not! In fact the reader can always tell in such standard works on the subject when he is approaching the fishy part of the business. The essential fact, the creation of new money, becomes obscured in a cloud of anticipatory justification and special pleading.
The Role of Money (1933), Frederick Soddy, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry

Despite the accusations of neo-imperialism leveled at the IMF and the World Bank, in the same way that a country's domestic banking system is carried out with apparently scrupulous honesty, the financial conduct of the IMF and World Bank appears above reproach. If a nation borrows, it must repay. Naturally! What other conclusion can there be? The true injustice of the IMF and World Bank only become apparent when the fraudulent nature of these 'loans' is understood, and how they relate to the debt-based banking system ... It is an injustice amounting to international slavery and extortion; it is an aggressive injustice, involving the subjugation of whole nations and their sovereign peoples, operated on a scale that exceeds the total of all the more obvious efforts at dominance by individual nations indulging in warfare over the centuries.
The Grip of Death (1998), Michael Rowbotham

by Tarek El Diwany
Original Summer 2000; updated June 2003

An abridged version of this article was published in Banker Middle East during November 2002