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Terrorism: A Brief History
Walter Laqueur Walter Laqueur, PhD, now retired from his many academic postings, is most recently associated with the International Research Council at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C., as its former director and, currently, a distinguished scholar. What is terrorism? There are more than a hundred definitions. The Department of State has one, Title 22 of the U.S. Code Section 2656: “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.” The Department of Defense has another, and also the Federal Bureau of Investigation, while the present writer has contributed two or three definitions…
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Islam dan Demokrasi
Ketika membaca buku karya Saiful Mujani, Muslim Demokrat, sesaat setelah diluncurkan, saya langsung ingat apa yang diucapkan Kyai saya di Pesantran Darussalam Ciamis sekitar 8 tahun silam. Bapak Irfan Hilmy, Kyai saya itu, tak bosan-bosan menasihati santrinya agar menjadi muslim demokrat, mukmin moderat, muhsin diplomat. Tiga semboyan pesantren kami itu benar-benar dinternalisasikan dalam kehidupan para santri. Kunci memiliki tiga sifat itu, kata Pak Kyai, adalah berpikir luas dan terbuka. Maka tak aneh jika Pak Kyai sering mengapresiasi dan mengkritisi pemikiran Barat di samping pemikiran Islam. Bayangan pesantren yang mengajarkan santrinya menjadi seorang demokrat dan mengadopsi cara pandang moderat bagi banyak orang Barat adalah hal aneh. Dalam bayangan…
