REPORT OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS OF IIUM

1. INTRODUCTION

1.0 Historical Background

As mentioned by Stephen Dahl, in his book, Communication and Culture Transformation, the word 'culture' stems from the Latin "colere", translatable as to build on, to cultivate, to foster and have reflected on the meaning of the word in different versions of its use. In the early stages of the philosophical debate about what is 'culture', the term often refers to the opposite of 'nature', whereas 'culture' was referring to something constructed willingly by men, while 'nature' was given in itself.

However, the definition of culture is still striking. In the words of Stuart Hall, of the Birmingham School, 'culture' is "both the means and values which arise among distinctive social groups and classes, on the basis of their given historical conditions and relationship, through which they 'handle' and respond to the conditions of existence". The individual and the culture in which are lives is a complex set of relationships. On the one side, the individual determines its culture, on the other; it is determined by its culture. By contributing to the culture around him, the individual is part of the cultural change.

Intercultural communication is the process of exchanging meaningful and unambiguous information across cultural boundaries, in a way that preserves mutual respect and minimizes aggression. For these purposes, culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms of behavior. It refers to coherent groups of people whether resident wholly or partly within state territories, or existing without residence in any particular territory. People from different cultures encode and decode messages differently, increasing the chances of misunderstanding, so the safety-first consequence of recognizing cultural differences should be to assume that everyone’s thoughts and actions are not just like ours (Hart, W. B. 1997).

In addition, misunderstanding and miscommunication occur between people from different cultures because of different coding rules and cultural norms, which play a major role in shaping patterns of interaction. When someone cannot adopt the other people’s cultures, he or she may suffer culture shock. Culture shock is a feeling of stress and anxiety a person experiences when encountering a culture different from his/her own.

Intercultural communication may occur because of several reasons. First, ethnocentrism which means a belief that your cultural traditions and assumptions are superior to those of others. For example, the Jews consider themselves more superior than others. Next is stereotype and prejudice to other people. Stereotype is to put or place a person or a group of persons into inflexible, all encompassing category. While, prejudice refers to a judgment or opinion of someone formed before you know all the facts or background of that person. To illustrate, most of male employers regard women as cannot be a professional engineer. Lastly, assuming similarity toward other people as they are sharing the same values or attitudes with us also being a barrier to have an effective communication between people whose different cultures.

Communication is primary way that cultures are expressed and sustained. Therefore, this study is conducted to analyze the intercultural communication between local and international students of International Islamic University of Malaysia.

1.1 Problem Statement
This study aims to investigate the intercultural communication among local and international students in International Islamic University of Malaysia in semester 2 (2007/2008). We want to know major causes that lead to intercultural communication between both categories of student and how they settle their problem. Lastly, we like to examine the closeness and togetherness of the relationship between local and international students of IIUM.

1 .2 Objectives of the Study

The study is design to achieve the following specific objectives.
1. To study the type of miscommunication among international and local students in IIUM.
2. To study the level of miscommunication among international and local students in IIUM.
3. To identify the types of activity joined by international and national students.
4. To discover the method of problem solving or conflict management among international and local students in IIUM.
.
1.3 Significance of the Study

It is a well known fact that the IIUM is the university that composed of students from various countries and cultural background. Notwithstanding of that, some students tend to be in conflict with those who adopt other cultures to their own. Conflicts of intercultural communication often caused of misunderstanding about other cultures. Therefore this study is conducted in order to seek what are the main causes contribute to the conflicts and to find out the best solution for such conflict. In this vein, the study is intended to generate knowledge about the level of, and likely factors that impede interaction between international and local students at IIUM.
The University Authorities, armed with this knowledge, could design and implement institutional programs and activities to establish and reinforce the bond of intercultural communication most particularly between local and international students of IIUM. In addition, this study is very significant in order to improve effective communication between both local and international students of IIUM.

1.4 Limitation of the Study

The study will be limited in its scope, i.e., only students on the main IIUM Gombak campus will be considered. However, we face external challenges particularly during the time of our surveys. First challenge is the respondents do not answer the questions given to them. They choose the questions they want to answer and the rest of the questions remain unanswered. This situation makes us difficult to arrive at the high level of reliability of our study. Furthermore, the study also limited due to the credibility of the answer given by the respondents. This suggests that the respondents do not really answer the questions sincerely. Finally, another challenge that we face during the study is lack of flexibility. It means, we do not available during the respondents answer the questionnaires. Some of the questionnaires were given to the selected respondents and they were given option either answer the questionnaires immediately or take it to hostel. Those who bring the questionnaire back to hostel answer it during their free time in their hostel. Then, we collected the questionnaires and some of them do not answer some given questions due to confusion and they cannot ask for clearance from us.

1.5 Research Question

Instruction: please tick or fill in the blank where appropriate.

Part One: Demographic Back ground

1. Male: ( ) female: ( )
2. Malaysian: ( ) International: ( )
3. Year of Study: ( )
4. Kuliyyah:
5. Native language:

Part Two: Intercultural Communication between IIUM Students

6. Do you have friend from other countries?
Yes ( ) No ( ) If your answer NO, move to question 14.

7. Have you ever face any miscommunication with them?
Yes ( ) No ( )

8. What type of miscommunication? (You may tick more than one option)
Verbal ( ) Non-Verbal ( ) Cultural Misinterpretation ( )
Others:

9. Have you ever misinterpreted of you friends’ non-verbal communication?
Yes ( ) No ( )

10. What type of non-verbal miscommunication?
Smiling ( ) Greeting ( )
Shaking Hand ( ) Staring ( )
Others:

11. Are the matters of miscommunication related to your own culture?
Yes ( ) No ( )

12. What is your perception of the level of communication with friend from other
countries?
Very Satisfactory ( )
Neither Satisfactory nor Dissatisfactory ( )
Very Dissatisfactory ( )

13. Do you get together to share any recreational activities like in-door games etc. with
International students?
Yes ( ) No ( )

14. If you face miscommunication problems between you and your international friend,
How would you settle it?
………………………………………………………………………………………..

15. How effective is your solution to solving with problem?
………………………………………………………………………………………..


2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Coming to a new place before manage to have a brief knowledge about that particular place is totally a mistake. As an area of inquiry, intercultural communication has been studied extensively in fields such as cultural anthropology, sociolinguistics, sociology of language, and communication science (Gudykunst, 1986; Harman & Briggs, 1991; Kim, 1986).
Regarding to this situation, a few research had been accomplished in order to know the complexities and problems that the people faced when they interact in new place. Intercultural communication scholars have examined diverse variables that influence communication effectiveness.

According to Zaharah S.A Keeney, it is predictable that individuals have some sort of expectations of how others should or should not behave in any situation. Such expectations are rely on the social norms of each particular culture. Even individuals from the same culture may assign different meanings to behaviors.
The different culture has different language. Thus, this will create as a problem in communication. There was a study which addressed the problems that faced by people of different country when they interact. Most student both foreign and Malaysian, noted that they find troubled to approach or cooperate with people who are speaking a language that they do not understand (Zaharah S.A Keeney). Additionally, this part also will state that, the different language will create the misunderstanding of the certain words. This might be because of different in slang, and dialects.

Nonverbal communication is very important to understanding and communicates with another people. Nonverbal cues are often understated, and many individuals do not realize how much of their perceptions of others are based on these cues. Even something as simple as “smile” can denote many different meaning, it depending on the person’s cultural background and other factor (Zaharah S.A Keeney).

It has been mentioned in another studied that, there are a number of behavioral concepts has been identified that can be used to distinguish between cultures.
These include the differences in the usage of kinesics (body movements), proxemics (space organization), oculesics (eye movement), haptics (touching behavior) as well as paralinguistic concepts, such as accents, intonation, and speed of talking. Not surprisingly each of these concepts plays an important role in intercultural communication.
(Tajfel, H., 1978)

The nonverbal cues are ambiguous and this will lead to the misinterpretations, conflicts and misunderstanding of the meanings or behaviors of individuals. For example, Hofstede, G. (1980) believed, eye contact is an important part of the communication process in Western cultures. It is often seen as a confirmatory action of what is said. However, maintaining eye contact is not usually suitable in certain Asian cultures. Thus it creates hardship in intercultural communication.

Lastly, communication between strangers is characterized by a limited amount of information about each other, by ignorance of the means to reach a goal, and by ignorance of the probable outcomes. To deal with the ambiguity that describes these new situations, we need information to managing uncertainty and we need to reduce tension to managing anxiety (T.Wood, Julia, 1999).

This because of, whenever people experienced the complexities in communication, it makes their lives difficult and hard. So they have to solve those problems in order to adapt to the new culture. This is important in order to improve the living quality of the individual. For example, in the previous research, it had stated that the respondents adapt to the new culture through making friends with people from other culture, or gaining more information about a particular culture (Gudykunst and Kim, 2003).

The fact of stumbling block that builds a gap among them can be crash through a few approaches. These will help them to adapt towards the new environment as well as new the culture. Thus in our research, we will find the causes of cultural disintegration between local and foreign students and a way to solve those problems.

3. RESERCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Locality of study

The citizen of International of Islamic University Malaysia, Gombak
Campus.

3.2 Participant

The participants in this research, we had selected them from different countries, courses and level. In order to avoid gender bias we fairly select 15 females and 15 males. Since we are required to select the respondents from different nationalities and cultural setting, fortunately some of our respondents coming from suburban area and capital area. This condition brought us different views answered from the same question.

3.3 Research type

In doing the research, we had chosen the respondents randomly. Furthermore, the research type was using a set survey questions that contain fifteen questions.

3.4 Procedures and data analysis

Before we proceed with the research, we had constructed questionnaires based on the objectives that we intend to achieve. The questionnaires were formed after the consultation with the instructor.Then, the researcher gave a set a questionnaire regarding the subject matter to the respondents and the respondents were given a brief explanation about the purpose of the study. Besides, the participant given the option to take it home but with the guarantee of return it back or answer it immediately. Since they are randomly selected, in avoiding bias, we have divide upon 15 questionnaires will be answer by the local students and the other answer by the international students. Later, all the results will be gathered and analyzed by using SPSS.

4.0 RESEARCH FINDINGS

Since the topic the objective of the study is intercultural communication between local and international students of International Islamic University Malaysia, the result will be analyzed in tailoring the line of answering the objectives of this study.


The result of the findings shows that local students have the 13% higher compared to international students. As host national, who brought up within a custom and norms that are strongly behold, the local students faced more miscommunication. As mentioned by Zaharah S.A Keeney, most student both foreign and Malaysian noted that they find troubled to approach or cooperate with people who are speaking a language that they do not understand. Therefore, from this statement, we can conclude that from the result of our research, language may become the barrier of communication. In a while, the type of miscommunication occurs will be explaining on the later paragraph.

The second figure of the graph explained the type of miscommunication actually occurs by both nationalities of IIUM students. However there are differences of type of miscommunication by them. As we can observed from the graph, Cultural Misinterpretation becomes the barriers for the international students where the score is 60%. On the other side, Verbal communication is the biggest problem for the local students, where it scores is 64%. According to Zaharah S.A Keeney, diverse variables influence communication effectiveness. Therefore, from this statement, we can generalize that this two factors are the main subject upon the problem that occurs among the IIUM students.

Figure 3 shows the level of communication by nationality. However, the question lacking of justifying why would they feel that so. Therefore, they should be a continuation of this matter. Since there are large differences of both nationalities, we have made decision in what reason they feel so. We have put upon priority for the international students due to the reason of they are living abroad, but they very satisfied with their level of communication. This situation occurs on the basis of their effort of solving the matter.

In measuring the togetherness among them, there are slight differences upon yes and no answer from the question of get together sharing indoor activities. The score for yes is 53.3% while for no is 46.7%.

Form the score of 53.7% for yes; we decide it to see the level of involvement by nationality. The international involvements (56%) are higher than local students (44%). This shows among the excellent participants that achieve success at the university level, we get to see there are usually international students. This situation may reflect the Figure 1, where about 60% of local participants are facing miscommunication problems. Therefore, they refuse to involve with indoor activities for afraid of the barrier may become larger.


As for examine the effectiveness of their way of solution the score for very effective is higher which is 56.7% compared to depends to the other party or with whom they faced the problems (16.7%) and neutral, which is neither dissatisfactory nor satisfactory (26.7%).

In measuring the level of effectiveness, however as what can be seen from Figure 5, the score from the international students are higher compared to local students upon very effective. This may due to the reason that, the international students have put so much effort in adapting new culture and flexibility upon understanding others. Therefore, when the problem matters found it solutions, they felt very satisfied with their own solution. This may become the factor upon the result.

5.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

From the research conducted, we can see that each student is facing miscommunication. We are more than our culture. Even though we lived within it, but our attitude and behavior may differs upon what are stated by the norms and custom. When living abroad, we have the urge to cope with the new environment and that particular new culture in assurance our survival. Thus, one’s understanding of another culture will strengthen interpersonal relationship among the local and international students of International Islamic University Malaysia.

6.0 CONCLUSION

International Islamic University of Malaysia has promoted international and integration circumstances within the campus, yet it still tough to achieve as some students cannot tolerate to other cultures and get into miscommunication among local and international students. This study then conducted in order to find out what are the types of miscommunication and to identify the way they solve their problem of miscommunication. Besides, we want to identify the relationship between both students from local and international by looking their involvement in shared activities like indoor games. These objectives of the study then led us to suggest some recommendations to the respected authority of IIUM.

First and foremost, we think that the University should make compulsory for every student clubs and society within IIUM to reserve a position for international students. For instance, vice president 3 in each clubs should be given to international student whereby their job scope focuses on international students by persuading them to join every activities organized by the clubs. Dramatically, it will establish good intercultural communication and cooperation between local and international students.

Furthermore, the University should encourage every clubs to organize more programmes that participated by both local and international students. Thanks to the IIUM because permitted the Students Representatives Council (SRC) to organize Ummatic Week. This program should be actively supported by everybody especially the authority as it gathers all students from various countries attached with different cultural background. It is where students will have knowledge about other cultures and it will enhance good understanding between both local and international students. As a result, there will be no more intercultural miscommunication be present.

Finally, we hope this study will give benefit to everybody in order to achieve cultural integration, the condition free from intercultural miscommunication.


REFERENCES

Agar, Michael, ‘The Intercultural Frame’, In: ‘International Journal of Intercultural Relation’, 1994

Banks, Stephen P., ‘Intercultural Encounters and Miscommunication’, London: Sage 1991

Beebe, S.A., Beebe, S.J., M.V. (2005). Interpersonal Communication: Relating to others (4th ed). Ally and Bacon: Boston.

Hofstede, G., ‘Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related’. Beverly Hills, Sage Publications, 1980

Jandt, F. E. ‘Intercultural Communication: An Introduction’. London: Sage, 1998.
Lustig, M W. & Koester, J., ‘Intercultural Competence: Interpersonal Communication across Cultures’. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2003

Smith, P. B. and M. H. Bond, ‘Social Psychology across Cultures’, London: Prentice Hall Europe, 1998

Steven A. Beebe, Susan J. Beebe, Mark V. Redmond, ‘Interpersonal Communication’, U.S.A: Pearson, 2001

Zaharah S.A Keeney, Case Study on: ‘Intercultural Communication among Students at International Islamic University Malaysia Including Some Problems and Suggestions’, 1994

Cinta Kerana Allah

Ya Allah…

Jika aku jatuh cinta,cintakanlah aku pada seseorang yang melabuhkan cintanya padaMu, agar bertambah kekuatan untuk menyintaiMu...

Ya Muhaimin...
Jika aku jatuh hati izinkanlah aku menyentuh hati seseorang yang hatinya tertaut padaMu, agar tidak jatuh aku dalam lembah cinta nafsu…

Ya Rabbanna..
Jika aku jatuh hati jagalah hati ku padaNya agar tidak berpaling dari hatiMu..

Ya Rabbulizzati..

Jika aku rindu, rindukanlah aku pada seseorang yang merindui syahid dijalanMu..
Ya Allah…

Jika aku menikmati cinta kekasih Mu, janganlah kenikmatan itu melebihi kenikmatan indahnya bermunajat di sepertiga malam terakhirMu…

Ya Allah...
Jika aku jatuh hati pada kekasihMu, jangan biar aku tertatih dan terjatuh dalam perjalanan panjang menyeru manusia kepadaMu…
Ya Allah…

Jika Kau halalkan aku merindui kekasihMu, jangan biarkan aku melampaui batas sehingga melupakan aku pada cinta hakiki dan rindu abadi hanya kepadaMu…

Rabbana Hablana min azwajina wazurriyatina qurrata'yun waja'lna lil muttqina imama..Aminnnn.

Doa Pengikat Hati

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,

Ya ALLAH Engkau mengetahui bahawa hati-hati ini telah berkumpul kerana mengasihiMU, bertemu dan patuh perintahMU, bersatu memikul beban dakwahMU.
Hati-hati ini telah mengikat janji setia untuk mendaulat dan menyokong syariatMU, maka eratkanlah Ya ALLAH akan ikatannya. Kekalkan kemesraan antara hati-hati ini. Tunjuklah kepada hati-hati ini jalanNYA ( yang sebenar). Penuhkan (piala) hati ini dengan cahaya RabbaniMU yang tidak malap. Lapangkan hati-hati ini dengan limpahan iman/keyakinan. Dan keindahan tawakkal kepada-MU. Hidup suburkan hati-hati ini dengan ma’rifat (pengetahuan sebenar) tentangMU.Jika Engkau mentakdirkan mati, maka matikanlah pemilik hati-hati ini sebagai para syuhada’ dalam perjuangan agamaMU. Engkaulah sebaik-baik sandaran dan sebaik-baik penolong. Ya ALLAH perkenankanlah permintaan ini. Ya ALLAH restuilah dan sejahterahkanlah junjungan kami Muhammad, keluarga dan para sahabat Baginda semuanya.
Amin.

Ditujukan istimewa buat sahabat2 seperjuangan dalam PKPIM dan umat Islam amnya.

5 TARIKAN WANITA MENURUT LELAKI BERIMAN

Di Petik dari Majalah Mingguan Wanita,

1. Budi Bahasa Dari Jiwa

Kekuatan wanita ada pada bahasa tubuhnya iaitu tingkah laku, perbuatan zahir atau akhlak yang mulia. Setiap perkataan yang dilafazkan menjadi penilaian. Adakah dia seorang yang sabar, jujur, berpendidikan atau sekurang-kurangnya tahu hal dunia hari ini? Atau adakah dia seorang yang suka berleter, kasar, kurang ilmu dan sebagainya? Semua yang terpacul dari lidah bermuara di hati nurani masing-masing. Wajah ayu yang sedap mata memandang janganlah bertukar pahit apabila terdengar bahasa yang menyakitkan telinga.

2. Mekap yang Memikat

Jangan salah tafsir tentang mekap! Yang dimaksudkan disini adalah air wuduk untuk pembersih dan penyegar wajah. Untuk pembayang mata dan melentikannya, gunakanlah jenama ‘malu’ agar mata mampu menangkis setiap panahan syahwat. Manakala pemerah bibir yang sesuai adalah kata-kata penuh hikmah yang memikat setiap orang yang mendengar dengan penuh keinsafan. Dijamin lelaki ynag beriman akan meminati wanita sebegini.

3. Busana Taqwa

Para wanita di syurga dihiasi dengan pakaian daripada sutera hijau yang bertahkta permata-permata berkilau. Kerana itulah keindahan wanita diabadikan di dalam Al-Qur’an dengan pakaian dan perhiasannya. Tetapi kegilaan pada fesyen yang mendedahkan aurat wanita pada saat ini amat membimbangkan. Wanita semakin berani mempamerkan segalanya yang boleh menjadi daya tarikan lelaki. Adakah mereka terfikir bahawa lelaki sebenarnya amat kuat cemburu? Mereka yang benar-benar bersungguh ingin menjadikan anda isteri tidak akan berminat dengan jenis wanita yang berpakaian sebegini. Kerana ia menunjukkan kerendahan akhlak dan kemurahan peribadi. Bayangkan barang yang tertutup kemas dan terlindung pasti lebih tinggi nilainya daripada barang yang telah dibuka, dipegang dan dilihat sesuka hati oleh sesiapa jua. Sebenarnya pakaian adalah gambar keperibadiaan yang sesungguhnya dan tersirat tabiat si pemakainya.


4. Suka Dikritik dan Bersikap Terbuka

Menjadi pasangan yang ideal bukannya mudah. Perlukan kesabaran untuk kekal disisinya. Bertanya secara terbuka kepada pasangan anda apa yang dia suka dan apa yang tidak disukainya. Bukan beerti ikut secara total segal kemahuan lelaki. Berikan pertimbangan sewajarnya, buka perbincangan untuk kebaikan bersama. Jangan ego dan cepat berkecil hati. Jadilah sahabat dan kekasih yang memberi kebebasan bagi pasangan anda untuk menyatakan pendapatnya. Di dalam hubungan kasih-sayang, saling mengekspresikan diri sungguh-sungguh menyeronokkan dan tak akan bosan melayan kerenah masing-masing. Sungguh bertuahlah sesiapa yang mendapat pasangan seperti ciri-ciri di atas. Bagi anda yang mahu berubah, tidak ada kata terlambat untuk membaiki diri. Kerana biar bagaimanapun, llelaki tetap memerlukan wanita sebagai penyempurna kebahagiaannya. Tetapi wanita mesti lebih peka terhadap kekurangan-kekurangannya agar ia tetap menjadi pilihan satu-satunya di hati seorang lelaki bernama suami.
Rasulullah SAW bersabda: “wanita itu dikahwini kerana empat perkara, kerana hartanya, kecantikannya, nasab keturunannya dan agamanya. Pilihlah wanita kerana agamanya nescaya engkau akan bahagia.”

5. Superwoman

Superwoman digambarkan dengan ciri-ciri seorang yang hebat, berjiwa pahlawan, suka menolong orang dan bukan sebaliknyasuka menyusahkan orang. Begitulah gambaran wanita yang mandiri, tidak bergantung pada belas kasihan sesiapa, mampu menghadapi kesusahan dan cabaran hidup dengan tabah. Bahkan dialah penolong bagi sesiapa yang memerlukan pertolongan. Sebagai kekasih tentunya dia dapat berdiri di sisi pasangannya dengan keberanian menghadapi segala ujian kehidupan. Tidak lemah dan manja, bukan seorang yang pemalas dan cepat putus asa. Begitulah daya tarikan yang lebih tinggi nilainya dari sekadar kecantikan rupa paras muka yang semakin lama semakin pudar di makan usia. Tetapi kekuatan peribadi tidak akan sirna ditelan zaman.

Iron Man & Orientalism

Iron man is a new film produced by Avi Arad as well as Kevin Feigi and had been released widely on May 02, 2008. The iron man is the story of Tony Stark (rolled by Robert Downey Jr.), a handsome and smart guy but a playboy. He is the son of millionaire who runs a big weapon industry in America. One day, he goes to business trip to sell weapons at Afghanistan. Unfortunately, he has been attacked by Afghanistan’s people portrayed as terrorists who are also Muslims. Those Afghanistan’s people want him to build missiles. Because of a tension situation, Tony Stark agrees upon their demand. In the process of creating missiles, he plans to escape. Therefore, he creates a powerful suit of armor made by iron. That is indeed how the iron man gets its name. He succeeds to escape safely with the help of American military. In America, he works very hard to create another more powerful iron suit of armor. He plans to go back to the Afghanistan to abolish the terrorist camp that caught him previously. At the end of the story, Tony was success in his mission and being an American national hero then.


After a brief summary about the film above, I have found that this film has a sense of orientalism. Orientalism simply means the study of Near and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages and peoples by Western scholars. The concept of orientalism derives from the Latin word, oriens (rising). The study of Islam is central to the field since the majority of people living in the geographical area termed ‘the orient’ are Muslims.


The orientalism is very dangerous to the Muslim’s world. From the eyes of the orientalists such as Bernard Lewis, Edward E.Said and many more, Muslims are associated with negative views like emotional being, terrorist, backward so on and so forth. These negative connotations of Muslims manifested clearly in books, journals and even films. The iron man is one of it.
In regard to this film, Muslim Afghanistans are viewed as being a group of terrorists, love violence and killing while the west particularly America seen as superhero, who love the motherland very much. This prejudice thought happen as the western do not understand the Muslim’s way of life and cultures. The western see themselves as superior over the other races and nations. They feel they have a big responsibility to bring these people to the development then. This responsibility then advocated as “the White Man’s Burden”.


In addition to it, the Western advocated “Islam phobia”-the popular phenomena takes place after the event of 9/11 peculiarly in Europe. This term spread widely through media and eventually creates religious conflict between Muslims and Non-Muslims. Non-Muslims are feared by the danger of Islam and Muslims. Islam is portrayed as being the bloody border, the religion of violence and terrorist. This problem simply exists because the Western are lack in understanding Muslims’ culture and therefore, producing intercultural communication problems.


In conclusion, in order to avoid communication problems among different nations and cultures, all parties must involve in cultural dialogue, discussion and diplomatic negotiation to seek central understanding and harmony condition among all parties. By respecting other’s cultures and values upbringing, the world will free from feeling hatred and enmity that could direct to chaotic scenario which then lead to world order instability. Finally, intercultural communication is very significant in everyone’s life.

The Colonial Legacy on Islam in South East Asia from Contemporary Perspective

Islam is a way of life regardless in the west, the east, the north and the south of the world. In this writing, I will discuss specifically on Islam in South East Asia after being colonized by the foreign non-Muslim powers like the Dutch, the Spanish and the British. My discussion will focus on aspect of secularism which I believed have deep impact to Islam in South East Asia culturally, socially, politically, economically so on and so forth.

Introduction of secularism by the colonial powers to the countries in South East Asia had directly impact Islam as a way of life. From my understanding, secularism is the separation of religion in any aspect of worldly life. Syed Naquib Al-Attas has discussed about secularism in his famous book entitled ‘Islam and Secularism’. Among the elements in secularism stated in the book is the desacralization of politics. It means that religion and government must be separated. Based on my reading, secularism has no history in Islam. It was indeed evolved gradually in the Christian history especially in Europe back to 15th centuries ago. Secularization then had been broadening up to the Muslims world in the South East Asia from the moment the Western colonizers come in. To illustrate, the Pangkor treaty signed on 29th January 1874 in Malaya has limited the sultan’s power to the religious affairs and local custom solely. All the administrative matters must be consulted with the appointed British Resident. From that moment, religion has no place in politics.

The purpose behind the secularism in political matters is to bureaucratize the government officers to ensure the effectiveness and smoothness of administrative affairs. By implication, qadhi or any religious affairs started to be institutionalized like zakat and this scenario still applicable up to this day. In Malaysia for example, the sultan from each state is the head of religion (Islam) in their own territory. In addition, Malaysia also has Department of Religious Affairs in federal government. The problem now is, those politicians seem to be pious even he is not so can become the head of religion. On the other side, the religious obligation in each individual Muslims has now been institutionalized like pilgrimage, zakat and lots more. To make it worse, there are several types of Muslims which have different interpretation towards Islamic teaching. Therefore, we can see Islam liberal, Muslim secularist, fundamentalist, and many more. In brief, the colonial impact has downgraded Islam as way of life to something personal and has been mixed up with western values as well as ideology.

Furthermore, in terms of constitution, most countries in South East Asia adopted their ex-colonial master’s type of laws. Thus, the shariah law is hard to be implemented. Again Malaysia as an example, even we have Islamic laws as one of sources of laws, the laws are not easy to be applied. It is because, any crimes like murder stated in federal list cannot be punished according to shariah law like hudud law. So, dilemma between federal law and shariah law come into existence.

In conclusion, secularism bring forward by colonizers to the countries in South East Asia has made Islam to narrowed aspect of life. Today’s scenario, many Muslims regard Islam as personal matters. Politics, economics and social must been separated from being interfered by Islamic values. However, there are some Muslims want to establish Islamic state in all aspects. They are minority in the non-Muslims countries popularly known as separatist movements like in Philippines and South Thailand who struggle for autonomy and independent. In my opinion, it could take long time to bring back pure Islamic teaching as we have undergo a long colonization period. Besides, not all ideas from foreign are bad. It is our responsibility to differentiate what is good and what is bad from the eyes of Islamic worldview.

Hasan al-Banna: Icon of Contemporary Muslim Mujahideen (HAMAS)

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

This study is proposed to explore Hasan al-Banna’s struggle for independence in Palestine. He devoted his life to bring up the good name of Islam and Muslim world particularly. He championed the issue of Palestine, one of Muslim’s holy places which had been colonized by conspiracy of silence between Britain and the Jews. His Jihad’s movement along with Ikhwanul Muslimoon cannot be erased in Muslim’s history. Even though Hasan al-Banna needed to pay his Jihad with his martyr, his spirit never die where Muslims started to open their eyes to unresolved Palestinian crisis. After 102 years, Hasan al- Banna’s spirit of jihad in Palestine continues up to this day. Therefore, this study is conducted to explore new Mujahideen movement-Hamas.

1.2 Problem Statement

This study intends to compare between Ash-Shaheed Hasan al-Banna’s jihad movement and Hamas in Palestine.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

This study is designed to achieve the following specific objectives.
To clarify the concept of jihad in Islam.
To identify the similarity and differences between jihad of Hasan al-Banna and Hamas in Palestine.

1.4 Significance of the Study

“No Doubt, Allah has purchased the lives and the wealth of the believers, from then, as Paradise is for them. They fight in the way of Allah. So they kill and are killed. Allah has a firm guaranty-in the Torah, Injeel and Qur’an. And who could be a greater keeper of promises than Allah? Therefore, be happy at the deal which you have made and this is a big success.” (9:111
From this verse, I feel very impress to know the struggle of As-Shaheed Hasan al-Banna and his influences to the soldiers of Allah particularly Hamas to liberate Palestine from colonization by the Western-Jewish. In this vein, this study is intended to generate knowledge about Muslims’ efforts to protect the holiness of Islam from being humiliated by the evil colonizers.

1.5 Limitation of the Study.

The study will be limited in its scope. I will discuss briefly Hasan al-Banna’s life background and his Jihad movement to free Palestine. In addition, I will also trying to compare his jihad movement with a new movement called Hamas in Palestine.

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

There are a lot of analysis and writings on Hasan al-Banna and his Islamic Movement. The same goes to Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS) in Palestine. Many aspects have been discussed by the analysts, but I founds it lacks in terms of the relationship between Hasan al-Banna’s influences over HAMAS in regard to Jihad in Palestine.

Maszlee Malik (2006) had discussing a lot of HAMAS as an offshoot of Ikhwanul Muslimoon founded by Hasan al-Banna. However, he did not compare the jihad pattern by HAMAS and Hasan’s Ikwanul Muslimoon in Palestine.

Ridhuan Mohd Nor (2007) mentioned about Hasan al- Banna‘s struggle during his lifetime but touch a little over jihad in Palestine and its continuity of his efforts by HAMAS.

Furthermore, comparative writing both of them also hard to be found and almost not available in Internet.

Most of the analysts have discussing about them separately and just explaining about the relationship at a glance. Therefore, I found it is interesting to compare both of Hasan-al-Banna and HAMAS’ pattern of jihad in Palestine and its relationship. In this simple research, I attempt to find similarities and differences both of them. I also try to connect how Hasan al-Banna can be regarded as an icon to HAMAS movement.

3.0 THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

This study is rely heavily in sources from books, journals, magazine and internet to gain information and understanding about Hasan al-Banna’s background and his jihad as well as HAMAS.

In a way to produce this study, I have used several methods;
Method of History: to get a well background of the subjects of the study and their development.
Method of Analysis: to analyze all data from various sources to prove the interrelationship between Hasan al-Banna and HAMAS and their concept of jihad.

At the end of this study, I will compare between Hasan al-Banna striving in Palestine with HAMAS. This study touches much on the jihad by both of them in Palestine.

CHAPTER 1: HASAN AL-BANNA AT GLANCE

In this chapter, I am going to introduce shortly who are Hasan al- Banna and Ikhwanul Muslimoon. It aims to provide a general idea about him and his movement before I go further in explaining his jihad particularly in Palestine and his influence over HAMAS in the next chapters.

1.1 Hasan al-Banna’s Biography.

In 1906, October 17, a new baby boy was born in Egypt which later bring a great historical value to the contemporary Muslim world. He was Hasan al-Banna; a Muslim thinker, leader, reformer and founder of Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwanul Muslimoon). He had simple life as he came from the common people who worked on agriculture-based activities in his village known as Shamsyiran.

The son of Ahmad ‘Abdul Rahman al-Banna, he first got his earlier education in Kuttab where he used to memorize Al-Qur’an and learned tajwid. After he finished his primary school, he then furthered his study in Muallimin Al-Awwaliyyah and finally graduated from the Al-Azhar University in 1927 at 21. Hasan al-Banna very much in love to knowledge. That was why he established his own library that consisted thousands of books especially in social sciences, administration and political economy.

After finishing his study in Al-Azhar, he used to be a teacher in primary school in Ismailiyyah and later in Kaherah for almost 17 years. In 1946, he became a permanent journalist for Ikhwanul Muslimoon’s newspaper. In addition, he got his monthly income by being a publisher of As-Syihab magazine in 1947.

Hasan al-Banna fulfilled his time with beneficial matters. It can be justified by examining his life since his childhood. During his student’s livelihood, he involved in many religious groups at a very young age. First religious group he used to be a member known as Jam’at al-Suluk al-Akhlaqiyyah (Society of Moral Mobility). He joined the group when he was in primary school at 12. He spent his time wisely by involving in many religious activities. He also founded another organization namely Jama’at al- Nahy’an al-Munkar (Society to Forbid Evil). Besides, he also participated actively in Halaqat al-Dhikr (meditation Circle). Hasan al-Banna and his group’s association with the Meditation Circle resulted in the formation of a new vision and thought, thus forming another organization called Jam’iyyat al-Husaifiyyah lil-Bir (Husaifiyyah Society of Virtue) and he was appointed as secretary. Hasan al-Banna used all his experiences throughout his involvement of these societies to establish Ikhwanul Muslimoon (Muslim Brotherhood).

1.2 The Founder of Ikhwanul Muslimoon

Hasan al-Banna lived in a situation where Egypt was under English colonialism. Thus, her people eventually adopted western cultures and the light of Islamic culture dramatically lit faintly. It was indeed Hasan al-Banna’s awareness to the need of Islamic revivalism in Egypt particularly. Upon his knowledge and experiences during his involvement in societies during his student livelihood, he then pioneered the establishment of Ikhwanul Muslimoon. It was established in Ismailia in 1928. His supreme aim is to lead and to provide the real guidance to people and practical demonstration of Islam[1]. He struggled to fulfill this purpose throughout his lifetime wholeheartedly and then continued by his followers after his martyr. Ikhwanul Muslimoon basically struggles to bring the comprehensiveness of Islam as a way of life to the people at large. It was an Islamic movement focuses on every aspects of life of each individual socially, politically, economically, culturally, mentally, physically and spiritually. On the top of this, Hasan wanted to born a pure identity of individual Muslim who could portray the accurate image of Islam. He believed that it was an individual himself to change Muslim condition to be the best ummah in the eyes of the world.

Therefore, Hasan al-Banna very much concern in strong Islamic spiritual development in one’s inner self based on Al-Qur’an and As-Sunnah.

“Their virtue which we are in search of, its springs gust out from our inner self. That could not be found anywhere except in our own hearts. And the spring of the misfortune and ill-luck, with which are faced, is also inside us.” [2]
(Al-Banna, Fifth Conference 1347-1357 H)

Ikhwanul Muslimoon has some specialties which can be summarized as below.

1) To avoid the sites of the differences.

In the sight of Ikhwanul Muslimoon, differences cannot be avoided but they managed to avoid such differences by using wisdom. It was very upset if Muslims were split just because trivial matter. They put the goodness of Islam as the ultimate aim over personal interests.

2) Free from the control of the rich and the wealthy.

Ikhwanul Muslimoon aimed to serve people without any personal interests or profits involved. They were trained to serve their life for the goodness of Muslim Ummah and sought Allah’s pleasure. Therefore, any cooperation with the rich and wealthy people for their own benefits was not accepted.

3) No connection with political parties and organizations.

Every Muslims is a single brotherhood. Thus, Ikhwanul Muslimoon as an Islamic movement will not cooperate with any political parties or organizations that have personal agendas that could lead to the split of the Muslim Ummah as a universal brotherhood. In fact, political parties were imbued with feeling hatred to people who shaped by different political ideologies. This was indeed against Islamic teaching.

4) Pays attention to constructive work that fixes priorities in its activities.

Ikhwanul Muslimoon run its da’wah and jihad movement with systematic methods. All their activities run with effective and affective arrangement and they put priority the most important task to do. Generally, Hasan al- Banna trained his soldiers of Ikhwanul Muslimoon to work strategically by giving clear constructive steps. First, they call upon a huge number of Muslims to join their jamaah (ta’aruf). Then, they will select the potential ones who have spirit of jihad and organize them based on their potential abilities (takwim). Finally, the chosen ones will go through practical struggle which can bear responsibilities for the sake of Allah and Islam (tanfidz).

5) Prefer to practical and constructive aspect rather than propaganda and publicity and there are different motives behind it.

It suggests that practical was a better method of da’wah rather than create a propaganda and publicity without any action. It is because talking without action is a failure.

6) Young men’s participation.

Hasan al-Banna regarded young men as main sources of his Ikhwanul Muslimoon due to their high potential of spiritual courage to face challenges in life. Those young men are most welcomed and trained to bring out the task to free Muslims from being colonized by the Western.

7) Invitation to Islam is widely spread in town and cities.

Hasan al-Banna and Ikhwanul Muslimoon had created the greatest vision and mission to call people to the true path-Islam that transcends geographical boundaries. His movements actively worked in a variety of places like in Egypt, Syria and Palestine.

In brief, Ikhwanul Muslimoon founded by Ash-Shaheed Hasan al-Banna is a universal Islamic movement which brings the completeness of Islamic teaching to all people. Hasan was in fact an excellent strategist and he can be the best exemplar and icon to the Muslims movements throughout the world.

CHAPTER 2: HASAN AL-BANNA’S JIHAD MOVEMENT

In the first chapter, I have discussed briefly about Hasan al-Banna’s biography and his Jihad Movement-Ikhwanul Muslimoon. Generally, Hasan al-Banna was striving to call people to the divine religion of Islam as a way of life and to free Muslims from Western imperialism. Thus, in this chapter, I will focus on Hasan al-Banna’s idea of Jihad. This includes his basic concept and strategies of jihad and I will also give an example of his jihad in Palestine.

2.1 His Concept and Strategies of Jihad.

Jihad is one of basic teaching laid down by Hasan al-Banna. Jihad or struggle in the way of Allah goes along Islamic teaching mentioned in the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Jihad is calling people into Islam and it can be either not involves in war (jihad through writing, delivering speeches and saying truth before tyrants) or jihad with war involvement. The later jihad was indeed happen not because Islam is a bloody border or religion of sword but, in fact it is to protect the da’wah missionary and to protect the Muslim ummah who is being violated by the anti-Islam Westerners. In addition, those who struggle in the way of Allah and martyr are pleased with the promised paradise in the hereafter. One of Hasan al-Banna’s writing touched on the obligation of jihad.

“Jihad is obligatory on every Muslim. Jihad has been made obligatory on every Muslim, by Allah. He has laid great stress on Jihad and has promised limitless recompense shall be such as would be especially for them or it would be for the people who would adopt their (martyrs) ways as a model for them and would wager their head and body, like them, for the sake of Allah. He has gifted them with such internal and external qualities which are particularly meant for them. He has made their clean blood a symbol of victory and little of honor and good fortune. Ahadies and useless persons have been given very mean and hateful names. They have been reprimanded on account of cowardice and avoidance of jihad and rebuked for faint-heartedness and shortcoming. In the world, there is dishonor for ever and in the next, the eternal punishment of hell, which would never end, even if they offer, a mountain of gold, as ransom. In His eyes, avoidance of jihad is the greatest sin and for the nation and people it is death.”[3]

Furthermore, da’wah missionary will not be succeeded if there is no spirit of jihad in Islamic workers. That is why, Hasan al-Banna really emphasized on tarbiyyah of his Muslim brothers. His jihad aims to produce Islamic resurgence of Muslims which cover seven aspects; reforming oneself, one’s family, one’s society, liberating Muslim society politically, establishing Islamic governance, re-establishing the Muslim ummah leading to khilafah (united leadership for Muslims), and providing leadership to the world to carry out the amanah (trust) of guiding people to the true path.[4] His strategies of jihad to achieve this aims were conducted gradually by giving excellent tarbiyyah upon each individual Muslims. He avoids using violence. He and his Ikhwanul Muslimoon only involved in war if their jihad on da’wah missionary were treated violently and their Muslim brothers’ rights have been exploited brutally as what happen in Palestine.

In addition, as to the stages of work strategies, Hasan al-Banna divided them into three stages such as ta’rif (introduction to the call), takwin (preparation of workers), and tanfidh (implementation of the message)[5]. These three stages are interdependence. It means that the da’ie is not only responsible to spread Allah’s message but also implementing its teaching before individual da’ie himself.
Finally, the true spirit of jihad is the outcome of those Muslims who achieve the stage of tanfidh. These people voluntarily work for Islam only for the sake of Allah and Islam. Their ambitions are to be among the martyrs (shaheed) of Islam. This is indeed the ultimate outcome of Islamic teaching laid down by Hasan al-Banna.

“Abu Hurairah (R.A.A.) stated that the holy prophet (PBUH) said, “ By the One in whose hand is my life, whosoever gets wounded in the way of Allah-would come on the Day of Judgement, in the condition that the colour would be the odour that of musk.” [6]
(Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Daud, Nasi’e)

2.2 Jihad in Palestine

“And if the spirit of nationhood is that the country should be freed from the grabbers and efforts made to create the sentiments of freedom and elevation in the hearts of the young men of the country, we agree with that concept too. Rather, Islam has emphasized it. Allah the Great says:

“And honor is for Allah, His Prophet and the believers but the munafeqeen [people who posed as Muslims, but whose hearts were full of mischief] do not know.” (63:8)

Similarly He says:

“And Allah can never give an upper hand to the infidels over the believers.” (4:41)”[7]
Hasan al-Banna very much concern upon his Muslim brothers in Palestine. One of his jihad movements is to free Palestine from being colonized by the Western-Israel. Palestine has a special place in the heart of every Muslims. It is according to the Qur’an, a sacred and blessed land. It contains Al-Aqsa mosque, the first Qibla or direction of Muslim prayer, and the third most sacred mosque in Islam….From an Islamic perspective, it is the land of the Gathering and Resurrection and the centre of the abode peace. Anyone who inhibits this land is considered a mujahid-fighter in the way of Allah.[8]

The crisis of Palestine and Israel become hot issue when the Zionist movement attempted to establish a Jewish entity there. Likewise to Muslims, the Jews also regard Palestine as their promised land, the focal point of their history and the resting place of their prophets. The centers of their holy sites are in Jerusalem and Hebron. The Christians consider it the cradle of their religion, as Jesus (as) was born there and conducted his mission in it. The great centers of their religion are in Jerusalem, Benthelem and Nazareth.[9] Thus, it indicates that the colonialization on Palestine mainly due to religion-based agenda. Because of that, the Western-Israel used violence to conquer the Palestine and her people were severely suffered. The number of deaths continues to raise till today. It was a historical event where the evil Zionists announced the creation of their state “Israel” on 14 May 1948 illegally. This poor event upset the Muslim worlds. Muslims were humiliated and it is our responsibility to liberate Muslims in Palestine to bring back our dignity.

Hasan al-Banna was highly responsible to open the eyes of the people to the hidden agendas of the Western-Israel upon Muslim worlds peculiarly Palestine. Because of his awareness to the suffering of Palestinians, he devoted his life to the utmost to free Palestine. He managed to organize various activities like public speaking to encourage Muslims in Egypt to help their Muslim brothers in Palestine. He also sent his followers of Ikhwanul Muslimoon to mosques to convey messages of inhuman plans of the Western-Israel towards Palestinians. They collected funds to help in maintaining Palestine as a free Muslim land.

Hasan al-Banna also used another method to issue the public about crisis in Palestine. He wrote a book entitled “al-Nar wa al-Dimar fi Falastin (Fire and Devastated in Palestine.” This book portrays pictures and documents of British awfully occupation on Palestinian refugees.[10] In addition to it, Hasan al-Banna disseminated a vast numbers of articles contain a strong resistance towards the Western evil deeds in Palestine and opened up the propaganda of Israel there. The spreading of such articles succeeded in gaining Muslims’ attention at large.

To give stronger resistance to the Israel, Hasan al-Banna urged people to boycott Jewish magazines in Kaherah. He listed the magazines and at the bottom of the list, he wrote provoking statement as follow:

“Every qurusy (Egypt currency) you paid for these magazines will be put into Jewish’s pocket in Palestine that they used to buy weapons to kill your Muslims brothers in Palestine.”

Hasan al-Banna never satisfied to bring up the Palestine issue within Egypt solely. He struggle to bring the issue throughout Muslims’ countries specifically Arab world. He used to organize the first Arab world’s conference at main office of Ikhwanul Muslimoon in Kaherah. He invited all leaders from Arab countries and NGO to discuss the fate of their poor brothers in Palestine. At the end of this conference, they agreed to urge British to protect the rights of Palestinian and extremely oppose the establishment of ‘Israel’ state.

Furthermore, Hasan al-Banna’s efforts of Palestine crisis also shown in demonstrations that aims to attract people’s attention to the violation in Palestine. Many people in every parts of Egypt engaged to those demos especially members of Ikhwanul Muslimoon. They expressed their opposition to the British policy toward Palestine and their commitments and sympathy to their Muslim neighbors.

On the top of these efforts, Hasan al-Banna found that the best strategy to liberate Palestine was through war. It was the highest stage of Jihad. It was the time to translate the spirit of Jihad into action. He managed to send thousands of troops to Palestine. Hasan al-Banna was an excellent orator. He used his abilities to give sermons and speeches that were containing the divinity of being martyrs for the sake of Allah and Islam.
The spirit of jihad in Hasan al-Banna encouraged leaders of Arab countries to send a huge number of soldiers of Allah to Palestine. All of them aim to be the martyrs. Even though Hasan al-Banna and Ikhwanul Muslimoon was pressured by the British and resulted to the shut down of Ikhwanul Muslimoon in Egypt, he never stops. He inspired his followers to continue the jihad until no single Jew existed on the land of Palestine. Many followers of Ikhwanul Muslimoon martyr in the mission to liberate Palestine. Many of them who live were captured and punished brutally like Syed Qutb who sentenced to death and Zainab al-Ghazali. Hasan al-Banna also martyr in 12 February 1949 at 42 years old. The Muslim world lost the valuable diamond in Islam but his spirit of Jihad continues up to this day by a new contemporary Jihad movement to bring his mission to free Palestine and Islam as a whole. This movement named HAMAS.

CHAPTER 3: GET TO KNOW HAMAS

3.1 Background of Hamas

HAMAS stands for Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamic or Islamic Resistence Movement. HAMAS was formed in 8 Disember 1987 as an offshoot of the Palestinian brand of Ikhwanul Muslimoon in Gaza. Previously, HAMAS was known as Al-Mujama’. Its founder was Sheikh Ahmad Yasin, the head of Ikhwanul Muslimoon in Gaza. HAMAS founders aim to become directly involve in the intifada and ultimately gain control of the Palestinian movement.[11] The establishment of HAMAS was the continuity of the jihad movement of Ikhwanul Muslimoon in a new pattern of jihad.

The ideology of HAMAS is a synthesis of Pan Arab Islamic religious ideals and Palestinian nationalism. HAMAS want to establish Islamic state in Palestine and their covenant highly dependent on the Qur’anic teaching. Article 8 in its charter, HAMAS clearly state their slogan as noted below:

“Allah is its goal, the prophet its model, the Qur’an its constitution, jihad its path and death for the case of Allah its most subline belief.”[12]
As the name suggest, HAMAS seeks to discord the evil, crushing it and defeating it, so that truth may prevail, homelands returned to their owners, calls for prayer be heard from their mosques, announcing the reinstitution of the Muslim state. Thus, people and things will revert to their true place.[13] This holy objective inspires HAMAS to perform jihad as the best as they can. They strongly believe that only by performing jihad they can free Palestine and Islam as a whole. For them, Islam will not complete as long as Islamic state not yet established.

HAMAS started their jihad first as Islamic social workers, but later they decided to actively involve in politics. By joining politics, their jihad movement takes place in a wider field. In addition, their voice of jihad to free Palestine from Israel invasion will be heard by Muslims at large. January, 25, 2006 was the beginning of HAMAS new responsibility after being voted by majority that led them to be a new government of Palestine. It was shock news to political analysts. It just like the case of PAS and Alternative Front (BA) won election in several places over National Front (BN) in Malaysia in previous election. Palestinians want changes that cannot be fulfilled by previous government of Fatah. The people firmly believe that HAMAS can bring changes to let them enjoy peaceful life in their own country.

Furthermore, HAMAS victory over the Palestine election was due to several reasons. According to Dr. Azzam Tamimi, a director of Institute of Islamic Political Thought, jihad nature of HAMAS itself contributes a lot to their successful. HAMAS very committed in their jihad and will not even make any deal with Israel that could pledge Palestine as was the Fatah did that led to their failure. In addition, as being social workers in prior, they had contributed a lot to local people in terms of education, health, and welfare. Moreover, its members also well known as being sincere man, honest, good, trusted and professional in their works. Another factor is moderation of HAMAS. This principle of Islam has made Palestinians believed in HAMAS as they were tired of nationalists and secularists which could not bring anything but solely make the situation worst. Thus, it denotes that Islam is the best and true religion.

Finally, after HAMAS won the election and immediately formed a government, Israel has made tough pressures like economic sanction over people in Gaza. Besides, Fatah creates conflict with HAMAS. These scenarios tension the HAMAS. But, HAMAS never sell its dignity by follow their order. Palestinians give strong support even they are also suffering. For them, they have voted HAMAS, so they must be in behind HAMAS. It is our responsibility of Muslims country to help them anyway.

3.2 Jihadist Spirit of Hasan al-Banna in HAMAS

As been said earlier, HAMAS is an offshoot of Ikhwanul Muslimoon found by Hasan al-Banna. Its founder who also spiritual leader of HAMAS, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin was one of the follower of Hasan al-Banna. Therefore, it is cannot be deniable that the jihadist spirit of Hasan al-Banna was injected in HAMAS. The spiritual school (madrasah tarbiyyah) initiated by Hasan al-Banna has giving birth to many quality Muslims that really give the best exemplar to the next generation of Muslims. He had taught his followers within three stages; taaruf, takwin and tandfidz[14].

Even though, Hasan al-Banna had martyred, but his flame of jihad spirit continuously light brightly. The teaching of Hasan al-Banna is portraying by HAMAS movement. All his members were characterized by noble features based on Islamic teaching. They also very committed in their jihad as experienced by Hasan al-Banna.

The strong spirit they do possess should inspire and motivate us as Muslims to be as excellent as they are. If HAMAS struggle in politics to liberate Palestine, we need to struggle in our field like in education, technology and many more. Islam as a way of life is universal. Therefore, jihad is also universal. Do not rigid its meaning to go to wars solely. In regard to this, Dr. Ustadz Uthman El-Muhammady noted that:

“ …in the Qur’an itself, in the Meccan verse, “wa jahid hum bihi jihadan kabira” meaning “you strive with them with it” (namely with the message of the Qur’an in the Da’wa, hence relating to the striving with the nafs). Hence we can ask: which form of striving is great? Does the “jihadan kabira” or great jihad in the Qur’an refer to the external jihad you associate with weapons or going to war in the defense of the faith of the Islamic people? “wjahidhum bihi” means and you strive with them by using it. The word “it” here refers to the Qur’an and it does not refer to the sword of ‘saif’ because this is Meccan verse. So the Qur’an is calling the intellectual, moral and spiritual jihad of disseminating Qur’anic teachings (daawah) and making the Quran the fundamental element in prevailing in human society as the great jihad.”[15]

5.0 CONCLUSION

After a long discussion above, undeniable that Hasan al-Banna’s influences over HAMAS are very much interrelated. In article 2 in HAMAS covenant, it is noted that;

‘…the Islamic Resistance of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood movement is a world organization, the largest Islamic Movement in the modern era. It is characterized by a profound understanding, by precise notions and by complete comprehensiveness of all concepts of Islam all domains of life: views and beliefs, politics and economy, education and society, jurisprudence and rule, indoctrination and teachings of arts and publications, the hidden and the evident, and all the other domains of life.’

Hasan al-Banna played a vital role to ‘install’ jihadist spirit among Muslims brothers who then involve actively in Harakat Islamiyyah/ Islamic Movements. His particular jihad in Palestine is continued by the HAMAS as primary front to fight against for Palestinians’ liberation. Thus, Hasan al-Banna can be viewed as an icon of the wake up of HAMAS via Sheikh Ahmad Yasin. In regard to this, there are several similarities and differences between both of them.

Since HAMAS is an offshoot of Hasan –al-Banna’s Ikhwanul Muslimoon, their method or pattern of jihad looks quite similar. To develop the best individual Muslim, both of them pay highly concentration on education among young generation (tarbiyyah). Their aim is to produce Muslims who submit to Islam solely as a way of life.

Besides, both Hasan al-Banna’s movement and HAMAS had started their movement as Islamic social workers first who functioning to preserve social welfare of the people. However, both of them then decided to be involved in politics solemnly. It was indeed their idealism to establish Islamic state. Through politics, they will be the Muslim’s voice and liberate the world of Muslim from foreign invasion politically, economically, intellectually and many more.

Nevertheless, in regard to Jihad in Palestine, Hasan al-Banna’s sent a battle of soldiers of Allah from the Arab world. It was indeed because of the tarbiyyah nurtured by Hasan al-Banna where many Muslims in previous ‘wala’ or take willingly and sincerely the calling of jihad over Israel in Palestine. The declaration of war against Israel was conducted in noble Islamic teaching like they cannot kill old people, children, women and those non-Muslims who did not fight with them. Besides, they were also not destroying the religious sacred places of the Jewish. However, Israel did the otherwise. That is the indicator that Islam is the religion which respect to others and not harmful as they were advocated to the rest of the world. In addition to it, Hasan al-Banna also asked all people to boycott all items or goods produced by the Israel and her alliances. Moreover, demonstration also a part of Hasan al-Banna’s striving to free Palestine.

Unlike to Hasan al-Banna’s movement, HAMAS uses more harsh method of jihad. ‘Suicide bombers’ pioneered by them was a big controversial issue that led to debates among world Muslim Scholars. According to Yusuf al-Qardhowi, suicide bombers can be imposed as the Palestinians have no choice. It is the only way of jihad to grasp back their land by evil Israel.

However, Dr. Ustadz Uthman El-Muhammady has different way to look the concept of jihad to other Muslims countries instead of using suicide bombing. He noted:

“Of course our attitude towards this phenomenon, should be, I mean I try to look at it personally, is that Muslim should refrain from taking this step, but rather they should take the painful struggle upwards to clarify the problems, to educate themselves, to build up their strengths spiritually, morally, economically, technologically and militarily so on and so forth. After gaining these strengths, it is easier to say ‘no’, to put our feet down and to combat the enemy’s bad intentions.”

-JIHAD FOR THE SAKE OF ISLAM-

6.0 REFERENCES

Ali Abdul Halim Mahmud, Perangkat-Perangkat Tarbiyyah Ikhwanul Muslimin
(Indonesia, Era Intermedia, 1995)

Hazin Farukh, Gerakan Islam Hasan al-Banna: Kepastian ‘amal Islami Menurut
Hasan Al-Banna (Kuala Lumpur: Al-Hidayah Publishers, 2002)

Maszlee Malik, HAMAS (Kuala Lumpur, PTS Millenia Sdn. Bhd, 2006)

Mohsen.M.Saleh, Basic Facts on the Palestinian Issue (London, Palestinian Return
Centre, 2001)

Muhammad Mumtaz Ali, Modern Islamic Movements and Model, Problems,
Prospects (Kuala Lumpur, A.S Nordeen, 2000)

Reach, Issue 8&9 (Dec. 2005/June 2006), Protectors of the Nation (Kuala Lumpur,
The Alumni and Career Services Division, IIUM)

Riduan Mohd Nor, Memperingati 100 Tahun Hasan al-Banna (Selangor, MHI
Publication, 2007)

S.A.Qureshi, Selected Writings of Hasan al- Banna Shaheed (Karachi, International
Islamic Publishers, 1983)

Zeenath Kausar, Contemporary Islamic Political Thought: A Study of Eleven Islamic
Thinkers (Kuala Lumpur, Research Centre of IIUM, 2005)

www.google.com
· www.fas.org./irp/world/para/hamas.htm. Accessed on May 08/20008







[1] S.A.Qureshi, Selected Writings of Hasan al- Banna Shaheed (Karachi, International Islamic Publishers, 1983), p. 169.

2. ibid. p.168.

[3] Ibid. p.31[4] Zeenath Kausar, Contemporary Islamic Political Thought: A Study of Eleven Islamic Thinkers (Kuala Lumpur, Research Centre of IIUM, 2005), p.204.[5] Ibid. p.205[6] Opcit.p.37[7] S.A.Qureshi. ibid. p.89-90.[8] Mohsen M. Saleh, Basic Facts on the Palestinian issue, (Palestinian Return Centre, London, 2001), p.3-4.[9] Ibid.p.9[10]Riduan Mohd Nor, Memperingati 100 Tahun Hasan al-Banna (Selangor, MHI Publication, 2007), p.18.
[11] www.fas.org./irp/world/para/hamas.htm. Accessed on May 08/20008[12] Ibid.[13] Ibid.[14] Please read in chapter 1,p. 6[15] Reach, issue 8&9 (Dec. 2005/June 2006), Muslim against War: the Concept of Jihad, p.28.Kuala Lumpur, the Alumni and Career Services Division, IIUM.