“This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.

Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by God! I hold out against anything that displeases them.

No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses.

Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.

No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.

No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)."

- Prophet Muhammad's Promise to St. Catherine, 628 AD

If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced that there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe…

– John Steinbeck

I suspect that there is no serious scholar who doesn’t like to watch television. I’m just the only one who confesses.

- Umberto Eco, wawancara di The Paris Review

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

- Obama’s Inaguration Quote

Mas, kayanya ga usahlah bicarain seputar permasalahan agama (jilbab bukan tradisi, tapi emag kewajiban). kalo belom ada ilmunya, jadi keliatan begonya mas.
jangan sok demokrasi-demokrasian, plural-pluralan, HAM-HAMan, itu semua juga masih kontradiksi mas.
dalam Islam jilbab itu wajib, ya udah jangan diganggu keyakinan orang itu. katanya demokratis, kok masih turut campur masalah agama orang.
itu aja sih yang ingin saya omongin. udahlah, mas eka nulis yang mas eka ngerti aja. saya suka kok tlisan2 mas eka.

Dari Komentar tukangtidur di posting Orhan Pamuk: Jilbab Merupakan Tradisi
(Saya pindah ke dapan barangkali ada yang tertarik menanggapinya)

It is nice that, after half a century, Pramoedya Ananta Toer has found a successor. The young Sundanese Eka Kurniawan has published two astonishing novels in the past half-decade. If one considers their often nightmarish plots and characters, one could say there is no hope. But the sheer beauty and elegance of their language, and the exuberance of their imagining, give one the exhilaration of watching the first snowdrops poke their little heads up towards a wintry sky.

(Benedict Anderson, Exit Suharto: Obituary for a Mediocre Tyrant, New Left Review, March-April 2008)

Eka, a great admirer of Pramoedya, wrote a first-class academic thesis, since published, on the older writer’s complex relationship with ‘socialist realism’. The two novels are Cantik Itu Luka ['Beautiful', a Wound] (2002) and Lelaki Harimau [Man Tiger] (2004). The first is a huge, rather unwieldy, surreal recapitulation of the past century of Indonesian history set in a sort of isolated Macondo somewhere on the south coast of Java. The second is a brilliant, tight-knit and frightening village tragedy, also set somewhere on that barren littoral.

(Benedict Anderson, Exit Suharto: Obituary for a Mediocre Tyrant, New Left Review, March-April 2008)

Inilah sebuah novel berkelas dunia! Membaca novel karya pengarang Indonesia kelahiran 1975 dan alumnus Filsafat UGM ini, kita akan merasakan kenikmatan yang sama dengan nikmatnya membaca novel-novel kanon dalam kesusastraan Eropa dan Amerika Latin. Kecakapan Eka mengisahkan kejatuhan sebuah keluarga incest dengan titik pusat pengisahan pada tokoh Dewi Ayu (lahir dari ayah Belanda dan ibu Nyai) dalam gaya berkisah yang dengan enteng mencampuradukkan realisme dan surealisme, mengawinkan kepercayaan-kepercayaan lokal dengan silogisme filsafat yang membobol semua tabu, dan memberikan hormat yang sama pada realitas sejarah dan mitos, merupakan pencapaian luar biasa mengingat novel ini merupakan novel pertamanya. Di akhir masa kolonial sebuah Suratan yang aneh memaksa Dewi Ayu, seorang perempuan elok, memasuki kehidupan yang tak pernah dia bayangkan: menjadi pelacur. Kehidupan sebagai pelacur terus dijalaninya sampai ia memiliki tiga anak gadis yang cantik. Ketika ia mengandung anaknya keempat ia berharap anaknya buruk rupa. Itulah yang terjadi. Si buruk rupa itu ia beri nama si Cantik. Sebagaimana layaknya novel-novel kuat, tokoh-tokoh dalam novel ini perkembangan karakter dan fase hidupnya dikawal dengan teliti dari awal hingga akhir sehingga kemungkinan terjadinya desepsi dan akronisme peluangnya tertutup sama sekali.

(HORISON, edisi Maret 2003)