ISSN 0852-7172 (p) 2461-064X (e) © 2017 Walisongo: Jurnal Penelitian Sosial Keagamaan http://journal.walisongo.ac.id/index.php/walisongo 63 Walisongo: Jurnal Penelitian Sosial Keagamaan Vol. 25 No.1 (2017) pp. 63-90 Doi: 10.21580/ws.25.1.1329 RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND THE IDEA OF ESTABLISHING ISLAMIC STATE ABU HAPSIN 1 Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo Semarang Abstract The idea of Gamwell on “religion as rational” was based on the concept that religious freedom is nothing other than a political discourse that can be fgured out only through a democratic reso- lution. Changing paradigm from “religion as non-rational” to “re- ligion as rational” is a necessary condition for entering a public debate. Yet, the sole public debate or public view is not enough to solve the modern political problematic. The public debate must be guided by a constitutional procedure affrmed by the body politic so that it fulflls the criteria of formal claim about justice. Apply- ing qualitative research and literature review this research tried to reveal: Gamwell’s idea of religious freedom, the features of the Islamic State as described by Abdul Rauf and Gamwell’s concept of religious freedom and the idea of establishing the Islamic State advocated by Abdul Rauf. Gagasan Gamwell tentang “agama itu rasional” didasarkan pada konsep bahwa kebebasan beragama tidak lain adalah wacana poli- tik yang hanya bisa diraih melalui resolusi demokratis. Mengubah paradigma dari “agama sebagai tidak rasional” menjadi “agama sebagai rasional” adalah syarat yang diperlukan sebelum mema- suki debat publik. Namun, debat publik atau pandangan publik saja tidak cukup untuk memecahkan masalah politik modern. Per- debatan publik harus dipandu oleh prosedur konstitusional yang ditegaskan oleh badan politik sehingga memenuhi kriteria klaim Corresponding author; email: 1 abu_hapsin@walisongo.ac.id