Knut Asplund
Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo
Article: Incense, silk and jihad; Islam in South-East Asia
The Economist, May 31, 2003
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Unfortunately, because of technical problems I was only able to hear the first half of the lecture, but based on that which I heard, and my knowledge of the subject, below a few comments.
Firstly, an observation that is slightly off-topic. Knut Asplund said: “Malaysia is a country where there is a huge population of immigrants, Chinese and Indians in particular.” In the Malaysian context great care must be taken with the use of the word ‘immigrant’ to describe the Chinese and Indian communities. Pendatang in Malaysian politics is used as a term of abuse and goes to the heart of Malaysia’s political dilemma; the intertwining of race, religion and identity.
The part of the lecture that I heard drew attention to the division in Indonesian Islam between various interpretations of the Muslim faith; modernist (more orthodox interpretations) and traditionalists (whose belief contains more folk beliefs). As the lecturer pointed out, the distinction is very blurred. In extremis a modernist might turn to a bomoh for help, or if he does not his mother-in-law might very well, and a traditionalist might be outwardly very devout in his actions. Or a traditionalist family might send their children to a modernist Islamic primary school simply because the teaching is better. And a girl might wear the tudung not for reasons of piety but, as I was told, because it was the fashion. I feel that Knut Asplund’s division between rural and urban Islam is a valid one, and the rural-urban divide can be seen in many other aspects of Indonesian life.
The Islam of Malaysia is stricter, partly as a result of changes in the 1970s and partly because it has been used for political ends for many years. In recent years UMNO has faced constant attacks, mainly from PAS, for not being sufficiently Muslim and has responded by favouring Muslims and promoting Muslim issues as a way of trying to tempt voters away from PAS. The Pakatan Rakyat coalition, an unlikely grouping of PAS, DAP and PKR, are in power in four states; Kedah, Kelantan, Penang, and Selangor (the situation in Perak is unclear pending judicial review). The dual system of civil courts and Syariah courts leads to tensions and in PR states the Islamic Affairs Departments (at state level) appear to be trying to gain greater powers, e.g. the banning of sales of beer in Muslim-majority (non clearly defined) areas. The Black Eyed Peas concert difficulties were also a result of decisions made at state level. Other controversies include the sentence to caning of the part-time model Kartika (offence: drinking beer) and problems with deceased people being claimed by the Islamic authorities for Muslim burial when their family feel the deceased person was of non-Muslim faith (e.g. Maniam Moorthy, the first Malaysian to climb Mt Everest).
Non-Muslims in Malaysia often feel under threat and claim they face discrimination in religious matters. Indian Malaysians, for example, contrast the police reaction to the Hindraf demonstrations with reactions to the cow’s head protest, in which a severed cow’s head (cows being sacred to Hindus) was dragged through the streets in protest at proposals to build a Hindu temple.
Islam, as interpreted by many, has difficulties being reconciled with human rights, such as the freedom to choose religion, or equality between men and women. The issue is often one of interpretation: ‘Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion,' [Qur'an, 109:6] or the idea that apostates should be stoned to death.
The image is presented that somehow Indonesian Islam is less restrictive but when a friend married a Sundanese she had to first convert to Islam, or otherwise she could not be married. Of course, Islam is not alone in such coercive behaviour; for my protestant brother to marry his Catholic wife he had to first promise to raise any children as Catholics. Somehow I feel that monotheist religions sit uneasily with the diverse, multi-identity SEA society; a polytheist belief such as Buddhism sidesteps the problem by saying that person A is a Christian Buddhist, person B an atheist Buddhist, and person C a Chinese Buddhist etc.
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