.
Ramadan is a time of celebration and contemplation. Though I’m agnostic myself -well more wavering atheist like to be honest- who looks for and finds his spiritual inspiration elsewhere, I think the concept is beautiful and admirable.
The Muslim minority in North-West Europe is now fasting just like Muslims all over the world. But it probably is harder here than elsewhere because they are living in a social environment that doesn’t differentiate between this month and the rest of the year. Moreover they only have eight hours a day to eat, drink and sleep in our urban 24/7 economy. After all it’s August the first and today’s sunrise was at 06.03 in the morning while the sun will set at 21.29. Most of all I pity the Moroccan Olympic football squad - the team won’t be able survive the first round in London because of sheer exhaustion.
The fasting tradition is worth preserving. The great Dutch poet Lucebert wrote “All things of value are vulnerable” (“Alles van waarde is weerloos“). I second that. It applies to poetry, music and art. To empathy, compassion and love. To neighbourliness, friendship and generosity. And to freedom, justice and peace. Treasures of mankind which, I assume, also are among the core morals of any religion. Especially of those metaphysical systems which call themselves a religion of peace. So in my arithmetic Jews, Christians and Muslims by definition should protect these vulnerable values. The same way as these religions usually are being protected themselves.
But unfortunately that’s not common practice among all believers.
First of all know-it-alls are annoying people and abundant among believers (as well as among atheists I should add). Even worse are those who try to ram their grandiose or petty truths through your throat though. If you would like to know, this singer-songwriter tells exactly what I think about them. But worst of all are the likes of Habib Bahar and his Rasulullah Defenders’ Council gang who “defend” their rigid core religious convictions by aggressively and violently eliminating deviant opinions and habits.They like to beat “respect” for their specific interpretation of faith into whatever dissenters they perceive. Ramadan obviously is a select opportunity and justification to give rise to their rage and to let different-believers and non-believers know that they have no choice but to comply. The café raid in South Jakarta is proof: “It is usual for me and my followers to raid sinful places during Ramadhan. If there are sinners who get drunk we have to act”, Habib said. It’s pretty similar to FPI gang-leader Habib Al Habsyi’s announcement in Cirebon. He stated they will continue raiding nightclubs even though the city’s mayor swore he himself would take care of closing them. It looks like they manage to impose their will on a secular state and a plural and multicultural society.
This state of mind and behaviour is not quite the spirit of a religion of peace and tolerance. Bullying people holding different views to make them obey should be off limits to genuine believers in my perception. Yet apparently their strategy is effective. The secular government gives in and opts for appeasement – it even has grown to be a habit to pre-emptively limit operational hours of nightclubs during Ramadan. The Cirebon mayor didn’t push Police and prosecutor to arrest Habib for illegally inciting people, but timidly promised he gladly would do the job himself. To no avail- FPI still maintains it’s threats. It behaves as an unassailable autonomous group of vigilantes. And though there is some feeble protest, a huge public outcry and backlash are not in sight. Well not quite; Police caught a few of Habib’s gang members. Yet the obvious and overwhelming public leniency is amazing.
I wonder: where is liberal Islam? Who will help these overzealous pious (???) gangs to mend their ways?
As is it today this year’s Ramadan resembles last year’s Ramadan and the one of the previous year. I’m afraid the month of fasting threatens to gradually become a time of raiding rather than praying. Which is not quite the original objective.
was trying to get some drink after work and was told that they only sell after 8pm. oh well.. just had to make do with melted chocolate cake instead
@ triesti: Jakarta, 32 degrees Celcius and extreme humidity… The body wants water, more water, lots of water or any other watery liquid.
Now voluntary abnegation can open the “doors of perception” ( as does mescaline, Huxley wrote)and be a short-cut to experiences of mysticism ( though a few thousand years ago they went to the desert to achieve that). But apart from the Olympic Moroccan football-players with a Dutch passport, I also very much pity those different,less and non-believers who involuntary, and against their will, have to quench their thirst with melted chocolate cake because of a social controlled majority rule of daytime total prohibition.
On second thought..Chocolate cake, even melted chocolate cake, well …:)
Meneer Colson, this is probably your 10th thread where you ask, in one guise or another, where the liberal Muslims are. By now, you should realize that they are extremely thin on the ground. And those that there are are cowed down and beaten into submission by the illiberal masses. In fact, the word “liberal” has a negative connotation for many in Indonesia. Finally, in the words of the Muslim PM of Turkey, there is no such thing as liberal Islam; there is just Islam.
@ Mauricio:You’re right: I keep repeating myself [ but then who else should I repeat?
].
Still I’m sure all Indonesian Muslims I know are pretty relaxed believers- call it liberal. Like Christians, Jews ( and atheists) range from ultra orthodox to only nominal members/supporters, so do Muslims. Whatever Recep Tayyip Erdogan says, he is not a Salafi. Nor a Sufi for that matter. He very well knows over 1 billion people calling themselves Muslims is not a homogeneous block.
Moreover “Liberal” may be an ominous concept to political Islamists in Indonesia and elsewhere, it definitely is not to the authors who publish Jaringan Islam Liberal (http://islamlib.com/en/).
However I’m afraid you did hit the nail on the head about their state of mind. It looks like most of them either shrug their shoulders thinking FPI and the likes are just annoying irrelevancies causing occasional incidents or they factually are cowed down like you said. So there’s every reason for wake up calls. Some extra liberal fighting spirit would be welcome.
(And we, outsiders, should give priority to the question what causes/caused the revival of Islam fundamentalism in and outside the Archipelago).
Here’s real-life story, one from my own life:
A couple of weeks ago, over breakfast the wifey and I talked about some of the excessive and suffocating literalism and ritualism that prevails in the practice of Islam in Indonesia. First of all, a description of my wife’s religious background is in order to understand her views. Her father was a bit of a blue blood from Yogya, a descendant of a Hamengkubuwono (she’s got the silsilah to prove it) who practiced kejawen and only adopted Islam fully when he got married to her mother. Her mother, on the other hand, is a commoner, so to speak, from Java’s northern pesisir, the first areas to be Islamicized on Java. Her father, upon hearing that she and I intended to wed, said that the religion under which we wished to get married was entirely up to my wife and I. Her mother insisted on Islam. Her father visited, lived or worked in at least 70 countries during his lifetime. My wife has spent half of her life outside of Indonesia.
Over breakfast, she mentioned that coincidentally enough she had been talking about related issues with her Muslimah friend the day before. She and as well as her friend wished for more debate and tolerance about the particular practices that passed for “Islamic” because they thought them inadequate, unjust or unrealistic. When they tried to express these misgivings among her Muslim brethen, they would be immediately attacked and repressed. The result was that they can now only express themselves freely among a very small group of similarly-minded Muslims, or, in more cases, with non-Muslims. It is not a coincidence or unrelated that my wife’s husband is an unrepentant apostate kaffir.
Is this intolerance of debate, questioning and criticism healthy and productive for Islam and for Muslism? Hardly. So long as debate is stiffled, and criticism (the real one, not the polite, ersatz type that the religious are wont to engage in) suppressed, the House of Islam will not know peace, prosperity or unity. Debate and criticism are a sign and source of strength, not of weakness.
@ Mauricio: Your personal story shows the dubious and regrettable impact petty middle-class and provincialism can have.
“Debate and criticism are a sign and source of strength, not of weakness” indeed. Hear, hear. That’s what is wrong with fundamentalism – it has reached the ultimate truths so debate and criticism our superfluous. After Pope John Paul II died, the Roman Catholic Church also tries to effectively stifle and muzzle debate and criticism. That’s an inherent problem with these monotheistic religions based on divine revelations – to religious hard-liners their interpretation of “God’s own words” leaves no room for doubt. So sensible believers should speak out in stead of hiding. They still can do so. For the time being they will not be jailed, tortured or burned on the stakes for dissenting opinions [If the wordings they use cleverly and smartly avoid the gaping muzzle of blasphemy legislation
].
Where you and I part ways, Meneer Colson, is that I fully realize that “liberal” Muslims like my wife are the exception, not the norm, and rather thin on the ground. Ergo I don’t fully share your admiration, acceptance and optimism for the “culture” and the country. Through no fault of our own, and wishing no ill will towards anyone, we have been subject to discrimination and rejection. All in the name of religion.
Opa, once I contemplated that we, Indonesian tropical Muslim would be the last crowd to be given the pass to enter heaven. The first groups to go,I believe, would be Muslims in Europe or America or other Western hemisphere. Why? Apart from those whose parents are Muslim immigrants, they chose Islam out of conviction which they arrived at after some long spiritual journey. Unlike me, I inherit this religion from my parents. I never question. And I never dare to stray away. Then, like what you have said in your post, they don’t live in an supportive islamic environtment like I do. Fasting during Summer must feel like hell: 18 hours or more without eating or drinking and sexing! While here we have a very supportive environtment that all things that can lure us away from our fasting are “closed”. thanks to the ramadhan raid! So, in terms of faith, we are of the weakest which means we are not the one that would be welcome first in heaven.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men [and women] to do nothing.”
@ Mauricio: Perhaps our opinions differ. Slightly. But the main difference being of course you live among believers and I occasionally spend one or two months holidays over there. And may be, just may be there is this other difference: I was born and bred in an orthodox protestant family. And therefore, I think, I recognize and tend to accept to some extent the need for adherents of religions and other ideologies to cling to their rituals and vested values. To expand them. Even if I think those are irrational, regrettable or objectionable. Actually most believers don’t differ substantially from my wish to have the world accept my rather liberal views.
And as to the future of Indonesia I’m just another “profeet die brood eet” (literally translated from Dutch: A prophet who eats bread – someone who don’t know either). Yet some five or seven years ago I wrote a letter to a pretty religious Indonesian young man in which I indicated that Indonesia’s main obstacle to prosperity would be the priority of religion in society. Which was not the worst prediction I ever made. Yet I stick to my optimism. Fundamentalism comes and goes. Someday the sensible middle class will come to it’s senses and put the radicals in their place.
As you quote the Burke quote I think we are on the same track after all. At least it proves I as a left winger have enough of an open mind to refer to a famous conservative if necessary:).
@ delvi: It is quite an achievement indeed my Muslim fellow countrymen accomplish. The other day my ( non-Muslim) Indonesian daughter in law had a little party with, among others, a few (Muslim)Indonesian friends. A lot of drinks and delicious Indonesian food around. Temptations all over, but they didn’t fall. Did join the party and kept to their fasting. Great. Respect.
As for heaven… I’m sure you will be among the guests of honour
. [And if you allow me a little innocent blasphemy: at that time my soul will be dancing to the a life concert of the Rolling Stones who no doubt will stay in the same over-heated department as me 
]
Hey Delvi, perhaps for the benefit of your country you could think less about gaining entrance to heaven, and do more about the deeds of your co-religionists in the world of the here and now.
I heard soft drinks also contain alcohol, why the double standard I wonder.
your point is exactly the classic problem: the radicals speak too much, while the moderates dont speak so much.
@ calvin: I hope the sensible majority will resist violence by radicals and reject rules radicals intend to impose on them. Being a majority that can’t be difficult.
The classic problem is compounded in that the so-called moderates or sensible majority are in reality very thin on the ground and not the majority at all. Have you considered that?
@ Mauricio:I didn’t count their numbers. I’ll give you that.
I know the Indonesian men and women I know are no pars pro toto of the Indonesian people. Yet I think they at least represent the opinion of a vast majority of the informed and educated strata. And those opinions are pretty liberal.
On the other hand most people are fellow travellers. They follow the lead of others. Today loudmouthed religious radicals took over large parts of the national debate. Like secular leaders did in the past. Traditionally that meant common people neither gave top priority to religion in their lives. That was and I guess is still in the genes. An indication is that religious based political parties still have only limited electoral support.
So if only the educated, well informed vanguard of the country should take up it’s responsibility and act like a vanguard and lead, the rank and file would follow them I’m sure.
Mauricio, I am the type that won’t mind other people’s business unless they encroach my line. Reading this replay, I bet you would whine to Opa Colson, that a gilr like me is an Exhibit A of the…”so-called moderates or sensible majority [which]are in reality very thin on the ground and not the majority at all.” In your view this type would evaporate into oblivion. and Indonesia will be the second Afghanistan for let say ever. I am afraid you misunderestimate us Mauricio. We are not a static society which is allergic to change. This is the time where people become religious. But we also have some decades that (most) Indonesians were very unreligious. Probably next year, people will feel bored of preachers on tv and choose to listen to stephen hawking perhaps and idolize salman rushdie. Who knows? Be optimistic Mauricio or hurry pack your things and off to other place where no fundamentalistic lots exist (probably to Holland and geert wilders there)
@ Delvi: You’ve got a painful point about Geert Wilders. Some 15% of the electorate in Western Europe is inclined to vote extreme right wing political parties (anti Islam, anti European Union, anti establishment, xenophobic and racist). Actually they also to a considerable extent took over public debate. It even may get worse in the present economic situation.
Our “vanguard” is ostentatiously failing as well
.
Opa, actually what I wanted to say is fundamentalism of any kind is not endemic to countries in the south hemisphere like indonesia, which is by chance of history home to most muslim of the world. If some tiny tiny portion of Indonesians the like of the FPI lots are labelled as fundamentalist for their actions like the ramadhan raid, we also see other less than significant portion of let say far far far right wing lots the like those that support Geerrt Wilders in the Northern hemisphere. So, I guess it’s time for people like mauricio, which I believe not the representative of western discourse on Indonesia, who only managed to see flaws in Indonesian system but failed to see flaws in his own backyard to change.
And for your failing “vanguar”, I do think people will be tired of hatred discourse launched by Mr. Wilders. It would serve as a tentative sedative to release them from the sting of the crumbling economy but it wont serve as the medicine for it. You know blaming other people for your own malady can help for a while. Soon, they’ll know it will not cure them that Mr. Wilder’s prescription would be left behind.
Having been to Afghanistan, I’d say your hyperbolic comment about Afghanistan betrays either a head-in-the-sand attitude or a callous I-don’t-care-as-long-as-it’s-not-me-who’s-affected, both of which do not reflect well on your body of belief. And why should my Indonesian wife and child pack up and leave exactly? I am simply holding your co-religionists and country to its own standards and rhetoric. I ask nothing more than you comply with your own high ideals and values. Is that too much to ask of you all?
@ delvi: I regret to admit you’re right about Europe. The problem with widespread discontent and insecurity ( but fortunately no or next to no vigilantes on the streets up to now) is that it is the condition in which quite a number of citizens fall for irrational ‘solutions’ extremists offer ( which may be comparable to some extent). Wilders’ may seem to be gradually loosing a little of his political appeal, for some time to come the problems will stay. There are more Wilders’ in European countries, I’m afraid. And we ( well, the educated, informed and engaged part of society) seem not be be able to come up with sensible and appealing solutions (which also may be comparable to some extent). Rather we’ve lost touch with the majority in distress. So we fail. I fail too.
I agree the vigilantes in Indonesia are a tiny minority too. The worrying part to me is the tendency of some clerics and officials to extenuate their behaviour. And every now and then a few even express open sympathize and tend to stress FPI’s ( and their brothers-in-crime’s) good intentions. Too often government and institutions are reticent about taking actions after obvious examples of breaking the law. Though I agree ‘fundamentalism’ is not the national characteristic or endemic or widespread, it’s there and underestimating it’s potential in uncertain times of rapid change is unwise ( I think). Here, there and everywhere
.
The deep irony in all of this is that on one hand FPI inveighs against other religions and attacks those that they see as non-Muslim while on the other hand deploring the violence meted out to the Rohingyas in Myamnar. They want to be able to attack other religions and beliefs with impunity while demanding protections for themselves.
@ Mauricio: It’s opportunistic, ironic, cynical and it’s selective indignation indeed. Appalling and stunning ignorance in combination with a broken down moral compass . They usually seem to have no clue what’s really happening in the world.
No Indonesian Islamist has ever cared about the tragic fate of the non Muslim Myanmar’s Karen people. Nor did one of them condemn the atrocities the Boko Harma Muslim fighters commit in Nigeria. And none of them ever came to help of fellow Muslims who were under attack from Hindi-radicals in India.
It’s a sad but dangerous bunch.
No Indonesian Islamist, indeed the mainstream of Indonesian Islam, has condemned the repugnant, inhuman treatment meted out to their Ahmadi co-religionists.
Today, on the 67th anniversary of the independence proclamation, as the handsome flags flutter in the August winds, Indonesians would do well to note that nowhere on their country’s flag does the color green, the shape of the moon and stars appear. Indeed, unlike the flag of their neighbors, the Indonesian flag is a testament to the constitutional and ideological basis of a nation based on equality of religions, a country in which one religion, no matter which one, can impose its will on itself or other religions. Today, I celebrate that noble notion and concept of Indonesia, however trampled upon by the Islamist and Islamizing enemies of bangsa Indonesia.
@ Mauricio: “This country, the Republic of Indonesia, does not belong to any group, nor to any religion, nor to any ethnic group, nor to any group with customs and traditions, but the property of all of us from Sabang to Merauke!”
Soekarno Speech in Surabaya, September 24, 1955
(I saw these famous lines quoted by Triesti Prabawati on Facebook this morning)