CMR vol. 12: The 18th century in the Philippines and Indonesia

The great CMR-project on Christian-Muslim Relations has arrived at vol 12, the first (out of plannes three) about the 18th century. The volume has in 912 pages some 150 contributions on Asia, Africa and the Americas. The Middle East, the Arab and the Ottoman countries are included. There are 23 entries about Armenia and Georgia, two Christian countries amidst the Muslim of the Caucasus.
On Southeast Asia we find here 13 contributions. This is less than for the preceding 17th century when there were stories about the arrival of the Dutch, the British and the French in this region.
On the Philippines there are five articles by Isaac Donoso, from the University of Alicante, Spain. He mentions writing by Christians and Muslims in the Sulu Archipelago. One sultan here seeks support from the Ottoman Empire against the Spanish Colonialism. There are internal conflicts: some Spanish Christian want a soft politics and spend money and nice words to try to convert the Muslims to their faith. Sometimes with success. A sultan from Sulu who lost his throne, sought support from Manila and offered to be baptised. (It sounds like Paris vaut bien une messe.. if necessary you should convert to keep you position). In this case the Archbishop of Manila did not agree, but nevertheless the baptism was administered (but outside the archdiocese!). This Archbishop gave the example of Spain, where five centuries earlier the Muslims were attacked and in the end they had lost all their positions in the Iberian peninsula. This is still the mentality of the crusades.

The cover is explained further on p. 21: It is the Byzantine emperor Markianos (ruled 450-7), but here depicted in a Melkite manuscript about 1200 later and in the dress of the Ottoman emperor.
About Indonesia there is a nice article by Peter Riddell on Abdussamad al-Palimbani who wrote a call for jihad against the colonial European countries from Mecca where he lived. Yusak Soleiman has a contribution on the Church Council of Batavia, with complaints about the increase of mosques in Batavia (compare this to the protests of modern Muslims to the increase of churches: this book is about religion as a battlefield!)
I wrote several contributions as well here: on Valentyn, on the Corpus Diplomaticum, Plakaatboeken, with negotiations and rules for Muslims living under Dutch authority. I found it also nice to do some more work on the Javanese court chronicles about the arrival of the Dutch. My teacher for Javanese, Pak Soedoro, used to say that Javanese have no limit to their fantasy and this is clear here as well. All my own contributions for CMR are also available through the site academia.edu.

A new Indonesian Tafsir: a truly big no 5!

In 1970 I started my PhD research about Indonesian Islam. My first idea was to write about Indonesian Tafsir of the Qur'an. But soon I realised, that I should do fieldwork and concentrate on  the readers first and leave for some time the writers, although I loved Hamka and his mosque in Kebayoran Baru. But looking to the text while in the country seemed a waste of time, as long as I could see much of the Muslim world by visiting pesantren. So, my doctoral dissertation was about the schools of the Indonesian countryside.
Still, I continued to work sometimes on Qur'anic subjects: one book on the Indonesian Interpretations of the story of Adam, one on the Qur'anic Jesus, a commentary on the longest sura, no 2, Baqarah, and one on the short chapters. Four small books: not bad, perhaps.
I used the four big commentaries: Hasbi Ash-Shiddieqy, Hamka, Departemen Agama and Quraish Shihab.

Last week I received a copy of the big project by Yunan Yusuf, a young lecturer in Jakarta in the 1980s, but now already in the midst of his sixties. As if the big five only now are coming to their final stage! Yunan started his commentary with the smaller sura: Juz 30, then going backward in the holy book, he has now arrived at juz 24. Yunan has an easy style if writing. Not so technical. Not too long in details. Not too much Arabic. This volume explains elements of the surahs 39-41, although not exactly the full surahs. This style of tafsir brings a method that is not concentrated on the sura as a literary unity, because it begins in the midst of a sura. It is explanation verse by verse or small blocs of 6-10 verses as unity. Angelika Neuwirth and her classification of the Meccan surahs is not used here, always taking a sura as a whole.
Yunan does not write for colleagues/teachers, but for pious or curious readers. His conclusions and his theological comments are in the subtitles.
He starts with one complicated verse, just still in juz 23: pages 31-33 are about sura 39:29. It is a parable of one verse only. Arberry translates: God has struck a parable: a man in whom partners disagreeing share, and a man the property of one man. Are the two equal in likeness? Praise belongs to God! Nay, but most of them do not know. This is first about a slave owned by three men: the three owners are in conflict about their property and the way they could use this slave. Another slave is owned by only one man, that is the right way. So, this world, mankind, must be seen as owned by One God alone, What if there would be three Gods ruling over mankind? nd the three quarreling about how to manage mandkind?

In the copy which Yunan sent us, he added a poem, syair, remembering our long relationship. In Ciputat we lived together, and my wife Paule tought him Dutch preparing for a study in the Netherlands (1983). We once made together a trip to Volendam, a touristic destination for many Indonesians. And last year, 2017, we met again in Utrecht. We hope to see you again in this world fi dunya and who knows, even once fi-l akhirat. But first we hope that Yunan will finish all thirty juz!

Taqlid versus Islam Nusantara

Islam Nusantara is recently advertised as panacee against Islamic Terrorism, Wahabi or Salafi 'infiltration' in Indonesia. Not only the Nobel peace prize is here mentioned (see my blog earlier this month). Mark Woodward wrote an interesting piece in Inside Indonesia about some related words: besides 'Islam Nusantara' as the keyword for Nahdlatul Ulama, there is wasathia or 'middle Road Islam'  as the favourite word among the Sa'diya organization of the Buginese Muslim who have spread all over Indonesia. 'Cosmopolitan' or 'Global Values' sometimes related to Islam as God's mercy for all mankind or rahamatun lil 'alamin is another word, now loved by Muhammadiyah members.
One may doubt, however, whether this terminology is in fact attractive. Islamic ideals should be about important issues, even worth to die for. Martyrdom for something 'in the middle' or 'saving Indonesia culture' is probably not the right slogan?

Above is a picture of my self with in the back a banner for a speech I gave at the IKIP Muhammadiyah in Maumere, last October on Muslim Terrorism and European Reactions. For accreditation these institutions need proven international contacts and a personal picture, together with the banner of the speech is so needed.

In this war of words I had to think about about two debates of the 1970s and 1980s when I started research and encounter with Indonesian Islam. The first is about 'pure Islam' whether or not taqlid  is needed. In fact taqlid suggests that Islam is a complex and complete system: embracing Islam is not partial, but once accepted it is to be taken in full. Second: This is more clear in the question and answer with my students at IAIN, the Islamic Academies in Jakarta and Yogyakarta where I taught in Yogyakarta and Jakarta in the 1980s. Quite often I expressed sympathy with Muslim ideas and practice, and criticism towards Christianity. Students then asked: 'Why do you not embrace Islam in full'? My standard answer was that some of my European colleagues indeed had married Indonesian women and embraced Islam. But then they were mu'allaf or recent converts: worthy to be supported (one even received a free ticket for the hajj to Mecca from the Minister of Religions), but they should accept everything, all aspects of Islam. I said to my students that I would prefer to be a critical Catholic rather than a convert to Islam who had to be silent about aspects of Islam I did not like (like quite many detailed commands of shari'a). But this nuanced approach to religion generally is not so attractive, does not create massive support. Also in Europe liberal Christianity is shrinking while more fundamentalist churches are growing.

Nobel Peace Prize for Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama?

From various contacts I received recently a suggestion/request to support the idea that the Nobel Peace Prize 2019 should be awarded to the two largest Muslim organizations of Indonesia. Muhammadiyah was founded in 1912 to reform Islam in urban areas, making it modern and pure and attractive like Christian mission through modern schools and hospitals, orphanages and social work. Nahdlatul Ulama was founded in 1926 to give more power to the traditional Muslim boarding schools of the countryside.
Both organizations grew steadily. Initially they were small in comparison to the political and social movements for Indonesian independence like Budi Utomo, the nationalist movement of Soekarno. But they continued to grow and still are a great social power in the country of Indonesia.

Above is the Muhammadiyah logo, below the emblem of Nahdlatul Ulama. Muhammadiyah is not so strongly concentrated on Arabic (most members are much more fluent in English than Arabic!), but Muslims feel happy with green and Arabic. So, Muhammadiyah's emblem looks like that of Utrecht University, both show God's light to humankind!
Both organizations now are taken as moderate and anti-Salafi organizations. Prominent leaders of the two organizations published in 2009 a book against the Ilusi Negara Islam, the false messianic Illusion of an Islamic State. That book condemned the 'infiltration of Salafi and foreign elements in mosques, organizations and Indonesian society in general'. Muhammadiyah is member of  ICG the International Contact Group which facilitates the contacts between Muslims and Christians in the south of the Philippines (different from ICG or International Crisis Group).
Dr. Din Syamsuddin general chairman of Muhammadiyah 2005-2015 is now personal advisor to President Jokowi in the field of interreligious harmony.
Quite a few of my international colleagues in Indonesian studies welcome the idea of  nominating the two organizations for the Nobel Peace Prize. It will support the moderate Muslims worldwide, it will fight he rise of Islamophobia and strengthen the stream of peace and harmony seeking people among Muslims.
There are, of course, also some problems with this nomination. In 2005 another Muslim Organization of Indonesia issued several radical conservative and intolerant, even insane fatwas. It condemned pluralism (whatever it may be) as a dangerous heresy, it banned all religious mixed marriages for Muslims (against a much more lenient vision of the tekst of the Koran itself!) and it repeated a very severe condemnation of Ahmadi Muslim, which lead to burning of villages, killing Ahmadi people.
These fatwa were issued by the national council of Muslim clercs, Majelis Ulama Indonesia, but endorsed and signed by MD leader Din Syamsuddin and NU leader Ma'ruf Amin.

In 2016 there was a heavy political debate about some religious statements of the Jakarta governor known as Ahok. Many intimidating demonstrations resulted in a court case against him, his abdication and imprisonment. Muhammadiyah leader Haedar Nashir was negative about the demonstrations and expressed his sadness about the loss of time, insight and social harmony due to this political abuse of a complicated and distorted personal opinion. But NU leader Ma'ruf Amin wanted to make profit of this case and created his own mass organization to plead against the Jakarta governor.
These are two recent weak moments in organizations that have given much good to the country of Indonesia. If we go back to the beginning of Soeharto's New Order and the killing of probably more than 500.000 people associated with leftist or Communist groups in 1965-1966, the name of Ansor, the youth organization of NU and of HMI, Himpunan Mahasiswa Islam, loosely connected to Muhammadiyah, must also be mentioned. This makes the nomination of Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama to the Nobel Peace Prize not an undisputed proposal.

GWK the New Besakih of Bali

The Island Bali has changed much during the last century and most of it during the last 50 years, since tourism has grown continuously. In the period 1945-1949 Resident Jan van Baal has to cooperate with the raja, the eleven traditional rulers. Their political and economic power has been abolished. All realms had their own temple, but for the Island as a whole the 'mother' temple of Besakih probably was the major sanctuary. It is located quite high in the mountains,backed in the north by Gunung Agung and looking to the south.
In mid-2018 a new major religious-cultural sanctuary has been opened, the 60 hectare vast GWK, Garuda Wishnu Kencana. It is a sculpture/image of the mythic bird of Garuda carryingthe God Wishnu. It is located on a hill in Nusa Dua, in the very dry Southern and peninsula, close to the airport of Bali. All (or at least most of the) expensive hotels are located in Nusa Dua.
During our last trip to Indonesia,7-29 October 2018, we first made a stop of 5 days in Bali and thefirst visit was to GWK as it is commonly called. GWK is in our perception a sanctuary suited to the new Bali, hotels of Nusa Dua, tourists. Many of the female visitors were wearing the Muslim veil. It has the character of entertainment that is since centuries also connected toplaces ofpilgrimage.
After the entrance (ticket office, shops, restaurants), there is a road uphill along a theatre (with performances of Barong, Kecak, other dances) and people then may enter the most sacred space of the large compound, with a place for prayer and grand statues of Garuda and Wishnu.

Above: one of the first pictures to be seen on the entrance road is of Rama and Sinta, while Rama is hunting a dear at the request of Sinta. Below is the formal entrance where the small GWK is places in the midst of a fountain. Behing, on the pillars are shown figures from the Ramayana like Wibisana and Kumbakarna, brothers of Ravana, the great opponent of Rama. Not much could be seen of the other incarnationof Vishnu, Krishna.

Transport here is mostly by walking or by small buses. Butone mayalso hire a Segway atthe price of IDR 60.000 (or some €4.00) per 15 minutes.

In ons closed section of the great compound one must the special religious attire, the yellow shawl. There is a small chaple where a priest (in white clothes) is available for leading a ceremony, as we saw from a distance. Inthis section also a quite big statue is Vishnu is places, along with a very big one for Garuda (and two eggs: I still have to search for the meaning of the two eggs). Another visitor took the picture of Paule and I in fron of the Vishnu statue.

 The Garuda is carrying Lord Vushnua, who supports and care for the whole world. On top of the Garuda a human person can beseen, apparently for some repair. Visitors can enter the basement of the statue and take an escalator to the middle platforms. There is still much construction under way and we saw no people entering for the platforms inside the statue.

Walking back from the majorand central statue we came along the theatre where at that time no performance was going on (usually not much longer than 30 minutes). We could take some pictures of  people dancing with the Barong.

Sunday morning in Banjarmasin

Banjarmasin is not really a hotspot for tourists. Coal, diamonds and wood is the major commodity sold from this place. But the town itself is a collection of houses along rivers and canals, connected by roads for cars and motorbikes: not to be used by bicycles let alone by people walking. But there are besides the great mosques (especially the Sabilul Muhtadin, after the Istiqlal mosque of Jakarta the second largest of Indonesia) two major events on Sundaymorning: the floating market, at 6am and the visit to the boulevard along the Martapura river,built some ten years ago by a mayor who really wanted to make his town nicer.
We left in the dark, 5am, for the floating market which is a selling place for vegetables and fruit, besides some more daily needs, at a distance of some 7 km outside the town. Houses here are built all along the river, which was for centuries used as the main means of transportation. Now on both sides motobikes can be used and one side has also a small road for cars.

We saw from the window of our boat (driven by a diesel engine) also a canoo with youngsters, rowing very fast as if they were in training for a match. In the middle our boat is shown, with two canoos of women selling their things. It was an early morning after more than 12hours of rain and therefore  it was no clear wheather, only fog and even somewhat cold on the water.
After this trip we had a nice breakfast of fish from the river. Then we coninued withthe second special event: a walk along the boulevard, created as a space for walking, 1 km on both sides of the Martapura river. In the future it will become some kind of a central park, because much of the land surrounding the giant mosque Sabilul Muhtadin will be turned into a park.

Of course,most people come to this boulevard on motorbike and they have to be put in their proper places. But then, it is a nice way af calm walking here, with many youngsters collection money for the eartquake and tsunami disaster in Central Sulewasi some individuals promoting dayak culture by dancing, and the long row of food stalls. It was truyle a festive event.

Traditional Islam in Banjarmasin

From between 7-29 October we were in Indonesia again.After a few days in Bali we came to Banjarmasin. Mujiburrahman al-Banjari, who obtained his PhD in Utrecht (Feeling threatened: Muslim-Christian Relation in Suharto-Indonesia) is now the rector of UIN. He organised an 'international lecture' at his institution. For the accreditation process such international connections are needed. The usual proof of actual levctures is a picture ofa banner aboutthe lecture with the lecturer and some people. Below a picture of the lecture at the UIN, the State IslamicUniversity as well as a similare lecture at the School of Theology of the GKE. Evangelical Church of Kalimantan.

Mujiburrahman organised also several trips in the area. Of course, there were quite a few mosques and holy graves. Beautiful and impressive mosques, but due to the beginning of the rainy season it was difficult to make nice pictures. Many mosques used still giant drums besides the loudspeakers for the call to prayer. We visited among other places the grave of the first Muslim Sultan of Banjarmasin who obtained the throne in 1526 thanks to the cooperation of Javanese Muslim from Demak on the north coast of Java. It was a Saturday afternoon, but quite a few people came here for prayer, by themselves or with the help of professional juru kunci. There were offerings of flowers and people took water for bathing.

The picture below is taken from the great mosque of Martapura (a former capital, a huge mosque, but here also at the mimbar or place for the preacher at the Firday prayers, offerings of flowers. People could askfor blessed water at the small office of the muazzin.
Banjarmasin is not a centre for salafi Muslim but it has also not yet created a strong group of liberal Muslims.People here are quite traditional, middle of the road. Martapura is called a 'town of santri' with quite many and great places for Islamic learning.  The fifth generation after the great scholar Arsyad al Banjari died about 2006 and has received an even much more grandiose grave than hisfamous ancestor: the tradition in continuing.

Ibarruri, life as an ET (Ex-Tapol)

Last October,  Paule and I made a trip to Indonesia: Bali first, then Banjarmasin, Kupang, Waingapu and the Marapu of Sumba, to end in Maumere, where the Indonesian translation of my 3d volume on Catholics in Indonesia was presented in a festive ceremony in the seminary of Ledalero, with some 600 students, starting with the national anthem, speeches by leaders, the question-answer procedure of 1.5 hour after my own impression.
I emphasized that conflict are often useful in the development of something, here the Indonesian Catholic community.
Below some pictures of the seminary, some 10 km south of Maumere, in the hilly landscape of central Flores, Sikka. Thepictures are taken from higher mountains, on the way to the great statue of Mary, Mother of all Nations in Nila.

At the entrance of Ledalero there are two statues of modern saints: Arnold Jansen, founder of the SVD, Societas Verbi Divini and Cina missionary Freinademetz. Also at other SVD institutions, like the Catholic University of Kupang, these two statues are landmarks of the great institutions of this modern order (where now the Indonesians are the largest section of their members).
One special event in Maumere was the Mass on Sunday morning by my closest friend here, Father Dr. John Prior, anthropologist, critical reader of Scripture and on Sunday morning pastor in the local prison of Maumere. We had also a walk along the ca. 150 permanent inhabitants of the prison, many of them with strange life stories, very often also with sad result of the corrupt and strange verdicts by Indonesian judges. One of the prisoners was a young man of 19 years, who had a few years ago a love affair with a girl of 16 and was sentenced to ten years of prison. He is a gifted painter ad had made the modern impression of the last supper.
At the end of Mass John Prior  asked me to sing something and I sang the Salve Regina with reference to the month of October, devoted toMary.

I received also some more books from Ledalero Press. At the suggestion of John Prior I first read the reprint of the biography of Ibarruri Putri Alam, the oldest daughter of Communist leader D.N. Aidit (born 1949). At the time of the 'Communist Coup' in 1965 she was at high school in Moskow and so she survived the terrible killing of more than 500.000 people, suspected of Communism in Indonesia. The book was first published in 2006 at Hasta Mitra, the leftist Publisher who also has printed the books by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. In 2015 this reprint was published by Ledalero Press.

With her younger sister, Iba was educated since 1958 in a special school for international friends of Russian Communism. After 1965 most Indonesian Communist criticized Russian 'Reformism' as a deviation. After much struggle she could move to China where she studied medicine, with a good interest in traditional healing, also acupuncture. While reading the book of 538 pages I had the impression that she used personal diaries.In this way we find much internal debate about the Communist Messianic dreams about 1965: between Russian revisionism and the slow discovery of the deadlock of Stalinism (and later Maoism) and a more realistic political future. She has nice depictions of the combination of pious Islamic practice of her grandparents and the Communist derams (page 73: the young children want to join the prayer of their grandparents, bowing, prostrations; 468-475 on some kind of solidarity between Communism and social programmes of religions; 286-7  on Buddhism and Communism).
From China she moved for some time to Burma, fighting in a guerilla-position in the frontier region; then toMacao until she landed in Paris, 1981, where she had tostart again from zero, learning a new language (after Russianand Mandarin Chinese), working in a supermarket. She also noticed the shrinking presence of Christianity in Europe (425: Di Eropaini gereja semakin kurang dikunjungi orang). Until the publication of her book she lived as an ET: Ex-Tapol, someone known as once connected to Indonesian Communism.
In quite many places she shows her interest in wayang stories, characters (151, 218, 375, 427, 444: also major figures in the wayang plays have there mistakes, they are not perfect begins). Although never educated in a strict Muslim tradition she shows disgust at the idea to eat pork (158).
Writtenin a simple, open and convincing style, it is a marvellous story of someone who had to live with the disaster of the 1965 killings and the end of Communism in her country (where she lived in fact less than 10 years!). Thank you, John Prior andLedalero Press, for this book!

7 November 2017: Constitutional Court on local religions

From 7-29 October I was in Indonesia again, with Paule. We visited for the first time in our life the Island Sumba. It was an exceptional happening. Everywhere in East Indonesia the old traditions, adat are still sacred and important, but in Sumba they have continued to survive as the major religious and spiritual tradition in quite many 'traditional' villages. The followers, about 30% of the population, consider themselves as Marapu, followers of the traditions of the ancestors.
An Association of village chiefs from Sumba, of similar Dayak group (= Kaharingan) and two Batak spiritual societies, Parmalim and Ugamo Bangsa Batak, have taken their case to the Mahkamah Agung or institutional court (in 2016?).  On 7 November 2018  this court published its decision that article 29of the Constitution of 1945 gives freedom of religion and belief  (agama dan kepercayaan) for all Indonesian citizens. It was specified as to the request for identity cards and passports: no longer applicants have to chose out of six official recognised religions, but they can also write that they are followers of a kepercayaan: penghayat kepercayaan. Within the ministry of culture and education they are listed as cultural and spiritual societies.

Already at our  arrival at the airport of Waingapu we shook hands with the village chief of  Prailiu, who was also the vice-president of the Marapu Society of Sumba. We were introduced by Rev. Herlina Kenya, a minister of the Protestant Sumbanese Church, who has good contacts with Marapu people. That same afternoon we visited the village of Prailiu, where we had to share a sirih-pinang with the village chief (above, left). He was very happy with the new legal overtures which gave more status and security to their old traditions. His house is, like the 15-20 great houses in this village all built with traditional materials. There is an old tree where in former times the heads of their enemies were hang, but where now still a ritual centre is found (in a quite informal way: for outsiders, the motor cycle does not disturb the sacredness of the place).

 Above the three ingredients for the ritual sirih pinang: the pinang nut, the sirih fruit and a bottle with calcium.  If you chew it for  quite long time (30 minutes up to a few hours) some calmness seems to come over you, but we had not the true habit of chewing it patiently without somehow eating it.
The other day we went to the greatest traditional village of Sumba, Rende (some 10 km east of Melolo). Here the president of theMarapu Society resides. They were very busy with the preparation of a major funeral, including a village chief and former bupati, who had died ten years ago, together with two other men and one lady. The corpses that had been kept until one month ago in foetus position, were now brought in one house, where they were accompanied by mourning people. The specialists for a night long singing traditional hymns in the complicated ritual language were called upon.There is fear that these texts  will be lost, because there are less and less specialists who know them by heart and there are no written copies.
Bali has the most spectacular funerals in Indonesia, followed by the Toraja people. But also the Sumbanese now celebrate a revival of their pride! And funerals are a major part of this.
I heard that  part of the Kaharingan want to continue as member of Hindu-Kaharingan,but other people want to be member of the Kepercayaan Kaharingan.

Pieter van Dam on the effectivity of Catholic missionaries in Timor, 1600-1800

On 20 October this month, the Catholic University of Kupang, Universitas Katolik Widya Mandira,will an international seminar on The Power of ProximitybetweenEastand West Timor. I am asked to give a talk about the 'historical link between Eastand West Timor, created by the Catholic Church'.
In my paper I will give comparisons, contrasts between the Moluccas and NTT. The British scholar of the period Charles R. Boxer is very positive about the Jesuits who worked in the Moluccas, butverycritical, even negative aboutthe Dominican Friars who worked in East Flores (Larantuka), Solor and Timor. Through accidental reasons (the Dutch gave priority to the Moluccas and banned the Jesuits from Ambon and that whole region in 1605), Catholicism disappeared from the Moluccas.
After 1800 he Portuguese several times tried to ban all religious orders (the Jesuits already worldwide from the 1770s) and only remnants of Catholicism continued in these islands. Most Obvious were the giant crosses that were erected in many places. It is still popular among people from the region to plant these crosses, as seen below.  This is a cross recetly erected in Laktutus, onthe border between Indonesian Timor and Timor Leste.

While reading more in Boxer about the topic, I came across his biography of Francisco Vieira de Figueiredo. Here he quotes Pieter van Dam, the VOC official who never made the trip to Indonesia, but was head of its office in Amsterdam. He underlined that the Dutch never could establish a permanent occupation of the southeaster islands, because their were loved by the population. The Portuguese were successful , thank ‘to their priests and clergy having got most of the natives on their side; and having thus secured a great advantage over us, they have been able to reap the full benefits’.  This is quite an unexpected appraisal about the great work done by the Dominican Friars in this region. The VOC kept his description secret and it was only published in the 20th century!

A universal medicine with the name of Darurat?

In 2016 the MUI, the Council of Muslim Clerics of Indonesia issued a fatwa about the prevention of the rubella disease through vaccination. The common method through preventive vaccination is haram, because gelatine is used, usually made from pork skin or bones. Although chemically changed, it should still be considered as haram.
This fatwa looked quite similar to the former fatwa against the extremely popular fast food of instant Mie about 15 years ago. That was a nice issue for the MUI because it opened the financial gold mine of registration the halal character of all kind of food, against a proper financial payment. I heard from well informed people that this is now the true financial basis of the MUI, which formerly was paid by the State (in fact the Ministry of Religions). Halal certification is big business, also in non-Muslim countries like the Netherlands, but definitely in Indonesia.

The couple Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin at a hospital for their medical examination

Now Ma'ruf Amin is in a problematic situation. As candidate to become Vice-President, but also head of NU and of MUI, he is considered responsible for quite dramatic cases of children with many defections because of the spread of rubella since the fatwa of 2016. Instead of 90%, in this year only 50% of the children have been vaccinated and in Aceh the percentage has dropped to 7% only.
Ma'ruf Amin has now given a quite verbose declaration, where he stated that in case of darurat (urgent situation) the haram status is nullified and it is allowed to practice  vaccination. The situation is quite chaotic now and we will see whatcomes of the debate.

Shafaatun finds her way again

This is the first blog of Relindonesia2: after ten years writing regularly messages about Religion in Indonesia, I bought a new computer and can no longer send message to the former blog. I hope that this second series of Relindonesia may be continued forthe next ten years and find as many readers as its predecessor.
First about another change in the life of myself and my wife, Paule Steenbrink-Maas. We moved from the big house to a nice appartment in a big building, also in Utrecht. Its name is Rheyngaerde and it has 108 appartments.  It looks mor orless like a traditional longhouse in Minangkabau or Dayak area: many families sharing some facilities, but also living in their own appartment.
Inthe big house we could easily have up to five-six visitors, here the facilities arelimited. But still some Indonesians could find us in the first two months: Father Dr. John Prior from Maumere cane for a long weekend. Elga Sarapung followed. Finally for a short week we had Shafaatun Almirzanah as a guest.

Here you find above a selfie of Karel Steenbrink(= this author) with Shafa and my wife, Paule. Below is the pond in front of the town hall and the cemetery of the little old town of Oudewater, where my parents lived a long period of their lives. On the background there are three statues of ladies washing their hair. The trees are called in Dutch treurwilgen or weeping willows
With Shafa the talk seldom moves towards the two  great mystics and  philosophers she studied for her dissertation, Meister Eckehart and Ibnu 'Arabi, but mostly on the present state of religion in Indonesia with a strong turn towards Salafism.  But from the Christian side we could her not give a very positive account, due to the general problem of the sexual misconduct of the clergy in so many countries.
In the margin of this we also asked:  when will thisbe an open debate in Indonesia about the pesantren: homosexuality within these communities and the older classes dominating and urging the younger ones?  And what about kiai who marry very young, even extremely young girls? Their parents like these engagements, but what about the young girls?
Finally, Shafa left our country amidst a quite heavy storm, to Iran: she wisely said that interreligious dialogue is  more easily found between the various world religions than amongst denominations within one great religion. We wish her good success in hermission of dialogue, also in Iran.