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.