Anugrah Kebudayaan: Indonesian Cultural Award

Since about 1970 the Minister of Education and Culture of Indonesia holds a ceremony of Anugrah Kebudayaan. Some 50-60 artists and scholars in the field of Indonesian culture, are decorated for their contribution. Since 2015 every year about four foreigners are also given these awards. Receivers vary from historians like Merle Ricklefs, Anthony Reid, and Anthony Johns to the San Egidio community for its inter-religious work.
For the 2019 edition of this award I was selected and on 10 October I received the prize and the decoration. In the argumentation of the committee this was motivated as follows (in my translation of the Indonesian text): "The Professor Emeritus of Intercultural Theology at Utrecht University has given a contribution to the intellectual development of the lecturers in the study of Islam. Has also given much attention to the interreligious relations and dialogue. Besides this has has written several important books on the history  of Indonesian Islam. Born in 1942, he has become a pioneer in the development of the Institutes of Islamic Education, especially the IAIN [State Academy of Islamic Studies] in Jakarta and Yogyakarta. He has been teaching at both places and opened possibilities for Indonesian students to continue their studies at a higher level in foreign countries. He was very helpful in the enhancement of the quality of the lecturers through the programme of cooperation with  Leiden University in the Netherlands, which resulted in a good number of Ph.D dissertations in the field of Islamology."
Besides my nomination there were three more 'foreigners' in Jakarta. Most remarkable was a Shaykh from Al-Azhar, Mahmoud Hamdi Zakzouk, decorated for his helpful assistance to Indonesian students in Cairo. In this way both the traditional Islamic and the modern orientalist centres were praised. This also shows the independent position of Indonesian Muslims. Roesman Darmohoetomo was decorated because he created a network of teachers of modern Indonesian and Javanese in his homeland of Suriname. Akiko Kamaguchi from Japan received the award for her work for the conservation and documentation of traditional West-Javanese music. Besides, there was a great variety of artists: from a traditional stry-teller of Papua to a copuist of classical Balinese texts on lontar sheets. There was a player of wayang, bsides a singer of kroncong music, besides a pantomime-player. A full list can be  by searching on the Dikbud Website under Anugrah Kebudayaan.

For the ceremony of the decorations we were on 10 October in the large badminton hall of Senayan: Istana Olahraga Bung Karno, where 8000 people can be seated. It was a ceremony with many art performances in a spectacular and festive style. I could not make good pictures and only include below one of the opening, taken with my mobile phone. I am still waiting for better pictures from the organizing ministry.

The initiative for the cooperation between Leiden University and the IAIN was of course not only my work. Instead, it was the original idea of Dr. Mukti Ali, minister of religions of Indonesia between 1970 and 1978. He contacted the Dutch Embassy of Jakarta and asked for this connection, supported by Dr. Harun Nasution, rector of the Jakarta IAIN. In the Netherlands quite many followed later in this programme. I mention here of course Martien van Bruinessen, who came as a KITLV researcher but in the early 1990s also was a  professor in Yogyakarta and supervior of many doctoral dissertations. Others were the late Johan Meuleman, Herman Beck and for a long time also Nico Kaptein.

Ahok, Farid Esack and wali/awliya

Basuki Tjahaja or Ahok has already been relieved from prison after two years. But new cases asnd debates about blasphemy, respect for religious ideas, continue. Therefore it is good to reconsider also the Ahok-case once again.
In the verse of 5.51 there are several problems of interpretation. First the word of wali/awliya. The Plural word awliya was translated by MUI as 'pemimpin'.  Indeed, in Indonesian wali negara can be a leader of a country. H.B. Jassin gives two words pelindung dan sahabat. Farid Esack has a long chapter on the problem and he translates it as'collaborator'.  (Qur'an, Liberation and Pluralism, Oxford, One World, 1997: 180-206).
The circumstances of his writings are as follows: in the period of Apartheid, Esack joined a moved of the Protestant minister Beyers Naudée against Apartheid, while at the same time the famous preacher Ahmad Deedat, was together with some black people a supporter of the privileges given to some Black and coloured (= Indian offspring) people. Al-Maidah 5.51 was so used by Deedat against Esack. Deedat only wanted to fight Christians, Esack wants to fight injustice.

Farid Esack mentions a number of verses where the Qur'an takjs about 'taking people as wali'. Only in 5.51 it is about Jews and Christians. Other verses talk about seeking support with believers, men and women of faith (5.56; 9:70). Of not seeking support from the unbelievers (3.28; 4.139; 4.144). For Esack the basic problem at the time was justice, fighting against Apartheid and for democracy. In this case some of the white Christians are injuste, because the want apartheid. But other Christians are fighting against corruption, against racism and the faithful Muslims must join them, because they are seeking the right way as commanded by God.
Mangunwijaya already said in 1995 that there is perhaps "too much religion in Indonesia".  Not religious denomination should be dcisive, but values like anti-racism, pro-democracy, free from corruption and inefficiency. In social and political life that really determines good faith, irrespective whether it is within Christianity or Islam, because in both religions also many evil people can be found! There Esack pleads for a contextual reading of this command of the Qur'an.

Mystic Islam or Islam light? Merle Ricklefs on his Sout Catcher, Mangkunegara I

After starting his academic career with a portrait of the first Sultan of Yogyakarta, Merle Ricklefs wrote many books, some more general ones like the classic History of Modern Indonesia since c. 1300, a serie of three books covering Islamic developments from 1830 until the modern age and a series on the courts of Surakarta. This is now again enriched with a book on the counterpart of Sultan Mangkubumi I of Yogyakarta: Prince Mangkunegara I of Surakarta.
It is a rich book covering the history of Central Java since the turbulent period beginning with the killing of some 10.000 Chinese in Batavia in 1740 by the Dutch (a 'preemptive strike!), followed by a flight of the 5.000 Chinese who fled the colonial capital to Central Java. This created a civil war in Central Java, 1743-1757.
Ricklefs gives a general picture of the period, the development of the major players in the field: the two mentioned above and the Ruler Sunan Pakubuwana II until PB IV.

Many aspects are highlighted: Dutch colonial policy and its officials, the rulers and their families. The book looks like a huge portrait of a society divided in opposing groups. The persons are described in vivid colours. The sources are from VOC archives (mostly from Indonesia) and from the various courts. It is sometimes a real entertainment to read their concise and clear poetry of the Javanese documents.
On pages 273ff Ricklefs gives a nice summary of his favourite concept of the Mystic Synthesis. It is a somewhat truncated or at least basic style of Islam (the five pillars of confession of faith, regular prayers, fast of Ramadan; paying the zakat sometimes, hajj only for few people), with a strong feeling of a Muslim identity. Besides that there is a firm belief in local spirits, attachment to the stories of Wayang performances. Only the more pious people abstained from alcoholic drinks, use of opium and gambling. Pages 295-299 describe a movement, a circle of strongly Islamic officials in the court of the Susuhunan, from 1788 until November 1790. One Santri became nominated a bupati by the young PB IV and officials who were wearing European clothes were sent away from the court. There was no more alcoholic drinks, more pious gatherings, Qur'an readings, until several thousand troops led by Mangkubumi and Mangkunegara together surrounded the palace and five leading figures were sent into exile to Sri Lanka. Ricklefs regrets that only the opponents have written this story for us and we do not have the voice of the other part. The Mystic Synthesis had his own weapons and was under strict control as well!
Was this official Islam some kind of Islam Light? I checked some sources for the now well known formula about Aceh, where the shari'a must be taken seriously, pelaksanaan syaria secara kaffah.. This is taken from Qur'an 2:208. However, most translations do not give the meaning of 'complete' as to the content, but rather 'all people together'. The verse is in the translation of Arberry: O believers, enter the peace [silm] all of you [kaffatan] and follow not the steps of Satan.
There is a story about a Jewish tribe who did not like to accept Islam/silm because they wanted to keep the quiet day of Sabbath and the taboo of eating camel meat. Anyway, there are diverse opinions also about Islam light, corrupt or truncated versus full!

A clash of cultures in Indonesian Islam? Nico Kaptein as a new professor in Leiden

Nico Kaptein is already since more than 30 years busy with Indonesian Islam after his dissertation on the origins of the celebration of maulid, birth of Muhammad. Only recently he was nominated a full professor of Southeast Asian Islam in Leiden. 19 September 2019, he gave his inaugural lecture on the Arabs and their influence on Indonesian Islam. Mecca is the liturgical centre of Islam: the focus of the drection of people praying and once a year the city of the hajj, the great pilgrimage. Since the 17th century it was also a centre for Islamic learning for Indonesians. Sultans sent delegations to the holy city to seek the official title of sulten, or answer to difficult questions. After 1925 (when the Wahhabi King again could establish his capital in Riyad) modernists went to Cairo for studies, but Arabia is still attractive.

 However, after 1980 LIPIA, the Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Islam dan Arab, an institute of study of Islam and Arab, started its spread of Wahhabism (now often called Salafism) in Indonesia. And since then Nahdlatul Ulama and in some sense also Muhammadiyah leaders feel threatened in their position. They even started a counter-attack, stressing that Indonesian Islam is different from Arab culture and even religious interpretation. Kaptein referred to Hasbi Ash-Shiddieqy (who wanted a Mazhab Indonesia) and Abdurrahman Wahid and his ideas of pribumisasi, to support indigenisation of Islam and to prevent further 'infiltration' of Arab Salafism in Indonesia. Arab words like assalam 'alaikum, salat should be avoided and Selamat pagi, sembahyang should be used.
I heard even the term of 'fragmentation of religious authority'. There was little about the longtime differences between Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, that never caused real conflicts, fighting or obstruction in Indonesia.

Among the 30 professors there were three ladies: 10%, showing that Dutch universities are not really pushing feminist ideas! It was a good opportunity to see old friends. Above Herman Beck from Tilburg.

Penistaan: the debate about the vulnerability of religion

In 2016-7 there was a malicious reli-political action against the candidate for governorship of Jakarta, Ahok. He had quoted a text from the Qur'an, given his own interpretation and then he was accused of penistaan or deprecation/vilification of religion. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
About six months ago there was another case in Tanjung Balai a majority ethnic-Chinese town close to Medan. A Chinese lady, Meiliana, living close to a mosque, complained about the very noisy loudspeaker of a mosque nearby. It was mentioned to the police, she was arrested and 19 August 2019 she was sentenced to stay for 1.5 year in prison, for penistaan/penodaan.

Soon after this strange verdict by a local judge, there came another case of accusation of vilification of religion. A preacher from Pekan Baru, the oil capital of Central Sumatra, one Ustaz Abdul Somad, had given a sermon in a mosque which was recorded and available on the internet. He had said: salib itu dalamnya ada Iblis dan ada jin kafir ('in the cross the devil is present and unbelief; evil spirits are found in the cross). Some Batak Christians went to a court to ask for a case against  this UAS (famous people with long names like to use acronyms since Hamka, SBY and others). UAS, born in 1977, studied for some time at Al-Azhar in Egypt and also took an MA degree in Rabat, Morocco. He is at this moment a lecturer at the UIN, Islamic University Syarif Kasim of Pekan Baru.

The MUI, Majelis Ulama Indonesia, Indonesian Council of Muslim Clerics, called for mitigation in this case: it should be handled outside the legal institutions, through dialogue and mutual understanding. This is understandable, but it should have been more convincing if MUI had shown or preached mitigation as well in the Ahok and Meilana cases. Recent history of Pakistan has shown that vilification processes can bring total disorder to a country. And the present Muhammadiyah leader also rightly stated that the Ahok affair only has brought public and social damage to the country. Religion is strong enough and should not be defended as if it is a weak institution.
Benny Susetyo and Gomar Gulton, from the Catholic and Protestantchurches reacted that if this preacher will not ask forgiveness for his words,  he  anyway will be forgiven by them.

Axial Age,Enlightenment and more nice terminology

Two weeks ago I wrote about the book by Bernie Adeney on encounters he had in Indonesia during the last tw decades. Most of these were not directly related to the great world religions, but to free individual interpretations. In fact, I first came across this book by the review in BKI, 2019:81-4. Gerry van Klinken showed here his surprise that so long after the axial period of 800-300 BCE and also several centuries after the Enlightenment (1700-1800), religion is still an issue,a living culture and  tradition.

Lao Tse, the Buddha, the Jewish Prophets, the first Greek Philosophers they were included in 1949 by Karl Jaspers as the founding speakers of die Achsenzeit. In the review Van Klinken formulated the question: 'Why do Indonesians appear to be still so deeply pre-axial? Why do they still seemingly live in a sacred cosmos even while they enjoy the freedoms of modernity?' He suggests that Adeney's  answer is that Indonesia has a unique open and tolerant form of religiosity (p. 80).

While reading the book myself, I discovered that Adeney gives examples of questionaires he had asked to be filled by some 2000 young people (students), but although divided between the major religious groups,the relevant conclusions and nice stories are not from the questionaires who do not give clear differences between religions. In fact he shows that the great religious and philosophical traditions are still alive, but are re-interpreted again and again with many people not adressing the old formulas, but rather seek answers they like. And it is often not the philosophical discourse, but the narrative sequence which is the power of these great traditions. Karl Jaspers may have found a striking term, the great story-teller Karen Armstrong told his story again and so Bernie Adeney applied this method to his entourage in Indonesia.
In the second paragraph of the Introduction it is stated that 'Indonesia is unique in the modern world..' (page 1).  This is not related to the legal position  of religion through the state ideology of Pancasila. In the late 1980s and during the 1990s when Pancasila had become corrupt, when it was to be included in the first lines of the statutes of all social bodies as asas tunggal, it was somewhat in decline. Is this the reason why he does not mention it as the unique invention of Indonesia?

The pious believers of Bernie Adeney

Last two weeks I have been reading the fascinating book by Bernard Adeney, Living in a Sacred Cosmos, Indonesia and the future of Islam 2018, Yale Southeast Asia Studies vol.66.

Initially it was difficult reading: I was expecting some broad and general theories and observations about Indonesian Islam, how the largest Muslim country takes a different position than the Middle East or India-Pakistan. Or rather: How it is now also developing towards a more 'conservative turn' (Bruinessen 2013, Madinier The end of innocence). But the book is not about Islam as an institution, even not about Islam as a community. In the first chapter only one page (24-5) is devoted to the the more than 50 salafi organizations that have started since 1998, the end of the Soeharto regime. It is not about organizations, it is all about individuals, and most often about personal meetings of Adeney in his Indonesian period, roughly 1993-2013. He was the leader of the postgraduate centre at the UGM, Universitas Gadjah Mada  in Yogyakarta,  where Christians (UKDW, Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana) and UIN, the Islamic State University of Yogyakarta come together as ICRS the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies.
Adeney writes about religious individual experiences not about universal or local Muslim development in leading persons or organizations (and Indonesia is better in organizations than in the great leaders). He gives wonderful interpretations of the creative sensitivity for religious ideas and emotions. He avoids the doctrines and formal organizations.This makes the book sometimes a learned annotated personal diary. It is its weakness, also its strength.
As to formal Islamic learning there is much available in Indonesia and Adeney has not the ability to equal or even to understand them easily. There is one Arab word in Arab script in the book, but unfortunately, the letters are not from right to the left, but the other way round on p.68.When reading the word tauhid or 'Unity of God' here one wonders: did nobody in his office correct him? I have seldom read more awkward Arabic!

But the weakness about 'formal'  or 'official' Islam is corrected by the nice anecdotes, personal stories in this book. Here he often writes more about Indonesians in general than about Muslims more specifically. An excellent example is pp. 237-247 about 'imagination of nature'. It first gives his imression of the dramatic eartquake in Yogyakarta, 27 May 2006, when he saw people saying their ritual prayers amidst the ruins of their house. Then he turns to the tsunami of Aceh, 26 December 2004. It begins with the story of the Protestant minister Elisa who missed his appointment, arrived late in Aceh and found 15 members of his family lost or/and dead. This minister had for some time great problems in accepting God's goodness for his creation, while a Muslim grandmother in Yogyakarta could more quickly put the disaster in her religious imagination. He ends then with a long quote from the Jesuit writer Sindhunata about God as Grandfather Merapi, the volcano north of Yogyakarta: 'With his lava and eruptions that kill, grandfather Merapi demands human victims, but Grandfather Merapi also pays us back with the overflowing richness of nature..'
What has this to do with Indonesia and the Future of Islam? Probably that title was good enough for the marketing of the book. But this is very different from the large amount of studies complaining about the salafi invasion and infiltration in Indonesia and a possible strategy to turn it: that theme is restricted to one page only!