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Way beyond Mecca

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, On The Road on Apr 30, 2008

In Indonesia, the book tour comes to an Islamic boarding school

Read my earlier newsletter from Indonesia and you’ll know that I’m on a mini-mission. I’m out to educate Western journalists about why they should look past the Arab world for signs of where Islam is heading.

In this spirit, let me draw your attention to a New York Times essay that compares my approach to Muslim reform with that of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. It’s an exquisitely crafted piece: respectful to each of us — neutral without lapsing into limpness. An impressive balance.

That said, I take issue with the author’s suggestion that our “most sympathetic audiences are probably Western” because neither Ayaan nor I has a “significant Muslim constituency in the Middle East.” Such a statement implies that Arabs are the only Muslims who matter.

Fact is, fewer than 20% of Muslims worldwide are Arab! Which means more than 80% of us are non-Arab. Shouldn’t media be asking how non-Arabs — the vast majority of Islam’s universe — are responding to ideas about religious reform?

Having just wrapped my book tour in Indonesia, I can help answer that question by sharing one of my favorite moments: I was invited to present my ideas at a pesantren — an Indonesian Islamic boarding school. (Notice the basketball court for girls, and the Chicago bulls backboard.)

Through my translator, I emphasized to the students that their uniquely Indonesian voices are needed more than ever. Indonesia represents the possibility for new Muslim leadership — the kind that replaces desert Arabia’s tribal mindset with a love of diversity.

Moreover, I said, the time to assert Indonesian diversity is now. Why? Not only because Saudi influences are on the rise, but also because so much of the world is thirsting for an alternative to the us-versus-them mentality of the tribe.

Witness America, struggling with itself to replace George W. Bush’s “you’re with us or you’re with the terrorists” attitude. If Americans now believe that they need a different vision, and they’re willing to challenge themselves to achieve it, what should stop Muslims from accepting the same challenge for ourselves?

Think about it this way, I proposed to the students: Barack Obama emerged from nowhere to be the champion of change. Even if he doesn’t become America’s president this time, his call for reform has been heard far and wide. It has framed the campaign. It has galvanized the silent (or silenced) masses. Young Indonesians, out of “nowhere,” can become the Muslim world’s Obama.

I reminded them that historically, the most compelling ideas have come from the periphery, not the center! Remember, too, that Indonesia is a democracy, with all of democracy’s flaws, but at least it gives citizens far more freedoms than Arab dictatorships do.

So, I concluded to the students, use your freedoms of thought, expression and conscience to imagine a fresh future for Islam — and for humanity. Then use digital media to circulate your ideas worldwide. Don’t worry about being agreed with; just spark the debate. And when you do, you’ll be showing reform-minded Muslims everywhere that they’re not alone.

At the end of our session, a gaggle of girls surrounded me to ask questions, shake hands and snap photos. One of them (ok, I’ll fess up: the one in the pink scarf) said — in slow and deliberate English — “I am so inspired now. Thank you, Wonder Woman.”

Wonder Woman! It’s not the compliment that I embraced; it’s the fact that this girl signaled, through a shared pop cultural reference, that you can withstand the bullets coming your way if you really believe in justice.

Inspired, in turn, by these young women, I went with them to visit fellow students in the dorms. The pictures below show you the warmth of the reception I got.

One of my adult hosts at the pesantren, an Indonesian scholar named Hindun Annisa, later escorted me to the boys’ side. Hindun and I had bonded earlier in the day. She served on a panel to discuss my film, Faith Without Fear, with 350 students at one of Indonesia’s largest universities.

Hindun pointed out to the students that Muslim theologians who talk about “Islamic” history usually mean “Arab” history, which is among the reasons that Indonesian thinking need not march in lockstep with that of the Middle East.

After my tour of the pesantren, Hindun’s mother — who lives at the school as its principal of sorts — invited me to come back.

I suspect it’s because Indonesians are relieved to hear a Western Muslim “get” their reality (or care about it at all) that my constituency in their country is growing big-time: Indonesia is now the third largest source of hits to this website. Currently, more site visitors are coming from Jakarta than from any other city in the world.

Question to media: Just because I don’t get love-bombed like this in the Middle East, is it fair to say that my sympathizers are Western? What are Indonesians? Chopped liver?

Hell, for the future of Islam, Indonesia might be more important than any other Muslim state. That’s for two demographic reasons: First, Indonesia alone has about as many Muslims as the entire Middle East. Second, its 300 ethnicities and scores of languages capture the pluralism of Islam’s believers with an accuracy that the Middle East simply can’t.

Look, by no means am I implying that we should dismiss Arab Muslims. God knows I don’t. That’s why I’ve translated my book into Arabic and posted it on this site for free-of-charge download. To date, there have been 300,000 downloads — never mind how that number explodes when you include the Urdu, Persian and Malay downloads. None of these languages is “Western” either.

The Prophet Muhammad reportedly encouraged a perpetual search for knowledge, even if that means going as far as China. I think he’d be equally supportive of going to Indonesia. (Similar time zones!)

Sure, for Muslim reform to gain traction, an audience in the Middle East matters. But not to the exclusion of everywhere else.

Here’s my Indonesia photo album – with many more pics to come. Give me time to get over my jet lag, would you?