Looking into the many faces of Islam
The heart of dialogue with Islam is to come to know people who are different from us. It leads Sanata Dharma University theological faculty to arrange excursions to Islamic boarding schools (pesantren). They reveal the many different faces of Islam in Indonesia.
Recently teachers and students from Sanata Dharma accompanied students of the Jesuit School of Theology who were invited to stay in two pesantren around Magelang in central Java.
In the first pesantren, called al-Tauhid al-Islami, they had a hard time. The Kyai (Teacher) and students there, along with hundreds of Muslims from other places, bombarded them with many theological questions. It threatened to develop into a great debate, a nightmare for the American students. But instead of responding polemically, they spoke of how their Christianity related to social problems. They shared what they had experienced some days before with people from various religious and cultural backgrounds around Merapi volcano. They had been impressed by how hard these people tried to help one another. This approach rescued them from what could have been a difficult conversation.
The next day they visited Pabelan. This pesantren is well-known both by Indonesians and foreigners as a prestigious school that provides innovative education to 700 high school students. The atmosphere was totally different. Staff members and students welcomed them warmly, and they could meet and talk peacefully. ‘It’s as different as earth and sky’, they said of their two experiences.
This story reflects the complexity of the relationship between communities and of interreligious dialogue in Indonesia. In 1999 – 2000, for example, Muslims and Christians murdered one another in Molucca islands, but many people also collected humanitarian aid for both sides. In the East Java town of Mojoketo, too, Riyanto, a 25-year-old Muslim, was killed trying to protect a church from bombing by an Islamic fundamentalist group. In Indonesia you can have unpleasant encounters. But you can also find poignant and courageous meetings between people.
These good meetings can also raise large theological questions. Recently some Indonesian Jesuit scholastics joined classes with the faculty of Ushul al-Din (Theology) in the Islamic State University of Yogyakarta. For almost three hours, both sides discussed issues, some of them quite delicate, to do with Christology. After such a good meeting I asked myself, ‘If St. Paul had ever come to Indonesia, what kind of Christology would he have developed?’ I suspected that Christology today would be quite different with what has been developed so far.
The discussions held at ‘Impulse’ (Institute for Multiculturalism and Pluralism Studies) in Yogyakarta have also been consoling. I have no problem there expressing my views before the mostly Muslim students, who differ from one another on many things. It is natural for students from the same religious background to challenge one another on particular topics. There are many names for Muslim groups. Some people categorise them as Ulama, revivalists, academicians, and social intellectuals. Others classify them rationalist Islam, cultural Islam, and transformative Islam, or as formalists, substantivists, indigenists, and revivalist-fundamentalists.
These experiences hint at the dilemma of the interreligious movement in Indonesia. On the one hand, it is designed to protect against proselytism from one religion to another. So inter-religious dialogue is promoted for the sake of religion. But in the process we become aware of another goal of interreligious dialogue. It is for social transformation. This is perhaps a more urgent need. Allahu a’lam! God knows best!
Heru Prakosa SJ
