I am lucky to have two homes: one in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, the other on the island of Bali. The first is an apartment overlooking a city in which a dizzying array of tongues—Malay, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and English—are heard against the backdrop of the muezzin's call to prayer. The second is a ramshackle villa in the artist's retreat of Ubud, surrounded by Hindu temples and shrines, within hailing distance of Javanese and Madurese street peddlers hawking satay, banana fritters and mee bakso. It's all so richly mixed and, given the potential for ethnic and religious strife, remarkably harmonious. This is Southeast Asia—my Southeast Asia—a world that extremist Islamic forces are attempting to subvert and destroy.
At this difficult and emotional time, when the brutal and horrifying bomb attacks in Bali appear to have turned Southeast Asia (and especially Indonesia) into the second front in the war against terrorism, it is worth remembering that there is much more to the region than Jemaah Islamiah and al-Qaeda. Though these fanatical groups have now apparently taken root here, Southeast Asia has for centuries been a crossroads for five of the world's great belief systems: Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Confucianism.
In Southeast Asia, Islam has engaged with the other faiths, adapting and adopting the cultural traditions of the diverse peoples who practice them. Moreover, most of the region's Muslims have had no problem coping with the demands of the modern world. In Malaysia, for example—a combination of good governance (albeit strained at times), pragmatic race relations and moderate Islam—has created a politically stable economic powerhouse that out-exports Iran, Turkey and Israel combined.
In Indonesia in particular, Islamic expression is very different from the puritanical brand that has been nurtured in Saudi Arabia, germinating the likes of Osama bin Laden. Jakarta is not Jeddah: Islamic expression in Southeast Asia is overwhelmingly moderate, tolerant and progressive. It bears no common cause with the terrible twins of radicalism and terrorism. In fact, the region can help defeat them.
All this is due in part to geography but more importantly to history—both medieval and modern. First, while much of the rest of the Muslim world was won by conquest, Islam's spread in Southeast Asia was by dint of example, with peaceful traders and preachers (often non-Arab Muslim converts from the Indian subcontinent) illustrating the Prophet Muhammad's message during the 14th and 15th centuries. Second, in Indonesia, home to the vast majority of Southeast Asia's 230 million Muslims, there is a yearning for education and for reform—mostly religious but political too—not least because Islam was suppressed for three decades under former strongman Suharto, who feared it would challenge his New Order regime.
Indonesia boasts thriving centers of Islamic scholarship, which have revived a historic task now abandoned by much of the Muslim world, especially the Middle East: ijtihad—the spirit of questioning, self-criticism and renewal that once placed Islam at the vanguard of science, technology and civil society, but which is now a dirty word in the seminaries of Medina and Cairo. Indonesia's moderate scholars are devout, conversant with the Koran, fluent in Arabic, familiar with classical Islamic works, trained in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and have sometimes studied at Western universities. In short, they have the confidence to debate and confront their own ultra-conservative co-religionists on anything from jihad to women's rights.
These scholars are humble and compassionate. They acknowledge that what often passes for dogma is little more than human affectation, not written in stone, and that there often is no one clear answer to any given question. All this has a trickle-down effect. Some 70 million of Indonesia's Muslims belong to just two Islamic organizations—the Muhammadiyah and the Nahdlatul Ulama—which run schools, universities, madrasahs and hospitals. While these associations are dedicated to upholding and propagating Islamic values, they do not seek to establish a theocracy. Instead, they fervently believe that modernization, democracy and human rights can be reconciled with Islam.
The war against terrorism essentially boils down to a conflict between moderation and extremism, between what is decent and what isn't. Southeast Asia's moderate Muslims are doing their bit. They are engaged in a titanic struggle to wrest the mantle of religious authority from those who would seek to recreate eighth century Arabia in the region. Because of their efforts, and because of Southeast Asia's tradition of tolerance, I am lucky to call it home.
Malaysian Karim Raslan is a lawyer and writer who is a regular contributor to several Asian newspapers. His latest book is Journeys Through Southeast Asia: Ceritalah 2
INDIA/PAKISTAN
Back from the Brink
On both sides, forces pull pack from the India-Pakistan border. How long can this thaw last?
MOVIES
A Sigh for Old Saigon
The made-in-Vietnam film of Graham Greene's The Quiet American looks at love and war, and the strange bedfellows they make
NORTH KOREA
Look Who's Got the Bomb
Confronted by the U.S., North Korea brazenly admits it's building nukes. Now what does President Bush do?
TRAVEL
Homestay on the Range
In the former Soviet Republic of Kyrgyzstan, My Yurt is Your Yurt
