Gods & Men: Freedom and Faith in Southeast Asia

No.13 - 11/2007
19 November 2007
General
 

Gods & Men: Freedom and Faith in Southeast Asia
_{(Book Review)}

 
There are many things to learn about your neighbors, their religious beliefs and how they influence your relationships with them.
 
I was to learn about it again as I tried to kill time by going through the 107-page book recently published by the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) while waiting for the return flight to Chiangmai at the Don Mueang Airpot.
 
There were two pieces on Buddhism in military ruled Burma, where the generals may be holding the political and military powers but the monks are the holders of Burmese cultural power, a claim proven once again during the so-called Saffron Revolution in September. It wasn’t news to me, having been born and grown up there.
 
What was really newsworthy was that in Laos, where the atheist communist doctrine is supreme, the government there is recognizing and supporting Buddhism, saying it “has helped maintain and strengthen national unity and solidarity”. What is more, the teaching of Buddhism is also “compulsory in every primary school in Laos.” This is a fact worth further exploration, I thought.
 
Almost as strange to us is Malaysia, the country regarded by most as a moderate Islamic country. “Many people are surprised as (they have this) image of a modern, open minded Malaysia,” says a woman programme manger for public education of Sisters in Islam. “In fact, it is closed and rigid. It appears liberal outside, but too conservative towards religious matters”.
 
Supporting her claim was the religious status of Moorthy Maniam, honored as a national hero being the first Malaysian to scale Mt Everest, whose death in 2005 had sparked a fight over his body between his wife and the country’s Islamic Council.
 
He was reportedly a lifelong Hindu, but the court decreed that Moorthy had converted to Islam before he passed away. As a result, he ended up being buried at an Islamic cemetery.
 
The book also gives us interesting facts about Islam which may dispel wrongly perceived public image of the religion as a source for today’s terrorism:

• According to US intelligence, thousands of Indonesians had fought in Afghanistan against the Russians. “All leaders of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and other radical groups in Indonesia are former Afghanistan jihadi veterans,” it says.
• The Koran’s al-Baqarah verse 256 states: Let there be no compulsion in religion. In fact, many Islamic scholars recognize freedom of worship.
• The Koran does not require women to wear a jilbab (headscarf).
• There are also 30 sections in the Koran that talk about equality between women and men.

 
The book had clearly answered some of my questions about religious creeds in the region. I believe it would also to others who, as the book’s foreword suggests, want “to use it for greater understanding among peoples and a better world for all.”
 
For further information about the book, contact: SEAPA Tel: (662) 2435579 Fax: (662) 2448749 and Email:seapa@seapabkk.org