Documentary film emphasizes benevolence of Islam<\/p>\n
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
In the wake of the terrorist attack on the twin towers on
\nSept. 11, blamed on a small number of jihadists, Muslims around
\nthe world suddenly took on the new duty of explaining to the
\nworld that Islam is a benevolent religion.<\/p>\n
When the tenets of Islam were hijacked to meet the violent
\nobjectives of a small cabal, it was left to the larger community
\nof peace-loving Muslims to preach to the world -- the suspecting
\nWestern world in particular -- that followers of Islam were not
\nindividuals bent on destroying the West.<\/p>\n
Among the latest offerings in a campaign to teach the West
\nabout the benevolent nature of Islam is Muslims in Southeast
\nAsia, a documentary film about how Islam has been lived for
\ngenerations by millions of people in the \"periphery\" of the
\nMuslim world that is Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
The documentary travels across Southeast Asian countries, from
\nMuslim enclaves in Pattani in the southern part of Thailand to
\nMindanao in the southern Philippines, seeking out the true nature
\nof Islam by interviewing figures that range from influential
\nMuslim figures such as former minister and currently member of
\nthe Thai parliament Surin Pitsuwan to an unknown female cab
\ndriver in Singapore.<\/p>\n
It travels deep into the heart Southeast Asia to find places
\nwhere Muslims are peace-loving, economically-empowered, tolerant
\nand respectful of women.<\/p>\n
The film, which was given a limited screening earlier last
\nweek, starts its journey with how pesantren (Islamic boarding
\nschools) and mosques, instead of becoming the training ground for
\njihadist terrorists, provide comfort and a spiritual home for
\nmost Muslims.<\/p>\n
A young Singaporean boy, Mohammad Izuddeen, interviewed in the
\ndocumentary, says delightfully that not a day in his life passes
\nwithout his reading the Koran as it has formed an inalienable
\npart of his childhood life, the way playing games and going to
\nschool have, too.<\/p>\n
From that point, the film progresses by visiting exotic places
\nwith picturesque scenes of towering minarets -- and veiled women
\nwalking past a group of supposedly non-Muslims.<\/p>\n
In between the travel, clips of interviews with influential
\nMuslim figures are inserted on Islam's predilection for peace and
\ntolerance. Among figures interviewed are Pitsuwan, Brig. Gen. Ben
\nDolorfino, a high-ranking military officer in Mindanao, and
\nAzyumardi Azra of the Jakarta-based State Islamic University, on
\nIslam's predilection for peace and tolerance.<\/p>\n
One of the most memorable scenes from the film, a clip of an
\ninterview with a Singaporean woman cab driver, was conceived with
\na single objective of showing that men and women stand on equal
\nterms in a Muslim community.<\/p>\n
The film also delves at length into the role that has been
\nplayed by Indonesia's largest and second-largest Muslim
\norganizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, to propagate
\ntolerance.<\/p>\n
Scriptwriter Yuli Ismartono told The Jakarta Post that the
\nfilm took six months to complete and would soon hit the small
\nscreen in some Southeast Asian countries.<\/p>\n
She said that there was possibility of airing the film on
\nMalaysia's TV3, Manila's ABS-CBN and Bangkok's MCOT TV. The film
\nproducer struck a deal with local news channel Metro TV for
\nbroadcasting during the Idul Fitri holiday on Nov. 3 and Nov. 4.<\/p>\n
Copies of the film will soon be dispatched to the U.S.-based
\nNational Democratic Institute, the United States-Indonesia
\nSociety (USINDO) and a number of institutions in Australia.<\/p>\n
\"With this film, we hope that the rest of the world will not
\nadopt a mistaken perception about Islam in Indonesia and
\nSoutheast Asia as it is rooted in an indigenous tradition
\ndifferent to that from the Middle East,\" Yuli said.<\/p>\n
For Yuli, a senior journalist with Tempo newsweekly, Muslims
\nin Southeast Asia marks her first foray into documentary
\nfilmmaking.<\/p>\n
Asia and Southeast Asia in particular, however, is familiar
\nterritory for her: As a correspondent for Tempo, she has covered
\nwars in Cambodia and Srilanka, drugs in the Golden Triangle, the
\nstudent uprising in Myanmar and the Soviet exit from Afghanistan.<\/p>",
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