Belinfante claims fear hampers interfaith dialog

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali

Despite Indonesia's nonrecognition of Israel, Judaism was not left out at the two-day Bali Interfaith Dialog, which began on Thursday.

Among participants from different religious traditions, Judith Belinfante, a former Dutch parliamentarian and currently head curator at the library of the University of Amsterdam, is the sole Jewish participant in this two-day meeting.

Belinfante said she was happy to attend, adding that it would not have otherwise been easy to enter the country.

"I understand that in some way or another, Judaism has always been involved in prejudice due to Palestinian problems. It's complicated in a country like Indonesia because there is no Jewish community here. Even if there was, it would be very small and kind of hidden -- which makes it very difficult to break the prejudice because there's no human being to block it," Belinfante told The Jakarta Post.

Addressing the panel discussion on barriers to interfaith harmony, Belinfante said the biggest obstacle to interfaith dialog was fear, which happened when people were prejudiced or when people stereotyped others and acted upon it.

"The basic problem is fear, out of prejudice and lack of knowledge," said Belinfante, formerly a director of the Jewish Historical Museum.

The people who started fires in mosques in the Netherlands, for instance, did not come from big cities, but from rural towns. They have limited knowledge of Islam based on frightening images about Islam on television, she said.

"It's fear, more than hate. They got scared."

She added that it had been a confusing time for the Dutch after the murder of film director Theo Van Gogh last year by a Muslim extremist. When she was a parliamentarian, there was a special minister of integration who did a lot of work to promote interfaith dialog.

But now, she said, the Dutch government does not do much as "they're not negative, but they're not positive".

As for the Interfaith Dialog here, Belinfante said it was good that people of all religions had got together to show they were strong and open, and that they rejected violence.

However, what is important about the meeting, according to Belinfante, was that it would end with the question of the grass roots, where interfaith dialog should really happen.

"Over the years, I can recognize that even among Muslim themselves they are different. You have to learn and discuss. Go to people themselves, don't just listen to the leaders. Find ways to get the way through to the group, for instance, through education."

She said it would be some time before the effects of the interfaith meeting were felt, although it was good that all religions were represented.

"All religions are here. There's no Jewish representative as there was no one from Israel, which is impossible, but I understand, it's not a religious country. But apart from it, they're all here," Belinfante said.

"The sooner (the results of the meeting) get to villages and the grass roots, the better. If it only happened at the academic level, it wouldn't make sense at all. The moment people are working with it, then it will get somewhere," she said.