Documentary film emphasizes benevolence of Islam

Documentary film emphasizes benevolence of Islam

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

In the wake of the terrorist attack on the twin towers on
Sept. 11, blamed on a small number of jihadists, Muslims around
the world suddenly took on the new duty of explaining to the
world that Islam is a benevolent religion.

When the tenets of Islam were hijacked to meet the violent
objectives of a small cabal, it was left to the larger community
of peace-loving Muslims to preach to the world -- the suspecting
Western world in particular -- that followers of Islam were not
individuals bent on destroying the West.

Among the latest offerings in a campaign to teach the West
about the benevolent nature of Islam is Muslims in Southeast
Asia, a documentary film about how Islam has been lived for
generations by millions of people in the "periphery" of the
Muslim world that is Southeast Asia.

The documentary travels across Southeast Asian countries, from
Muslim enclaves in Pattani in the southern part of Thailand to
Mindanao in the southern Philippines, seeking out the true nature
of Islam by interviewing figures that range from influential
Muslim figures such as former minister and currently member of
the Thai parliament Surin Pitsuwan to an unknown female cab
driver in Singapore.

It travels deep into the heart Southeast Asia to find places
where Muslims are peace-loving, economically-empowered, tolerant
and respectful of women.

The film, which was given a limited screening earlier last
week, starts its journey with how pesantren (Islamic boarding
schools) and mosques, instead of becoming the training ground for
jihadist terrorists, provide comfort and a spiritual home for
most Muslims.

A young Singaporean boy, Mohammad Izuddeen, interviewed in the
documentary, says delightfully that not a day in his life passes
without his reading the Koran as it has formed an inalienable
part of his childhood life, the way playing games and going to
school have, too.

From that point, the film progresses by visiting exotic places
with picturesque scenes of towering minarets -- and veiled women
walking past a group of supposedly non-Muslims.

In between the travel, clips of interviews with influential
Muslim figures are inserted on Islam's predilection for peace and
tolerance. Among figures interviewed are Pitsuwan, Brig. Gen. Ben
Dolorfino, a high-ranking military officer in Mindanao, and
Azyumardi Azra of the Jakarta-based State Islamic University, on
Islam's predilection for peace and tolerance.

One of the most memorable scenes from the film, a clip of an
interview with a Singaporean woman cab driver, was conceived with
a single objective of showing that men and women stand on equal
terms in a Muslim community.

The film also delves at length into the role that has been
played by Indonesia's largest and second-largest Muslim
organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, to propagate
tolerance.

Scriptwriter Yuli Ismartono told The Jakarta Post that the
film took six months to complete and would soon hit the small
screen in some Southeast Asian countries.

She said that there was possibility of airing the film on
Malaysia's TV3, Manila's ABS-CBN and Bangkok's MCOT TV. The film
producer struck a deal with local news channel Metro TV for
broadcasting during the Idul Fitri holiday on Nov. 3 and Nov. 4.

Copies of the film will soon be dispatched to the U.S.-based
National Democratic Institute, the United States-Indonesia
Society (USINDO) and a number of institutions in Australia.

"With this film, we hope that the rest of the world will not
adopt a mistaken perception about Islam in Indonesia and
Southeast Asia as it is rooted in an indigenous tradition
different to that from the Middle East," Yuli said.

For Yuli, a senior journalist with Tempo newsweekly, Muslims
in Southeast Asia marks her first foray into documentary
filmmaking.

Asia and Southeast Asia in particular, however, is familiar
territory for her: As a correspondent for Tempo, she has covered
wars in Cambodia and Srilanka, drugs in the Golden Triangle, the
student uprising in Myanmar and the Soviet exit from Afghanistan.