E. Java youths promote religious tolerance
Damar Harsanto and Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Malang, East Java
Its image tainted by the suspected involvement of radical youths in the deadly Bali and Makassar bombings last year, Islam in Indonesia may take consolation in some Muslim youths who have proven themselves to be highly motivated and zealous about creating a more pluralistic and peaceful Indonesia.
Youths represent the future, and these young people represent the true face of Indonesian Muslims. Their struggle for social change is praiseworthy, despite the lack of real support.
Meet the Averroes Foundation, a group of Muslim youths based in Malang, East Java, who have been striving for more than seven years to publish books and to hold discussions and seminars for the promotion of a more humane, civilized, modern and multicultural society.
"Averroes was established by ordinary Muslim youths, not privileged ones. On one hand, we lack facilities and financial support from big parties, but on the other hand, this makes us free to carry out whatever plans we have, as we are not restricted by grand, vested interests," said Saiful Arif, chairman of the Averroes Foundation.
Taking the Western name of Islamic philosopher Ibn Rushd, Averroes was established in 1995 by several Muslim university student activists who got tired of piecemeal reactions to rapid changes in the country's political and economic arenas. These activists were willing to do something more reflective and intellectual by arranging in-depth discussions and research which laid the groundwork for long-term thinking.
Averroes was established on March, 20, 1995, and has been focusing its activities on discussions over issues pertaining to religion, humanism and culture. It also finances its own publications.
"Our main objective is to promote intellectual enlightenment in our society. We want to empower the people to be a more critical and thoughtful society," said Averroes director of its study center and culture development, Paring Waluyo Utomo, who is in the final year of his study at Brawijaya University.
In 1998 and 1999, this Muslim youth group invited Catholic priest Benny Susetyo, and Catholic observer of the Centre of Strategic Indonesian Studies (CSIS) J. Kristiadi, in addition to noted young Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla, to join forces with Averroes to become independent advisors.
Since its inception, the group has published 20 books with wide-ranging themes, mostly promoting inter-religious dialog and multiculturalism. Its latest publication focused on the interplay between the Catholic church in Indonesia and the government. Each title has a print run of between 1,000 and 3,000 copies.
Dozens of draft manuscripts are on hold, as the group has been forced to delay publication owing to budget constraints.
What might be impressive about Averroes members is that these youngsters have made such tremendous achievements financed only with money collected from their personal allowances.
"Every month we have to contribute between Rp 50,000 and Rp 100,000 to cover operational costs and meet our target to publish a book monthly," said Paring.
The amount collected is only enough to cover operational costs totaling Rp 500,000 a month, including the rent for a small house which serves as the group's office, and to pay for the electricity and phone.
Averroes needs additional funds of at least Rp 7 million to Rp 8 million a month to meet its book publishing target.
"There are no rewards for Averroes members, as all royalties are distributed among those who have helped in the publishing process and the authors. But, of course, that's a meager amount," said Saiful.
"Averroes is really in a critical state as it could disband anytime due to budget constraints," said Saiful, who also works as a freelance copyeditor.
Paring said that the group would be more independent in financing if it had at least Rp 25 million in cash to produce the draft books.
Besides publication, Averroes has reserved this year a column in the Surabaya-based daily newspaper Jawa Pos to disseminate inter-religious and multicultural discourses.
Following mounting allegations over the involvement of pesantren Islamic boarding schools in terrorism, Saiful said such allegations did not affect Averroes's own activities.
"Our business runs as usual, because we refuse to be reactive to the incidents, since this would disturb our daily activities. We have a priority, which is our long-term program," said Saiful.
Saiful recalled that in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., Averroes overreacted by holding seminars and discussions on global violence. "As a result, our publishing activities were neglected... We don't want that to happen again."
Averroes, Saiful said, would leave all immediate response to current events to other activists, like members of the Indonesian Islamic Students Movement (PMII) who have joined hands with other religious youths such as the Association of Indonesian Hindu Students (KMHDI), the Association of Indonesian Catholic Students (PMKRI) and Buddhist youth group Hikma Budi, to discuss actual issues and take concrete actions.