Right way to deal with insults to Islam

M. Ali, Manchester, UK

As an Indonesian and a Muslim living and working in a European country I have unfortunately been able to witness and experience first-hand the kinds of negative sentiment and attitudes that now seem to be quite widespread throughout Western countries towards Muslim countries generally, and Muslim individuals specifically.

A Muslim friend of mine, whose family came to the United Kingdom from Pakistan but who was born and bred in the UK -- he even has a distinctive English accent -- has been used to this kind of negative attitude throughout his life. But now things have changed. It used to be that the negative attitudes towards him were generally based on racist sentiments, now they are based more on an "anti-religion" attitude.

This is something that sadly I too am now experiencing. One of the things I have always loved about England is that it is a very multicultural and multi-ethnic society. For many years I have experienced a country that is very accepting of difference. People never seemed to pay any great amount of attention to the fact that I was Indonesian. It was simply a fact that was accepted.

Well, it was accepted; but now too I am experiencing different attitudes. Now when people learn that I am from Indonesia there seems to be something of an attitude change. People start to look at me differently and, I perceive, that their attitudes become a little less-friendly.

This disturbed me enough to actually confront a recent acquaintance about it and she was, surprisingly enough, quite open and frank in her explanation to me. She noted that she now saw Indonesia as "one of those problem countries". I asked her what she could possibly mean by this and she then said something that was, and is, quite shocking to me.

She claimed that "Indonesia is a Muslim country and so it is a problem". She even pointed out that "it's like President Bush said 'you're either with us or against us...'". The clear inference here was that Indonesia was not "with them". This left me shocked but then she suggested that Indonesia was home to many "Muslim fanatics". "Just look at the bombs going off in your country and the bomb at the Indonesian Embassy in Paris", she said as if to confirm her thoughts.

All of this was disturbing and even quite insulting. I have never thought of my home country as a hotbed for religious fanatics and I do not for a moment think that this is a true representation of my country but evidently, in this person's mind and probably many others like her, Indonesia has now become "a problem".

And what exactly is the problem? For many it is simply the fact that we are a country of predominantly Muslim believers. It is not an expression that I like, but now there is a term used to describe this situation. People in England now refer to it as "Islam-a-phobia". Such a negative image has been built up around Islamic beliefs that people will prejudice a Muslim and come to the conclusion that they should hate or at least distance themselves from Muslims.

Like all prejudices, this is based in ignorance -- a complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the beliefs that make up the Muslim faith. But with such ignorance, we are forced to consider how we can respond and help these people to better- understand the realities of both Islam and of Indonesia.

For my part I have tried not to be too insulted or disturbed by the negative and bad attitudes that I have seen. It would have been very easy for me to reply to the woman who spoke of "bombs going off in my country" and remind her that it was not very long ago that bombs were often going off in the United Kingdom as Christian Catholics and Protestants argued over Northern Ireland.

But reminding someone of their own difficulties as a response to our own current difficulties would not be very purposeful or fruitful. Instead I am more inclined to, as they say, accentuate the positives. And there are very clear positives that come from Indonesia and that we should promote to the world. The degree of tolerance and development that we are seeing is something that we ought to be proud of and our recent political developments are, I think, a model and an example to other nations.

When the bomb went off at the Indonesian Embassy in France some people suggested it was a negative response and a warning about the election of our new president. But if that is the case, then it was a weak and utterly futile response that has achieved nothing.

Our recent elections are indeed a great landmark, and a credit to us. There are cynics who suggest that the worlds of Islam and democracy do not mix and cannot exist together. We in Indonesia have just completed a direct election of a president and the large majority of the election period was not marked by violence or social unrest.

We have therefore completed a very real transition from "guided democracy" to a real democracy, which, I may say, would be the envy of many other countries. As an Indonesian, I am proud of our political developments and I am proud that they show a Muslim country that is developing and is not a threat to the world. There are definite threats to world peace but I do not believe that a progressive Muslim country such as Indonesia is such a threat. We are developing and we are strong as a Muslim nation. Let us be clear about that.

With the recent re-election of the American President a colleague said to me the other day that he felt that this was "bad news for Muslims". There was some cynicism to this comment but he also clearly meant it. This gives us, I think, a prime example of how we should respond to doubts and questions regarding our faith.

I was simply able to say that "American presidents will come and go but whether they understand the Muslim faith or not is hardly significant. Those that truly know Islam know its strength and value to us as human beings."

In this situation it is senseless to respond with anger or rage to those that do not understand. We can only hope that they will understand when we show them what is good about Islam. There is perhaps no better time or opportunity to do this than during Ramadhan.

The writer is a Senior Researcher with the Cunningham Research Center in Manchester, Britain. He can be reached at mali_uk@hotmail.com.