If I was to be
honest, when I arrived in Yogyakarta, I was really nervous and a little
frightened. I was excited to get the Luce Scholarship; however, that moment was
also bitter sweet. Before coming to Indonesia, the longest that I have ever
left the United States was a week, and even in these trips, I was always with
friends who shared common beliefs and goals. My experience in Indonesia was
completely different; I left my comfort zone alone and for a very long period
of time. I entered a foreign country where I had no familiarity either
culturally or individually. This was my most difficult challenge to overcome;
however, with the new friends that I made as well as the cultural experiences,
the homesickness was cured. Once that was accomplished I began to realize many
things about myself, life, and especially Indonesia.
My religious background is
Christian, but I attend Florida International University and am a student in
religious studies. My primary focus in my studies is Islam and this made
Indonesia a great opportunity for me to visit and study. Prior to my experience
in Indonesia, I fell into the same trap as many other people do concerning
Islam. I always thought that Islam mostly revolved around the Middle East. I
thought that the Middle East was what all of Islam represented. Thus, this was
one of my first lessons in coming to Jogja. Indonesia is the largest Muslim
majority nation in the world. It contains more Muslims then every nation in the
Middle East combined and within it is a multitude of voices and interpretations
of Islam.
The reason why I chose to study
Islam is because I have a desire to share with the masses. There are many
people that look at Islam in a negative aspect. When some hear the term Muslim,
terrorism and Osama bin Laden comes to mind. Indonesia destroys this
misconception. Islam is not a monolithic story; there is not just one
interpretation. On the contrary, Islam is more of a Mosaic that holds numerous
interpretations and outlooks. This is true when it even comes to the
interpretation of the Quran. Some people in Indonesia look at the Quran as
promoting exclusivism, while others see it as promoting pluralism. Others see
Islam as a perfect way to govern society, while others see flaws that will
bring injustice and corruption.
There is one specific event that exemplifies
this during my stay in Indonesia. One evening, a group of Luce students went to
see Cak Nun speak. It was a very powerful evening. None of us realized the
honor that we were given to be in the presence of this very famous individual.
Cak Nun led an event that reminded me of an evangelical conference. There was
music, jokes, preaching, etc. There were also hundreds of Muslims in
attendance. There was a lot that happened during this evening; however, there
are not nearly enough pages to record its entirety. What stood out were the
beliefs of Cak Nun. He categorized himself as a Muslim; however, he stated that
even claiming that he was a Muslim did not really come close to what he really
believed. He believed that once you categorize religion, you categorize God.
His view was that God is so much more then Islam, Christianity, Judaism, etc.
In actuality, all these religions were manifestations of truth that attempted
to describe God and the ways of God. Not even the Prophet Muhammad had it all
together. This is definitely not an orthodox way of thinking.
This event also helped confirm an
idea that I already held: salvation and faith is a complex phenomenon. I know
many people who are very exclusivistic in their ideas of faith and salvation
and there are plenty who would state that Islam, or any other religion for that
matter, is a lie. In some of their interpretations, Muslims’ are deceived and
in the end will be judged by God. Before coming to Jogya, I held a conviction
that salvation and religion is not so simple; on the contrary, it is very
complex. During the time with Cak Nun, there was a major prayer session where hundreds
of Muslims were crying out to God during a prayer of intercession, many of
which had tears streaming down their face. It was a beautiful and powerful
moment. To hold a view of salvation and religion with such simplicity is a
major error. It reveals a deep ignorance (or maybe even arrogance) of the
individual. Though I am not Muslim, there was no doubt in my mind that those
individuals were experiencing something very powerful. It was their desires,
hopes, dreams, etc., put into a powerful cry to Allah. This event for them was
not a lie, nor a deception, but an experience of the Divine.
The problem to seeing religion as
exclusive is due to the fact that the majority of these individuals don’t
personally know people of differing faiths. This is something that I explicitly
learned from my trip to Indonesia. When an individual has no interaction or
relations with people of other religions, it becomes easy to reject their
ideas, culture, and religion as a fallacy. It is a completely different
situation when these different ideas or religions have a face associated with them.
This was one of the main points in my interfaith class that I took at ICRS. Muslims,
Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, etc., have something very powerful in common;
they are all human. Each individual, both religious and nonreligious, are
trying to figure out meaning and purpose for their lives. They are all on a
journey and find hope in different things. Some find it in Allah while others
find it in Krishna or Jesus. This actually resonates deeply with me because I
personally believe that it is impossible to ‘know somebodies heart’. It is easy
to make a fast judgment on someone; it is much more difficult to try to
understand them.
The last thing to be discussed is
another interesting element in Indonesian society: syncretism. From my
observations, there seems to be syncretism in almost every religion I encountered,
at least to some degree. I was previously familiar with religion syncretism
with culture, and I encounter it a lot in America; however, I never really
experienced religion syncretizing with religion, I mean I was aware that it occurred,
but I never seen it practiced. One example was found in an outdoor catholic
church. From my experiences in Catholic churches, there are usually a plethora
of Christian symbols being represented. There are crosses, statues of saints,
and other religious symbols being represented all over the building; however,
at this Catholic Church, there were only a couple of Christian symbols that I
could see. Most of the symbols were of Hindu and Javanese ( a large culture
within Indonesia) origin. It was very interesting and this church was a very
popular one. Also, outside the Church was a Hindu temple, and usually within
the temple there is a statue of a deity to whom people will pay their respects
to. Within this temple was not a Hindu god or goddess, it was Jesus! That
honestly blew my mind. It seemed like it brought multiple cultures together
into communion. It was really fascinating to experience.
These few things that I mentioned barely
cover my experience as a whole. I also learned a lot through relationships with
people of differing faiths and even from the unique architecture of different
temples. Stating everything in writing is too vast for this little report;
however, this experience is something that I will never forget. Through my trip
to Indonesia I have become more knowledgeable in my field of studies, but even
more importantly, I have become a better and loving person because of realizing
that people are just that: people.
