Why is the divorce rate so high in Saudi Arabia?
From year to year, divorce cases tend to increase in Saudi Arabia, and the divorce rate has been staggeringly high in recent years. According...
Violence and Vengeance: Religious Conflict and Its Aftermath in Eastern Indonesia
In 1999, just months following the downfall of Suharto dictatorial regime, and continuing for more than three years, the Moluccas, stretching from North Maluku...
King Abdullah and Quest for Reform in Saudi Arabia
The “dark side” of Saudi Arabia is widely known: “exporter” of global terrorism, source of Islamic fanaticism and militancy linked to Wahhabi teachings, lack...
Religious Tolerance in the United Arab Emirates
The UAE is now known as a very tolerant country. An important lesson that can be drawn from the UAE is that in order...
Democracy and Islam in Indonesia
Written by a group of specialists on Indonesian politics and Islam, the book Democracy and Islam in Indonesia (edited Mirjam Kunkler and Alfred Stepan)...
On Act of Killing, No Easy Answers
Ever since the release of The Act of Killing (or Jagal, in Indonesian, meaning Butcher) in 2012, the movie has been widely applauded by...
Nelson Mandela, South Africa, and Indonesia
The world mourns. Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s beloved first black president, anti-apartheid hero, and one of the world’s greatest champions of peaceful resistance, died...
Idul Fitri Unites Indonesia’s Faiths And Acknowledges Our Humanity
Unlike other Muslim-majority countries, Indonesia has an annual unique tradition of celebrating Idul Fitri, or in its Indonesian term, Lebaran (derived from a Javanese...
Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam
There is no doubt that this fine book, Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam (edited by Martin van Bruinessen) is a timely anthology on the...
Interfaith Provocateurs for Peace
On September 11, 2011, when the United States commemorated the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, communal violence between Christians and Muslims broke...
Crossing the Kingdom: Portraits of Saudi Arabia
Danforth’s book, entitled Crossing the Kingdom: Portraits of Saudi Arabia, is both interesting and illuminating. There are at least two tendencies of existing academic...
In The Spirit of Tolerance, Merry Christmas to my Christian Friends
As many other Muslims in Indonesia, I was born and raised in a Muslim family. My father, who died in January 2011 at the...
About Qatar
Qatar's social history is full of intrigue, conflict and violence, in stark contrast to the contemporary image of Qatar as relatively devoid of communal...
Pancasila State Serves Muslims Better Than Elusive Islamic One
Some 68 years ago, a group of nationalists and religious leaders from various ethnicities and regions across the East Indies archipelago gathered in Jakarta...
Obituary: Ashgar Ali Engineer, a Life for Peace
I paused my work upon hearing the gloomy news of the death of Asghar Ali Engineer, one of the world’s greatest scholars of Islam,...
