Friday 18 May 2012, death of Hans Teeuw, architect of modern Indonesia Studies in the Netherlands

Hans Teeuw was born as Andries Teeuw on 12 August 1921 in Gorinchem, NL. The name Andries was used for official use only and become unknown in daily use. In 1938 he became student of Indology in Leiden the common education for future colonial officials. In 1941 the war made formal study impossible. Teeuw, barely further than a brilliant BA student addressed prof. Jan Gonda and, while in hiding in different places, managed to write the draft of a Ph D Dissertation that was in 1946 accepted as his first proof of excellency: the edition and translation of the story and death of the criminal Bhoma. In 2005 an English of this work was published by Teeuw, in cooperation with Stuart Robson. In 2011 a more poetic Dutch rendering was finished by Hans Teeuw. It was his last work: now he had to prepare himself for death, not the preliminary death, of 'those who died but did not reach Death' (Bhomantaka, Canto 11:9) preceding a new and better life in this earthly regions, but the fulfillment of all duties and the act of becoming unchained.  That is Death written with a capital, also in Teeuw's translation. His wife Joosje had preceded him in late May 2009, now Hans decided to opt for starvation and reached his goal in five days. In peace and harmony.

 Prof. Hans Teeuw, working with classical text on lontar manuscripts and with his labtop. Cartoon by former cartoonist of Kompas, Om Pasikom alias G.M. Sudarta.


In the uncertain period of the aftermass of the Nazi and the Pacific War, Teeuw received a government position as language researcher especially among Sasak people in Lombok. This was a hard time for him: his wife Joosje (already his fiancee in 1935 at the grammar school), had to go to Switzerland for a cure from the disease of tuberculosis, then still common in the Netherlands as well. He arrived in Jakarta, 18 September 1947 and stayed for the first time in Indonesia until October 1951. Most of this first period was spent in Jakarta, but he did also fieldwork in Lombok during one year: September 1949-15 October 1950, as if there was no drastic political change in the country!
In late 1951 Teeuw was nominated professor of comparative linguistics in Utrecht until he moved to Leiden in 1955, where he became professor of Malay and Indonesian Language and Literature. This was the start of a harsh period: colonialism had ended and there was no longer a secure position for students of 'Indology': therefore there was a minimal number of students. Willem van der Molen told me an anecdote that at the yearly session for information about studies he sought information about something absolutely different, but found Hans Teeuw sitting lonely in a room, started to talk with him and so became one of the few students of Indonesian languages and culture in the period 1955-1965. But Teeuw was active in many fields: he published his study about Lombon, more on old Javanese, but also on classical Malay (in 1966 the publication of the lovely Syair Kem Tambuhan) and started his two-volume work on Modern Indonesian Literature.
In the late 1960s the political relations between the Netherlands and Indonesia improved. Cricital and leftist students in Leiden published a booklet with the challenging title: How the Leiden Academy found again its way to Indonesia, following the return of capital investment. Teeuw was a true post-colonial scholar. He had no direct links with colonialism, loved Indonesian culture and  had also experienced hard times in Europe during a terrible war. He wanted a true cooperation between Dutch and Indonesian scholars for the best of the two countries, but first for the enrichment of both cultures. He was not only the scholar of manuscripts and linguistic research, but could handle the bureaucracy on both sides with respect and in an effective way. Sometimes he was surprised that so many funds at once were available, but he tried to do the best with it. He started BIS, Bureau Indonesische Studiën for project in the field of anthropology, linguistic and religious studies. In this way I was myself invited in 1978 to start a one year training for nine IAIN staff who came to the Netherlands. He accompanied these projects from a distance, but when necessary he intervened with the higher levels of the bureaucracy to find the practical solutions.
Indonesian students in the Netherlands were always surprised to see how Hans Teeuw could give interest also to their practical problems, welcomed them in his house. In his speeches he liked to start with giving thanks to the cleaners, the administrative staff, the drivers and other people who made academic life possible.

A special position in the last two decades was given to Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Teeuw wrote himself two books about this greatest novel writer of modern Indonesia and hoped that Toer would receive the Nobel prize for literature. Teeuw supported the translation of Toer's books and promoted him wherever he could.

If we look back at the formidable list of publications we can only be astonished about the quantity of his work: a dictionary Indonesian-Dutch with 5 editions and until five year ago, at the age of 87 Pak Teeuw was still reading TEMPO to see whether again new words had founds its way to modern Indonesian. But language was most of all communication for him: he has set the new standards for relations between the Dutch and Indonesians in the post-colonial period. Terima kasih, thank you very much, Pak Teeuw!

Hizmet in NL

This short essay is written as a reaction to Paul Weller and Ihsan Yilmaz (eds), European Muslims, Civility and Public life. Perspectives on and from the Gülen Movement, London/New York:2012. I was asked to give a Dutch reflection on the general theme of the book. In line with the general tendency of the Gülen Movement I pay first attention to the concrete activities of the sohbets and only in the last part to the philosophical and religious doctrines.

In 1980 (or 1981) the first Group of activists gathered around Necder Başaran, who worked as imam and religious leader of the new Akyzili Foundation in Rotterdam. This name was chosen after a follower of Fethullah Gülen in Izmir who donated his house to become a boarding house for high school students in Izmir. These were in many cases migrants from East Turkey to the booming industrial town on the west coast. Gülen himself was born also in East Turkey and his great influence started among this new urban population who sought a new social network and cultural and religious support. Akyazili also started a boarding house in Rotterdam. The activists also started after-school tuition for Turkish pupils of primary schools who needed extra help to survive in the Dutch educational system. In 1983 the municipality of Rotterdam provided Akyazili with a larger building, a former public library. In 1986 they moved again to a better building, Diergaardesingel in Rotterdam.

1. Help for pupils in primary and secondary education.

This first activity developed quickly to other major towns of the Netherlands. Under NPOINT (Dutch Platform for Innovation of Education and Talent Development) six foundations are cooperating: White Tulip in Haarlem and Amsterdam, Instituut het Centrum in Rotterdam, CEMIN in Utrecht, Kennisplein in Tilburg and other towns in the province of Brabant, De Ijssel in the eastern province, Meridiaan in Amersfoort. All these foundations want to stimulate school participation and development of talents, language courses in Dutch. They receive in many cases modest subsidies from local governments for a small permanent staff, for buildings and technical equipment, but most work is done by volunteers. 

2. Information: Zaman (mostly in Turkish for Dutch people, some editions in Dutch)

In 1986 the activists in Rotterdam started a branch of the Gülen related newspaper Zaman, especially for the Turkish community in the Netherlands. Between 2005 and 2010 (?) a monthly Dutch edition was published and distributed for free in the Netherlands with issues such as integration of Muslims in Dutch society, the rise of Islamophobia, activities of Hizmet people. Zaman also makes Television programs of encounters between Turkish migrants and local Dutch society. They sell these to local television networks. Incidentally Zaman received modest subsidies from the Rotterdam municipality.

3. A Turkish Rotary club: philantropy in a social setting

HOGIAF is a network of some 600 businessmen of Turkish descent, who come together in 8 local chapters (under different names: the series of foundations and organisaties is very long!). They discuss the promotion of their business, give mutual support. They are also important as donators for the volunteer activities and support the Gülen related activities through their philanthropy.

4. Cosmicus as a Students´ Movement  and 5. Islam and Dialogue

In 1995 the Stichting Cosmicus was established by students and young graduates of Turkish origin in the Netherlands as a foundation with the purpose to support (mostly Turkish and Moroccan) students from elementary schools until colleges and universities in their study and personal development, and to help them start a thriving career. The successful older students of Turkish descent should serve as role models of success in the new country. The same model was also started by other Turkish and some Moroccan people. They did so at home or in community centres. The first chairman of Cosmicus, Ümit Taş searched in a Latin-Dutch dictionary of 1910 and found the word Cosmicus in the meaning of the universe, worldly, but also as world citizen. Second chairman was Turan Yazir who was succeeded in 2002 by Gürkan Çelik. Universities, municipalities and private funds donated subsidies for activities, especially for the mentor project. From the early years also some ethnic Dutch people joined the leadership of the organization. After starting Cosmicus, Ùmit Taş also initiated a Foundation Islam and Dialogue. (More about it below, in relation to the Dialogue Academy).

Cosmicus branches were established in all major university towns of the Netherlands. Initially the centre was in Amsterdam, between 2000 and 2002 in Utrecht, while since then the headquarters are in Rotterdam. Stichting Cosmicus is known for its academic network, training for leadership, conferences for job career planning, also for sports and social events like lectures and meals at the occasion of iftar (breaking the fast in a festive manner at the end of a day in Ramadan) and even Christmas. One of its means of communication is the magazine De.Cascade with articles by Dutch and Turkish authors on a variety of academic and social subjects. Conferences at the universities of Rotterdam, Tilburg, and Nijmegen resulted in a small book on Promoters of Peace, discussing among others Desiderius Erasmus, John Paul II, Fethullah Gülen, Dalai Lama and Sister Teresa of Calcutta.  For these dialogues and contacts the Dialogue Academy where we are now was established in 2007 as a place and a small community for social and political debates.

A special activity of Cosmicus, aiming at very young children was the publication of a Dutch translation of six Turkish books for children in the age 6-12. Stichting Cosmicus is quite keen and well experienced in seeking Dutch funds for its activities. For the package of six children books it received funding from well-known cultural funds, the VSB Fonds (related to Fortis Bank) and Oranje Fonds (related to the Dutch royal family).

6. Cosmicus schools.

Some 100 of the about 1000 members of Cosmicus are teachers. They gather twice a year to discuss their position and contribution to society. About 2000 they proposed to start a series of Gülen schools. They were not successful in individual schools, but were sought by other organizations in combinations. In 2006 Cosmicus College started as a high school and in 2008 in Amsterdam the Cosmicus Montessori College has opened. Since then also two Cosmicus primary schools were opened (Rotterdam and Amsterdam).

            The Dutch Cosmicus schools follow a quite different procedure, compared to the more elitist schools in Turkey, Albania, Indonesia and many other countries. Perhaps they are even closer to the original inspiration of Hoja Effendi. They are emancipation schools. Like the quite similar Lucerna schools in Belgium, they are fully subsidised by the government. Cosmicus Rotterdam even received € 300.000 from the Minister of Education Maria van der Hoeven as a help in the start. Building are provided by the city of Rotterdam and Amsterdam. They have a majority of Turkish pupils, but the Turkish language if forbidden absolutely on the premises of the school and during classes. They are according to Dutch law not public, but private schools. Their identity is not religious and religious classes are even not included in the curriculum. World citizenship (wereldburgerschap) is the ideological background or ideal of the schools. They are member of the international network of UNESCO schools and the millennium goals of the UN are important ideals in the lessons about world citizenship. Cosmicus schools also have taken the initiative to introduce in 2009 INESPO in our country: International Environment & Scientific Project Olympiad. The Amsterdam high school cooperates closely with the Anne Frank House for projects of anti-racism and more outspoken even anti-semitism.          

After a decade dominated by Gülen sympathisers of the old generation (who were still reading the Risale-i Nur between 1980-1990) the young and better educated group has taken over the lead in the Gülen movement since the early 1990s. One of these is Alaatin Erdal who was the director of the first boarding house in 1993. He was later the director of Dutch Zaman, and since 2010 for the Christian Democratic Party one of the top officials in the Rotterdam administration of Charlois. This younger generation can speak Dutch fluently, they are well versed in the complicated administration of the bureaucracy, they know how to present their  ideas and plans and how to find subsidies from the Dutch central and local government. Most policies about the new minorities in our country are developed by the white officials, but here we find initiatives from the side of Turkish migrants or second generation Turkish-Dutch activists. In their schools and after-school tuition the Turkish origin is still visible, but they are open to all groups in society and try to involve many other people in their activities as well.

Mrs. Dorith Vlottes, Coordinator of Education in the primary school of Cosmicus Rotterdam with Mehmet Cerit, general director of Cosmicus.

7. Dialogue Academy.

With the generous help of HOGIAF-members and some public subsidies, in 2007 the Dialogue Academy was established in Rotterdam, Rochussenkade 122 (in a building where also Islam and Dialogue found plave for its offices). While Islam and Dialogue focuses on the inter-religious meeting, the Dialogue Academy wants to be a platform for the debate on the multicultural society. It organized meetings between politicans of national parties with younger people, many of foreign origin. During the election campaign this was a very fruitful. In this blog I have reported quite often about their meetings. Besides public meetings, Dialogue Academy also has small scale programs like the new initiative to urge parents of Moroccan and Turkish pupils in primary schools to become more active in the schools of their children by attending evenings of meetings with teachers, by voluntary activities in the schools.
The Dialogue Academy is planning to work more intensively with the Foundation Islam and Dialogue on the inter-religious forum in our country. Islam and Dialogue has a very intensive cooperation with some Protestant Churches in Rotterdam. They alternate between the building of the Rochussenstraat and a Protestant Church in Delfshaven for a continuing programme on the biblical persons in the Muslim representations of Qur'an and Hadith.
They also join forces with the Foundation Dialogue Haaglanden (The Hague: the Gülen people like to start many foundations that form a loose network. It is sometimes quite difficult to make lists of all these activities.

Until here we have summarized the most important of the social initiatives of Gülen inspired people in the Netherlands. They have influenced the lives of tens of thousands of young people by tuition, in students’ movements, in the multicultural schools, started not from the existing bureaucracy but from below. Like the first decades of the work of Gülen. Not the luxurious elite schools, but schools filled with problems that were seen as challenges and possibilities.

Religion is not a first issue in Gülen related activities: it is even often neglected and there is more concentration on social and economic issues. But the movement experiences problems through the religious background of Fethullah Gülen and the general sentiment of Islamophobia in our country. On 4 July 2008 the Dutch Public Television broadcasted a documentary on Gülen related activities, concentrating on the boarding houses. Two teenage boys were in the programme in a quite sensational way, their faces made unrecognizable and their voices also transformed so as not to be identified. They complained about discipline, physical punishment, compulsion in religious matters. The programme in general stated that Fethullah Gülen had a double agenda and sought influence under the mask of dialogue, but in fact wanted to introduce shari’a law in Turkey and is seen as a threat towards a pluralist and secular society. Here the debate of Kemalist versus religious parties of Turkey entered Dutch television (in this case in the programme NOVA, in mid-2008). Besides some unidentified boarding houses also the newly established Dialoog Academie, the Dutch office of the newspaper Zaman and the Cosmicus School, all three in Rotterdam were here connected with the Gülen movement and discredited. Soon afterwards members of parliament have put questions to the government that initially spoke quite soothing (because the intelligence officials saw no negative aspects of these initiatives), but finally the government has decided to a further inquiry. The inquiry, by Prof. Martin van Bruinessen of Utrecht University, resulted in a quite positive public report, where only two points remained critical: the severe discipline in some boarding houses (that were popular in the period 1990-2008, but now all are closed) and the well-known Turkish critical journalists who were put in jail for their negative statement about the Hizmet movement.

In the report of Van Bruinessen one case is mentioned about a teenager who discovered a homosexual inclination and therefore was excluded from further participation in the boarding house and the movement where he in fact had sought a ‘remedy’ to be ‘cured’ from his inclination. This is an indication of some problematic issues about the Gülen movement in the Netherlands. There are few religious specialists among the movement that is generally characterized as an orthodox or conservative group. In science, in social activities they are without any doubt progressive and optimistic, keen on emancipation and personal development of the members. But in religious ideology there is little debate. In the report by Van Bruinessen one Kurd man is quoted who received advice from an abi or religious authority in the Netherlands that he should not give his children Kurdish names. But this anti-Kurdish sentiment is not the general policy of the Hizmet movement. Just one quote from a website with information about Gülen and the Kurd struggle.

Starting from 2000 he has been commending wealthier families from the western part of Turkey to locate and befriend poor families in the east. He urged them, for example, to spend Eids together.  In response, thousands went to the eastern part of Turkey, stayed there and helped the poor families through the  Kimse Yok Mu relief charity. He urged schools in the west to provide scholarships for the poor children who otherwise could not afford a good education: hundreds of children got their secondary education on full scholarship in well-established schools in the big cities of Turkey such as Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.  He persuaded philanthropic businessmen to open ‘reading rooms’ in the eastern part of Turkey: hundreds were opened and thousands of children received free maths and science courses. Gülen also urged teachers to give voluntary lessons in those reading rooms: hundreds of volunteers responded and moved to the region without any expectation of material reward for doing so. Indeed, most of the recent social mobility from west to east in Turkey can be credited to Fethullah Gülen’s good counsels. Also, after the change in the law which permitted TV broadcasting in Kurdish, it was on Gülen’s advice that the first private channel broadcasting in Kurdish, namely Dunya TV, was established.

At the end of the day the Gülen movement is a social movement; it cannot and does not aspire to make laws. Recently, Prime Minister Erdogan declared that nobody should expect from him amendments to the law about the right to educate in one’s mother tongue. As an opinion leader Gülen stated that it is a fundamental right to educate in one’s mother tongue and getting education in one’s mother tongue is an option in the established democracies in the West.  Now, was there any obligation on him to do this, especially in view of the opposition of the current government on this issue? Simply, no.  Some people asked that if Gülen really believes that this is a natural right, why don’t Gülen schools offer education in Kurdish as an option? The answer is: it is still illegal to do so.

Another issue is the Alevi tradition within Turkish Muslim tradition. In Ali Ünal´s book on Gülen as Advocate of Dialogue, 67-70 there are liberal statements (Alevi should have freedom of religion, worship, should be allowed to erect cem-houses), but also critical issues like the position that they should stick to a  written tradition (preferably of people like Yunus Enre) and not to the vague oral traditionsas they practise nowadays. Dialogue is and tolerance not the same as indifference or neglect of opposed ideas and practice.

  Gurkan Celik has written a doctoral dissertation at Tilburg University on the ideal of social cohesion though dialogue and education. Like the writings by Fethullah Gülen himself, it concentrates on ethical values and virtues, rather than on prescripts of shari’a. This idea was continued in a project by the Dialogue Academy in cooperation with the law faculty of Leiden University on the cross-cultural doctrines of virtues. Here it was stressed that Gülen follows the line of Muslim philosophers like Ibn Miskawayh and Al-Ghazali who continued the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle about virtues as self-realisation of human beings. In his writings Gülen makes a clear distinction between shari’a strict rules for religious rituals (prayer, pilgrimage, fasting, so-called ‘ibadāt) in contrast to  civil practice or mu’amalāt where the individual is less bound by fixed rules. In his major writings (the 4 volumes on Sufism, Essentials of the Islamic Faith, Questions and answers about faith) Gülen nearly exclusively discusses mystical and philosophical issues and very seldom detail of shari’a  rules. That is very encouraging and important. However, the debate on Islam in Western Europe, also in the Netherlands, often is about the veil, ritual slaughtering, mixed marriage, apostacy. Gülen rejects any violence, but for the rest his voice and that if his followers or sohbets is not so much heard in the debate about Islam in Europe.

Internal cooperation in Islam is difficult in our country: there are so many divisions even among Muslims of Turkish origin: Diyanat, Milli Görüş, Süleimanli, Nurculuk, Hizmet, it all present in the town of Rotterdam. At close distance from this place there are two competing Islamic Universities, both with a Turkish rector. The rector of the Islamic University of Rotterdam, Ahmad Akgündüz, once told me that he had a dream at the time of his invitation to come and teach in Rotterdam. He also had an an invitation for Princeton University. But then in this dream Said Nursi appeared and called him to Rotterdam ‘because the European Christians are not able to counter secularisation.’ Akgündüz obeyed and became rector in Rotterdam. His institute cooperates with Christians and secular humanists in this country, like this Dialogue Academy. That is proposed and stimulated by Hoja Effendi, the man of peace and dialogue. It is, however, my personal conviction that we are not called to seek and promote religion against secularism, but within a secular society. Dialogue should not be among the established conservative leaders of the religions, but with the young and creative the critical and heretic perhaps more than with the old generation and the vested interest of traditional leaders. I am confident, that the quite flexible and action oriented young generation of Gülen friends is able to meet these challenges also in our country, for the best of secular, Christian and Muslim people.

Bruinessen, Martin van

2010    De Gülen-beweging in Nederland, Universiteit Utrecht.

Canatan, Kadir

2001    Turkse Islam. Perspectieven op organisatievorm en leiderschap in Nederland, Doctoral dissertation, University of Rotterdam.

Celik, Gurkan

2010    The Gülen Movement. Building social cohesion through dialogue and education, Delft, Eburon

2011    [with Karel Steenbrink] ‘De gulden middenweg van de islamitische ethiek’, Filosofie en Praktijk, vol. 32/3:74-89.

Fähmel, Anita

2009    Dossier Fethullah Gülen, Leefbaar Rotterdam.

Landman, Nico

1992    Van mat tot minaret. De institutionalisering van de Islam in Nederland, Amsterdam: VU Uitgeverij.

Syafaatun in Utrecht

Last Tuesday, 8 March 2012, International Women's Day,  Syafaatun Almirzanah was one of the fours speakers at an international seminar with the title Women reading across traditions, about feminine reading of scripture in a cross-religious way. Gé Speelman and Marianne Moyaert were the two Dutch speakers. They stressed the more general theme that Scripture is not a dead body, but is living in reading and talking by people and therefore always new meaning will be born.
The Norwegian Anne Hege Grung wrote about the Ishmael/Ismail story in Genesis and in the Hadith by Bukhari. She also compared reactions on women passages of the Bible in Timothy 2 with Qur'an 4:34. At the story of Ismail, Bukhari tells how Hagar leaves Ismail under a tree while looking for water. Immediately one of the women cried that this text must have been written by a man, because a mother never will leave her baby without care somewhere in the desert!

Syafaatun gave the printed copy of her dissertation to me (and quite a few other friends here in Utrecht). When Mystic Masters Meet: Towards a New Matrix for Christian-Muslim Dialogue, New York/Istanbul Blue Dome, 2011. Syafa has sent her son to a Gülen elite school in Semarang, so I guess that Blue Dome has some Turkish, perhaps even also Gülen connections, but that is difficult to assess.

The book is a report of her comparative and enriching reading of Meister Eckhart and Ibn Arabi. Syafaatun learnt very good Arabic as a young girl in a pesantren and she likes this world of mystical thinking, that does not care too much about difference of religions. She did not elaborate much about Islam versus Christianity or so, her concern is more about the legitimacy of mystical and creative thinking within religions in general. Dorothee Sölle is very important for her. She has become a quite self-confident, good-looking lady, speaking with enthusiasm. She is a nice example of the result of IAIN training, where people with lower pesantren education could make a career in the humanities and even social science. Lies Marcoes developed more towards social science, Syafaatun is more philosophical and mystical, but not a vague or 'soft' person: she speaks with knowledge and good decision. It was good to see here again. I had here as a BA srudent in 1986-8; then she stayed with us in Utrecht in 1996 (or in 1997?) for two months. We went together to Cologne, for Sunday Mass in a church where Eckhart had given his sermons. Now we saw her again as a mature scholar. Thank you Syafaatun for growing so nice.

Chinese Muslims in Indonesia

Only a small percentage of the ca 2% Indonesian citizens of Chinese offspring opted for Islam as a religious identity. Some say that it is only 1% of this considerable minority: from 240 million some 2% or 5 million are more or less Chinese. And so some 50.000-100.000 are Muslim.
They have a long history: some prominent Muslims of the 1930s until 1980s are Abdulkarim Oey (for whom Hamka wrote his Tasauf Moderen in 1937. The richest was definitely Haji Masagung who received so many orders from the Ministry of Religion, but besides confessing Islam also practised aspects of Javanese folk religion. He had a wonderful collection of daggers (keris) and used to clean these themselves and gave the water of the cleansing as medicine. The most active preacher was Yunus Yahya, long time leader of PITI, Persatuan Islam Tionghoa Indonesia.

On Friday 23 February Syuan-Yuan Chiou from Taiwan defended his dissertation in Utrecht in this topic. Like so many modern dissertations it was written as a series of articles and this was relevantg in this case, because the growing self-confidence of Chinese converts to Islam is not one great movements, but can be seen in many different aspects. There are some (five are described) mosques in Chinese style. The most spectacular is the new Zeng-He mosque of Surabaya. On the cover we see this recent building with a background of mountains, clouds or even snow. When we look to the black and white picture of p. 115 we see that this cover is the result of photo-shopping or alterations!

The black and white photograph belowe shows the real condition of the modest mosque (10x20 m) that is a quite impressive manifestations of the combination of Chineseness and Islam in Surabaya. There is no similar mosque in Jakarta, but some others are in Palembang, Bogor, Salatiga and Pandaan (East Java).
Chiou start his dissertation with the debate on Zeng He as Muslim admiral who travelled to the region in the period 1400-1430. The follows the practice of Salat Imlek, a short ritual prayer at Chinese New Year. It was allowed by a fatwa of the MUI, Majelis Ulama Indonesia of Yogyakarta in 2002. He has analysis of some 79 interviews and 56 conversion stories: not surprising most opt for Islam because of marriage/love affairs. He elaborates on some famous preachers who are popular among non-Chinese population. One group even sings nasheed in a Lampion (Chinese lanterns) style.

Most Chinese Muslims are from trading families and they are not religious specialists, but still earn money through trade. This could have been a good occasion to develop the theory of relation of Indoensian Islam and trade versus religious specialists: were it the Brahmans or ksatriya or rather the vaisya who brought Hinduism to Indonesia? What about the internal developments here? The theoretical sections now like to quote Pierre Bourdieu or theories about the rise of Islam in Western Europe: there must be theoretical analysis in a dissertation (or any academic book), but I like the theory to be close to the reality and not taken from absolutely different background!
You may download the dissertation soon through the programme http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/dissertations/2012..  Here Utrecht University makes available all its dissertations.

Just a few days before this Utrecht dissertation there was a lecture in Leiden by Wai-Weng Hew from Malaysia. He studied a similar subject and defended his thesis at ANU in Canberra in 2011. In Leiden he presented some of his results: about the mosques, the preachers and the Imlek Prayers. His work has not yet been published. I have some photographs of him, as shown above, besides Marieke Bloemberg who was the chair at the Leiden event.

Miracles

In our European country of the Netherlands it is uite suspect to talk about miracles. People easily use terminology like charlatanism and suggest that we use healthy science or go to well educated medical doctors instead of believing supernatural theories. But in modern Indonesia miracles are nearly affairs. In my present research on the history of Catholics in Indonesia,  I meet them nearly every day. One of these is a Dutch born lay brother of the SSCC order, Jan Heuts, a qualified carpenter. He orked since the 1970s in the island of Bangka and developed paranormal gifts, searching for water and providing alternative health care. No he is called Yanuarius Husada (after the Sanskrit word for medicine or Husada and is still practising his medical service for many people in Indonesia.
Another member of the SSCC order was the priest Rolf Reichenbach, of German origin, who worked in the diocese of Pangkalpinang for a long time and became a charismatic preacher and healer.
One of the best known Catholic healers is the diocesan priest from Tanimbar, Yosep Somar. He is described by anthropologist Paskalis Laksono in his book on Kei culture from a meeting in 1989. I wrote about him to John Prior and received this answer:

I met Somar many years ago. He was employed (among so many others) by Ibu Tien at the Presidential palace. I jokingly said that he has sinned against the Holy Spirit by restoring her health and not putting a knife into her husband! Yes, he was well known as a para-normal healer (using photos etc.).

But one of the most astonishing stories is about a Jesuit priests from India, James Bharataputra. Born in 1937 he came to Medan in 1972 to serve the small community of Tamil Catholics in this region (already mentioned in vol. I:30, 59, 64-5; also vol II, 333). He started to build a grandiose church in 2000. He had Tamil and Chinese sponsors in various places of Indonesia and abroad. One day he had Rp 10 million  in his room, hile staying in a friend's house (about € 1000). He had to go to Jakarta and hile travelling the room was set in fire. Everything was lost, but only the mopney was found intact among the rubble. This became known and people asked for this miraculous money and gave him more until he received much money from all kind of donators and in 2004 his Indonesian replica of the Indian place of pilgrimage Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni was finished.
The photographs here are taken from an interesting article in the academic journal Archipel (no 82, 2011) by Daniel Perret. I could not make the quality better, but in the original journal they are perfect!

So, what about miracles? In Indonesia quite a few people are still fond of spectacular stories and events, while we dream sometimes also of similar stories.

French Research on Indonesian Christians

Recently I received three publications in French on Christians in Indonesia.
The first is the special issue by the journal Histoire et Missions Chrétiennes (no 19, September 2011). It is an issue with 164 pages, edited by Marc Spindler and Karel Steenbrink (my name has been added, but most of the work was done by Marc Spindler and Paul Coulon).
The issue has the French translation of my speech in Paris, in 2008 at the invitation of Remy Madinier. Theme and title was: The Indonesian Exception. Why and how can we explain that several millions of converts from Islam came to Christianity in the island of Java between 1820-1980? It can be explained by the special character of tradional abangan Islam in Indonesia. There is an overview by Marc Spindler about the writing process of the book A History of Christianity in Indonesia. Spindler has also a quite theoretical study about the working area of church history and missionary history. Budi Subanar presents the challenges of modern Catholicism in Java.
The most interesting contribution, as to me, was by Jan Aritonang who asked himself how far the Indonesian protestant churches already have reached independence: in the field of finances (no!!), personnel (yes, but..) and theology (no!!).

(Pictures are here chosen from our last trip to Indonesia, September-October 2009. Above our hotel in Bali).

A second publication is by Remy Madinier in the journal Archipel on the history of  the Ursulin Sisters in Indonesia, 1856-1956. Much of this contribution is based on research in the Roman Archives. The Ursulin sisters were very international but for a long time French was their major language. This is about a period that I also discussed in the first two volumes of Catholics in Indonesia. Madinier could add many interesting details, that are quite easy to understand if one knows the greater story. He stops at the end of a period: the Ursulin sisters focused on Europeans and they had to move to Chinese and Indonesians in the early 1950s. They did so, although some older sisters were not able to switch to Indonesian. (I can not find the text at this moment and hope to discuss this nice article later in some more detail).

(Above a picture of the central mosque of Ambon and Mrs. Paule Steenbrink-Maas, taking off her shoes).

The most interesting contribution is clearly the chapter written by Remy Madinier in a book on the missionary endeavours in the borders of the Muslim World. 
Bernard Heyberger & Remy Madinier (eds), L'Islam des marges. Mission chrétienne et espaces périphériques du monde musulman, xvi-xxe siècles, Paris: IISMM/Karthala, 2011, 288pp.
The book has ninen major contributions: on the missionary efforst in India at the time of Akbar (ca 1550), on Syrian Druzes and Nusayris; Alevi, Kurds; the Berbers of Morocco; on Cameroun.
For me the most interesting is the contribution (231-265) by Remy Madinier on Java, 1800-1940. He starts with the difference among Protestant professional and free missionaries between strict orthodox, Dutch style Christianity (kristen londo) that asked converts to live in a European style, against Kristen Java who were allowed to continue a Javanese style of living, like circumcision, community meals or slametan, to enjoy wayang performances and many other local practices. Madinier compares the division among Muslims in a santri  and a abangan variety with this division and concludes that there are many similarities in the way of believing of the Kristen Java with the abangan. Madinier gives ample attention to Eurasian women here, like Mrs Le Jolle and Philipps (with conclusions similar to those of Th. Sumartana, without mentioning his (Mission at the Crossroads).
As to Catholic mission, Madinier gives some new material from Roman Jesuit archives: he starts with the very negative judgments by early and mid-19th century leaders like Apostolic Vicar Vrancken defines all native Javanese as Muslims and who excludes the possibility of the conversion of these persons to Catholicism. Then he turns to a quite peculiar figure, the Jesuit priest Jan Palinckx who served about 30 years as the parish priest of Yogyakarta, but worked only among Europeans and Eurasians. Palinckx attacked to thesis about a solid and monolythic Muslim confession in Java and sees more variations. This looks like an important source, also seen the thesis by Merle Ricklefs about the rise of abangan Islam in the seconds half of the 19th century.
The conflict between Hoevenaars and Van Lith (that I did not really emphasize or even elaborate in my discussion in the two volumes of Catholics in Indonesia) is for Madinier the difference between a Dutch style Catholicism (Hoevenaars) and abangan/Kristen Java or Jowo (Van Lith). This is an interesting thesis, especially when concentrating on the considerable flock of ex-Sadrach Christians who addressed Van Lith and became his first major group of baptized.
Madinier has some problems in describing the majority of converts who came through the schools, after 1904. He calls the rightly priyayi but this priyayi versus abangan idea is not so deeply elaborated. Catholicism (like Protestantism) received a modern character against Islam as old-fashioned and traditional in the first decades of the 20th century.

Madinier has nice descriptions of what he calls les acrobaties théologiques of Van Lith: even a defence of a priest who could act as a civil service official and cooperate in a divorce, in order to minimize the religious meaning of the work of the kaum or penghulu, the civil servant who officiates in the public administration rather than in religion. This is a nice piece of work! Thank you, Remy for sending me this!

Happy 2011-2012!

Dear friends, colleagues and even unknown followers of these messages on the internet: Paule Maas and Karel Steenbrink wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2012. In good Indonesian tradition we express: Mohon maaf lahir batin, we do apologize for all our mistakes, blunders and offenses!

A good summary of the common condition of Dutch people at this moment was given by Paul Schnabel, director of the National Office for Monitoring of Dutch Culture: Dutch people are among the happiest of the whole world as to their personal situation, but they worry about their society. As retired people we suffered during the last year 7% degrading of our pension plan. These are the official statistics, but personally we did not really feel the effect of this decline, due to some extra income from unexpected assignments! We worry about the financial crisis and most of all about the European dream and ideals that are under have attacks from financial markets, but much from weak politics. The continuing influence of Mr Geert Wilders in Dutch politics with his outrageous slander about Islam and Muslims is a daily cause of trouble. We feel not able to counter his influence, although quite many people suggest that we should be more active in this field. The continuing stream of publications about the sexual and other offenses of Catholic orders, priests, brothers and nuns, also was a fierce attack on the integrity of religion in general. It showed once again the ambiguity and dark side of  everything of truth and beauty. There is no absolute and impeccable truth and beauty found in human life.
We are on the verge of our 70th birthday and had to hear the death of two in-laws last year and several other in our family and among close friends who experience the decline of the body and mind. Although average life expectancy rose to 81 for men and 85 for women in our society, we are conscious that we enjoy now the last full decade.

As you may grasp from the pictures, we are happy with good health. Other reports in this blog wrote about trips to Albania (March, for a Gülen/Hizmet Conference), Barcelona, Scotland and in early December we could make picture in lovely Madeira with its beautiful nature and impressive Mediterranean culture.
Also our children were healthy, busy and happy. Floris and Inge are expecting their first child in May 2012 while Stijn and Irene already celebrated the second birthday of their daughter Sophie.
Paule continued her work as editor of our family magazine Steenbrink Times and kept the family together with many reports, contacts and telephone calls, now also with messages on her iPad. Karel could see the English translation (in Hyderabad) of the Jesus Verses in the Qur'an and the Dutch publication of a commentary on the long second chapter of the Qur'an. Besides the Qur'an he continued preparation for a third volume of Catholics in Indonesia.