It is not about “Islam of Southeast Asia” rather “the powerless East” and “the powerful West” by Faqiiuddin Abdul Kodir

Bernard elucidates interestingly, although it is a general attempt, the paradigmatic differences between the West and Islam of Southeast Asia in seeing the tragedy of September 11. Western societies, he argues, are established on the paradigm of “social contract” in which values of individual freedom and safety are very central, while Muslims are influenced rather by values of the family in which the dignity and the well being of the ummah become very fundamental. On the one hand Western people are very much motivated by the belief in the free choice of individuals, and Muslims are rather “tied together by blood and fate” (p. 335).
I would like accordingly to go further that the differences above are not only about Muslims in Southeast Asia rather about Southeast Asian people in general and Western people also in general. Precisely the dimension, I think, is broader than only to be true among Muslims in Southeast Asia. It is not only Muslims of the regions for instance who distrust the governments. The notion that nationalism is less important than “religion” or “local religion” among contemporary Muslims is also true, I think, for Christians, and the adherents of other religions. This is due to the failure of the state as the symbol of nationalism to provide the needs of the civilians. The states of the regions are seen by their people to be exploited by the elites only for interests of the powerful elite including the West.
The dimension of September 11, I think, even goes further to distinguish the perspective of those who feel powerless against those who are powerful, people to people or state to state and even among people in the US. I often read the articles of Americans, such as Michael Parenti the outstanding writer on the critics of capitalism of the State, that the tragedy of September 11 was designed deliberately by the US particularly Bush’s administration to maintain capitalism which makes nothing for people of the US. I am not discussing about the perspective of conspiracy in seeing the tragedy of September 11 among Muslims. I just get impressed, even from the perspective of the news and the articles shown in Kompas run by Indonesian Catholic, that the tragedy tells us more about the idea of social justice between the East and the West, or the South and the North, or the powerless and powerful, and the poor and the rich. This distinguishable perspective exists obviously in many countries of the world even in the State.


Readings:
1. Bernard Adeney-Risakotta, “The Impact of September 11 on Islam in Southeast Asia”, in: K.S. Nathan and Mohammad Hashim Kamali (eds.), Islam in Southeast Asia”, (Singapore: ISEAS, 2005), pp. 325-345.