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A26 May 22 • 2008
In Pursuit Of Tolerance
With rock music and Islamic teachings, former
Indonesian president fights for moderate Islam.
Ron Kampeas
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Islamic people should learn" about the
Jews and their faith.
Ramin's worst fears were realized:
Washington/JTA
The community that dated to the
Babylonian exile heard Saddam's mes-
n its telling, the story of a noto-
sage loud and clear, and by the early
rious lynching of Jews is not
1970s it had dwindled to barely a hun-
unusual.
dred Jews. By 2007 there were fewer
The storyteller, however, is:
than 10, according to media accounts.
Abdurrahman Wahid, the former
Wahid, however, made good on his
Indonesian president, and a leading
pledge.
Muslim scholar.
Best known as the president who
In an interview with JTA, Wahid, who shifted Indonesia to democracy from
traveled to the United States and then
1999 to 2001, Wahid then was forced
Israel in recent weeks to preach his
out due to a combination of financial
message of Muslim tolerance, revealed
scandals and hardliners who opposed
the root of his understanding of the
his attempts to liberalize restrictions
risks and perils of Jewish existence.
on political groups and the country's
Wahid was a 29-year-old student
Chinese minority.
at Baghdad University in 1966, earn-
Wahid also has gained prominence
ing his keep as a secretary at a textile
for his insistence on introducing the
importer, when he befriended the firm's world's most populous Muslim nations
elderly accountant, an Iraqi Jew he
to certain truths about the Jews.
remembers only by his family name,
As an opposition leader, he broke
Ramin.
new ground by visiting Israel in 1994.
"I learned from him about the
The apex of this effort, conducted
Kabbalah, the Talmud, everything
jointly with the LibForAll Foundation
about Judaism," Wahid recalled of the
(www.libforall.org ), a group that
four-year friendship that included
promotes moderate Islam, and the
long lunches, quiet walks and talks at
Simon Wiesenthal Center, was the
the city's legendary World Hanging
Holocaust conference last year in Bali,
Gardens.
Indonesia.
Wahid has spoken about this friend-
At the conference, which was attend-
ship before — it is featured in his biog- ed by survivors and Jewish and Muslim
raphy by Greg Barton, Abdurrahman
clergy, Wahid called Iranian President
Wahid: Muslim Democrat, Indonesian
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a "liar" for
President — but on this recent tour
denying the Holocaust.
Wahid added to the account his memo-
Wahid, 67, continues to promote his
ries of Jan. 27, 1969.
message with LibForAll, founded in
In 1968, the Iraqi government effec-
2003 by C. Holland Taylor, a scholar
tively had come under the control of
of Southeast Asia and a telecommu-
Saddam Hussein, whose title at that
nications magnate. Wahid, who says
time was deputy to the president,
he plans to run for president again in
Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr.
2009, brings to the venture his prestige
At Saddam's behest, Iraqi courts had
as the scion of a family of Javanese
convicted 14 Iraqis — nine of them
Islamic scholars.
Jews — on trumped-up charges of spy-
ing for Israel; and they were hanged
Equalilty And Tolerance
that day in Baghdad's Tahrir Square,
This Jewish component is just part of
just steps away from where the textile
Wahid's larger effort to promote an
firm had offices.
ideology of moderate Islam. He wants
Ramin came to his friend Wahid and to demonstrate that the radical factions
wept, wondering what would become of are not pre-eminent and to promote a
Iraq's ancient Jewish community.
faith that preaches equality for women
"I said, `This is not only your fate, it
and tolerance of non-believers.
is my fate:" said Wahid, now frail and
LibForAll recruits respected, mod-
in a wheelchair.
erate Muslim leaders in Indonesia to
Wahid said he decided then that "the
endorse and write tracts repudiating
I
Abdurrahinan Wahid, seated, receives
the Medal of Valor from Rabbi Marvin
Hier, founder and dean of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center, as Rabbi Abraham
Cooper, far left, and C. Holland Taylor
look on at the Simon Wiesenthal
Center on May 6.
the radical brand of Islam promoted
by Saudi-funded advocates of Wahhabi
Islam.
The organization also is disseminat-
ing a 30-lesson video curriculum called
"What is Islam" that advances a plu-
ralistic vision of the faith throughout
thousands of Islamic boarding schools
in Indonesia.
One of the project's highest-profile
coups was getting rock star Ahmad
Dani, whose group, Dewa, has been
likened to U2, on board with the pro-
gram. Dani has recorded a single taking
on Laskar Jihad, Indonesia's radical
Islamist terrorist group. The song is
called Laskar Cinta, "Warriors for
Love:'
Taylor says plans are underway to
translate the videos and tracts into
Arabic and other languages.
Wahid says moderate Islam stands
a greater chance of triumphing over
Islamic radicalism once Western lead-
ers stop trying to accommodate Islamic
extremists. Saudi Arabia, in particular,
remains the primary funding source
for the global spread of fundamentalist
Islam. ❑