{"id":540,"date":"2014-09-04T16:47:59","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T20:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/?p=540"},"modified":"2014-09-04T16:47:59","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T20:47:59","slug":"indonesia-one-of-the-many-places-you-can-find-true-islam-rns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/indonesia-one-of-the-many-places-you-can-find-true-islam-rns\/","title":{"rendered":"Indonesia: One Of The Many Places You Can Find True Islam (RNS)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Name of God: the Infinitely Merciful and Compassionate Beloved Lord<\/em><\/p>\n

While the barbarians of ISIS – and Islamophobes – like to claim that they are the only true Muslims on the earth, reality says something much different. My good friend and Editor-in-Chief of the Religion News Service, Kevin Eckstrom<\/a><\/strong>, wrote a beautiful post<\/a><\/strong> about Islam in Indonesia, and how this is one of the real faces of Islam, as opposed to the barbarism shown by ISIS:<\/p>\n

JAKARTA, Indonesia (RNS) I woke up this morning to the news that the thugs in the Islamic State had beheaded yet another American journalist. Not a great way to wake up.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The name \u201cIslamic State\u201d is unfortunate on a number of levels\u00a0\u2013 the group behind it is\u00a0neither Islamic nor a state. Sure, they may be Muslims acting in the name of Islam, but the Muslim leaders I\u2019ve met here\u00a0are clear that it\u2019s not a form of Islam that they recognize, or embrace.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cISIS is not born from the heart of the Muslim people,\u201d said Kyai al-Hajj Ali Musthafa Ya\u2019qub, the grand mufti of the national mosque of Jakarta, using another acronym for the Islamic State. \u201cIslam is what Allah the exalted says, not what Muslims do.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here in the heart of the world\u2019s most populous Muslim nation, you encounter\u00a0a different vision of Islam than the one most Americans see beamed out of the Middle East. Some would call it moderate, or centrist, and tolerance for other faiths is deeply embedded in its DNA. In a country that is 87 percent Muslim, there\u2019s a surprising amount of room for everyone else.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to change this idea that the Middle East is where we need to look\u201d for what Islam looks like, said Lukman Hakim Saefuddin, the government\u2019s minister of religious affairs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Which brings us back to this idea of an Islamic state \u2014 a concept that has never found much favor in a country that claims more Muslims than any other. To be sure, there are controversial blasphemy laws, and the province of Aceh has implemented Shariah law (more on that in a later post). But the country remains a secular democracy whose founding principles<\/a> include a \u201cbelief in the One and Only<\/strong>
\n God,\u201d but doesn\u2019t mention\u00a0the term Allah.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unlike Pakistan or Iran or Egypt, Islam is not the state religion here. Islam certainly has primacy of place, but it\u2019s one of six officially recognized religions. There\u2019s a sense of \u201cGodly nationalism,\u201d as one scholar put it, where Islam is just one of many claims on a national and individual identity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are Indonesians who happen to be Muslims, not simply Muslims who happen to live in Indonesia,\u201d Saefuddin said.\u00a0For a man charged with safeguarding the faith of some 200 million Muslims, that\u2019s quite a statement.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He goes on to explain the particular characteristics of Indonesian Islam and society. It is a great read, and it shows that the face that ISIS shows the world is far from the true face of Islam, an example of which is shown in Indonesia. Read the entire post here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Name of God: the Infinitely Merciful and Compassionate Beloved Lord While the barbarians of ISIS – and Islamophobes – like to claim that they are the only true Muslims on the earth, reality says something much different. My good friend and Editor-in-Chief of the Religion News Service, Kevin Eckstrom, wrote a beautiful post…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[538,44],"tags":[394,545,534,11,544,6,543],"class_list":["post-540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-i-speak-out-against-terror","category-religionbelief","tag-blog","tag-indonesia","tag-isis","tag-islam","tag-kevin-eckstrom","tag-quran","tag-rns"],"yoast_head":"\nIndonesia: One Of The Many Places You Can Find True Islam (RNS) - Common Word, Common Lord<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Indonesia: One Of The Many Places You Can Find True Islam (RNS) - Common Word, Common Lord\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the Name of God: the Infinitely Merciful and Compassionate Beloved Lord While the barbarians of ISIS – and Islamophobes – like to claim that they are the only true Muslims on the earth, reality says something much different. My good friend and Editor-in-Chief of the Religion News Service, Kevin Eckstrom, wrote a beautiful post…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/indonesia-one-of-the-many-places-you-can-find-true-islam-rns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Word, Common Lord\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-04T20:47:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hesham A. Hassaballa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GodFaithPen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Indonesia: One Of The Many Places You Can Find True Islam (RNS) - Common Word, Common Lord","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Indonesia: One Of The Many Places You Can Find True Islam (RNS) - Common Word, Common Lord","og_description":"In the Name of God: the Infinitely Merciful and Compassionate Beloved Lord While the barbarians of ISIS – and Islamophobes – like to claim that they are the only true Muslims on the earth, reality says something much different. My good friend and Editor-in-Chief of the Religion News Service, Kevin Eckstrom, wrote a beautiful post…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/indonesia-one-of-the-many-places-you-can-find-true-islam-rns\/","og_site_name":"Common Word, Common Lord","article_published_time":"2014-09-04T20:47:59+00:00","author":"Hesham A. Hassaballa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GodFaithPen","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/indonesia-one-of-the-many-places-you-can-find-true-islam-rns\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/indonesia-one-of-the-many-places-you-can-find-true-islam-rns\/","name":"Indonesia: One Of The Many Places You Can Find True Islam (RNS) - Common Word, Common Lord","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-09-04T20:47:59+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-04T20:47:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#\/schema\/person\/c2d50a46198edad19abb055001c4cd21"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/indonesia-one-of-the-many-places-you-can-find-true-islam-rns\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/indonesia-one-of-the-many-places-you-can-find-true-islam-rns\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/indonesia-one-of-the-many-places-you-can-find-true-islam-rns\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Indonesia: One Of The Many Places You Can Find True Islam (RNS)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/","name":"Common Word, Common Lord","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Hesham Hassaballa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/#\/schema\/person\/c2d50a46198edad19abb055001c4cd21","name":"Hesham A. Hassaballa","description":"Hesham A. Hassaballa is a Chicago doctor and writer. He has written extensively on a freelance basis, being published in newspapers across the country and around the world. He has been a Beliefnet columnist since 2001, and has written for the Religion News Service. He is also a columnist for Patheos. His articles have been distributed worldwide by Agence Global, and he was also a guest blogger for The Chicago Tribune and has blogged on ChicagoNow\" . In addition, Dr. Hassaballa has appeared as a guest on WTTW (Channel 11) in Chicago, CNN, Fox News, BBC, and National Public Radio. Dr. Hassaballa is co-author of The Beliefnet Guide to Islam (Doubleday), and his essay, \u201cWhy I Love the Ten Commandments,\u201d was published in the award-winning book Taking Back Islam (Rodale). His latest book, Noble Brother, is the story of the Prophet Muhammad told entirely in poetry, and it is now published in its second edition. In 2007, his blog \"God, Faith, and a Pen\" was nominated for a Brass Crescent Award for a blog that is \u201cthe most stimulating, insightful, and philosophical, providing the best rebuttals to extremist ideology and making an impact whenever they post.\u201d \"God, Faith, and a Pen\" has also received an award for being one of the \"Top Muslim Blogs for 2010\" by Awarding The Web. In addition to writing, Dr. Hassaballa helped found the Chicago Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations and currently serves on their board of directors. He also co-founded the Bayan H. Hassaballa Charitable Foundation and now serves as its Treasurer.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/GodFaithPen"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/author\/hhassaballa\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":544,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540\/revisions\/544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}