Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

Muslim Thought and Practice in Contemporary Indonesia 2 0 9The winners of these contests also look forward to the opportunity to participatein international competition in places such as Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.One contest champion who has been an international figure is Maria Ulfah,originally from Java, who has studied in Egypt and who visited the UnitedStates to perform in 1999. She is a scholar, educator, and performer who has aposition at a flagship Qur’anic college in Jakarta (Rasmussen 2001). Somepeople in the United States were surprised that the leading Qur’anic reciterfrom Indonesia is a woman, but gender balance is characteristic of SoutheastAsian Qur’anic performances. Men are allowed to study advanced recitationwith the top female teachers as well as with male ones. Leading reciters, suchas Maria Ulfah, also represent the international character of revitalizedQur’anic practice in Indonesia. They work with models of vocal perf o r m a n c efrom Egypt and develop them in a Southeast Asian style, and, in Ulfah’s case,she then travels the world to give others the opportunity to realize the depth ofQur’anic piety and commitment in Indonesia. 1The promotion of Qur’an-centered practice has not been happening inc o n t e m p o r a ry Indonesia only in the form of contests. There is, for example,an exhibit at a national amusement park outside Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital,called the House of the Qur’an (Baitul Quran), which first opened in 1996.This House features what is said to be the largest decorated text of the Qur’anin the world, exhibits of old religious manuscripts from Indonesia’s Islamicpast, and artistic interpretations of the Arabic of the Qur’an in modern calligraphyand illumination. These Qur’anic renderings use indigenous motifs inspiredby Indonesian flowers and textiles. The roof of the building itself istopped by a model of a stand on which the Qur’an is placed during its recitation,and Muslim schoolchildren visit the exhibit often. Although this projectwas government supported, it also captures the energy of a movement that hasbeen widely popular at the roots of contemporary Indonesian Muslim culture,especially among younger people.C o n t e m p o r a ry Islamic revitalization in the form of d a ’ w a and perf o r m a n c ein Indonesia has increasingly used mass media, such as radio and televisionbroadcasting, sound recordings on cassettes and compact discs, and print mediaas tools of teaching and learning. Although this is the case throughout theMuslim world, in Indonesia, Islamic arts in particular are recognized as idealvehicles for popular Islamic expression that can be disseminated throughthese media. One example of this is a danceable musical form known as d a n g-d u t , a favorite of young people. There has also been a flood of new literatureabout religious thought and practice and increased availability of recordingsof the live performances of entertaining preachers, some of them very funnywhile also very pious. The impact of the Internet on Indonesian Islamic expressionis starting to be felt at the beginning of the twenty-first century as well.D a ’ w a in the form of Indonesian performing arts draws on both Islamic