by HEW WAI-WENG
Chinese Muslim preachers are popular, but they don’t always promote greater pluralism
Tan Mei Hwa’s preaching style is especially popular among women PHHOTO/Hew Wai-Weng
In today’s Indonesia, Chinese Muslim preachers have a surprisingly high profile. Although the figures are highly contested, it is generally believed that only about 1 to 2 percent of Chinese Indonesians, out of a total population of 5 to 6 million, are Muslims. Yet Chinese Muslim preachers are popular, not only among Chinese converts, but also with non-Chinese Muslim Indonesians. They appear regularly on religious television programs and hold public talks that are often attended by large crowds.
Successful preachers in contemporary Indonesia are also media celebrities, skilled at tailoring their messages to a media audience. Chinese preachers appear to have a special marketing pull, because of their ethnicity and their status as converts. Most Indonesians are born into the Muslim faith, so converts arouse curiosity under any circumstances, but especially when they are Chinese. Many Muslims are concerned with what they see as a process of ‘Christianisation’ in Indonesia, and so they view the conversion of Chinese Indonesians – a community that is almost forty per cent Christian – as a welcome phenomenon. At the same time, many Muslims think that the spiritual journey toward piety that these converts-turned-preachers make provides a positive role model for non-practising Muslims. The preaching of Chinese Muslims takes varying forms and they each have different messages, reflecting their varying socio-economic backgrounds, cultural outlooks, conversion experiences and religious education. It might be said that Chinese preachers are as diverse as Indonesian Islam itself.
Inside Indonesia for more