8 th Euroseas conference Vienna, 11–14 August 2015

— Christianity as a Minority Religion in Indonesia
Thomas G. Oey (Leipzig University)
With a population of 250 million, Indonesia is the largest country in South-East Asia, and the fifth most populous 
nation in the world. The island of Java is the world’s largest conurbation of 150 million persons. A multi-ethnic and 
multi-religious state, the religions and ideologies of Indonesia include indigenous religions (adat), Hinduism, Bud-
dhism, Islam, Catholic and Protestant Christianity, Daoism, Confucianism, Secularism, and other religions and ide-
ologies. Some estimate the Christian population as high as 30 million in this predominantly Sunni Islamic country. 
The recent election of an ethnic Chinese Protestant governor of Jakarta, which is also the nation’s capital, underlines 
the bracketing of Indonesia’s ethno-religious centre and periphery. Indonesia presents a rather unique model of this in 
the world. The presentation will critically examine various centre-periphery categorizations to show how they break 
down in this unique case.

euroseas 2015 . book of abstracts
129
— Re-Positioning the Vagaries of Religious Marginality: An Exploration of Buddhist-Christian Dual Belonging 
in the Philippines 
Manuel Victor Sapitula (University of the Philippines Diliman)
The increasing preponderance of Buddhist-inspired meditation in Christian-majority countries like the Philippines 
raises questions about interactions of religious traditions at the level of practice. While conversions have indeed taken 
place, a significant number of meditation practitioners opt to retain their Christian identification while at the same 
time adhering to Buddhist teachings. This latter phenomenon gives rise to “liminal identities”, which allows agents 
to straddle in between the “best of both [religious] worlds”. Using qualitative interviews with Filipino Zen medita-
tion practitioners, this paper inquires the ways by which agents re-position Buddhism vis-à-vis mainstream Chris-
tian practice so that it assumes greater relevance in life trajectories. Appropriated in this way, Buddhism becomes a 
platform through which meditation practitioners make sense of traditional Christianity, tapping certain Buddhist 
elements as resources for creative self-refashioning. The paper utilizes the life stories of meditation practitioners in 
framing a nuanced treatment of religious identities and practices at the periphery of Philippine social life.
The Malaysian Shias: From Detention Without Trial to Universal Periodic Review
Mohd Faizal Musa (National University of Malaysia)
Malaysian Shias have been denied their rights to freedom of religion in many ways.Their situation took a turn for the 
worse in 2010 following a raid at Hauzah Ar Ridha Alaihissalam, a Shia community centre near Kuala Lumpur. The 
influence of Wahabism promoted by Saudi Arabia in the country together with Malaysian government’s attitude to-
wards the Shias had been the reason for their systematic marginalization since 1996. The Shias suffered human rights 
violations that include detention without trial (ISA), being arrested and charged under Malaysian Sharia law, and 
systematic sectarian apartheid. This paper documented the chronology of the their situations and interviewed 59 Shia 
followers on ‘Institutionalized Islam’.It also shows the responses and reactions of the younger Shia generation to state 
stigmatization. Since 2010 to 2014, this underground community has been successful in bringing their narratives to  
the international stage especially during Malaysia’s second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session in 2013.
Panel: Female Religious Authority in Southeast Asia:  Exemplars, Institutions, Practices 
conveners: David Kloos (KITLV), Mirjam Kuenkler (Princeton Unviersity)
discussant: Mirjam Kuenkler (Princeton Unviersity)
panel abstract
This panel looks at forms of, and changes in, female religious authority in Southeast Asia in comparative perspective. 
The significant role of women in participating in, and shaping, religious scholarly traditions through the centuries is 
still hardly reflected in either academic or public perceptions. Nearly all classic accounts of religious authority, wheth-
er in Islam, Buddhism or Catholicism, proceed from the assumption that this authority is male. The possibility that 
women might exercise various aspects of religious authority is usually not discussed. Yet, when we dissect religious 
authority into its various manifestations (leading prayer, preaching, providing religious counselling, issuing legal in-
junctions, redacting and transmitting scripture, judging in religious courts, shaping the scholarly tradition), nuances 
emerge that call the exclusively male character of religious authority into question.
In recent years, a few case studies of women exercising any of these roles in particular contexts have been published 
by scholars working in different fields, including history, sociology, anthropology, politics, and law. Publications have 
focused on such topics as female teachers, scholars, and preachers, women’s religious reading and study groups, ritual 
leadership, the role of the state in shaping female religious authority, and religious feminism. What is missing is an at-
tempt to comparatively analyze how the ideas and activities of female religious leaders are embedded in local contexts. 
The panel will bring papers together that discuss how different actors, including (male) religious leaders, agents of the 
state, and the majority of ‘ordinary’ or non-activist believers, respond to, and make use of, female leadership roles? 
How does this vary across different religious backgrounds (Islamic, Catholic, Buddhist)? What generalizable patterns 
can be discerned across different religions? And how do these patterns relate to national contexts and the importance 
of locality?

euroseas 2015 . book of abstracts
130
— Female Chinese Muslim Religious Leadership: A Comparison of Indonesia and China 
Faye Chan (University of Melbourne)
This paper examines the emergence of Chinese Muslim women leaders and their growing popularity amongst bumi-
putera Muslims in early 21st century Indonesia. Comparisons will also be drawn with China’s female Muslim leader-
ship which, unlike in Indonesia, has a long well-established tradition of women-only mosques and female imam. This 
comparative analysis takes into consideration the respective local/national contexts where the evolvement of female 
Chinese Islamic authority occurred.
 Within Indonesian history, there are a number of famous bumiputera female Muslim rulers and religious leaders. 
However, very little is known about the activities of ethnic Chinese muslimahs in Indonesia. This paper attempts to 
answer the question of why so few Chinese Indonesian muslimahs are in positions leadership, when compared to their 
bumiputera contemporaries.
The available studies and media accounts of Chinese Muslims to date, by Indonesian and international scholars, ap-
pear to have concentrated on the community as a whole, and with a bias towards male religious leaders who were (and 
are) obviously more visible and active than women in the public arena. This paper is an attempt to redress the gender 
imbalance by 
•  profiling Muslim convert Ida Astuti, better known as Tan Mei Hwa, whose phenomenal popularity on the Islamic 
preaching circuit throughout Java has earned her the title of Bu Nyai from her bumiputera fans;
•  Irena Handono (Han Hoo Lie), a former Catholic nun who converted to Islam. 
•  examining how they accommodated their multiple identities as being Muslim by religion, Indonesian citizens by 
birth, and Chinese by descent;
•  examining how they carved a niche for themselves in the public domain as ethnic Chinese female Muslim leaders.
This paper is a preliminary presentation of only one portion of my PhD research, the part which focuses on the Chi-
nese Muslims in Indonesia. As part of my doctoral research, I want to ascertain whether their very identity as Mus-
lims, such as filling in “Islam” as their religion in official documents (especially in applications for ID cards, passports 
and the like), managed to circumvent the racist manipulation of legislation by the authorities. At the micro level, I 
want to see how Chinese muslimahs respond to the circumscriptions of their ethnicity (as Chinese) and gender (as 
women) by the patriarchal Indonesian nation-state, and of their gender by both the patriarchal conventions of their 
ethnic group (Chinese) and religion (Islam). For the purposes of this paper, such an intersection of ethnicity, gendered 
legal status and religion provides the takeoff point from which I draw comparisons with the muslimah in China, and 
how the female leaders of their mosques and communities accommodated the multiple bindings of their gender by the 
patriarchal mores of Islam, Chinese culture and the Chinese nation-state, regardless of the official line of egalitarian-
ism under Communist rule.
— Female Islamic Leadership and Visual Rhetoric in Southeast Asia
David Kloos (KITLV)
This presentation outlines a recently started research project. Around the world, female Islamic leaders are gaining in 
prominence. My goal is to explain this phenomenon by looking at the ways in which religious leaders in Malaysia and 
Indonesia engage in “visual rhetoric,” that is, the use of visual images to communicate with an audience. The existing 
literature on female Islamic leadership privileges the interpretation of legal and theological texts and their implica-
tion for women. In my view, this is too limited. Visual images are less hermetic and more open to ambiguity than 
most written texts. This project takes as its point of departure that visual rhetoric, as expressed through dress, bodily 
comportment, or the design of physical environment, constitutes an important alternative to texts for constructing, 
performing or contesting religious norms. In my presentation I will elaborate on my research questions, promising 
case studies, and the conceptual and methodological challenges that lie ahead.
— Female Buddhist Authority and the Thai Sangha 
Monica Lindberg Falk (Lund University)
In Thailand gender determines access to Buddhist ordination and women have never been granted membership in 

euroseas 2015 . book of abstracts
131
the Buddhist congregation, sangha. In spite of the fact that women are excluded from the possibility of being ordained 
by the Thai sangha women are active in the Buddhist field both as supporters of the sangha and as female Buddhist 
leaders.
The category of Thai Buddhist nuns, mae chi, have existed in Thailand for centuries but their position is in certain cir-
cumstances ambiguous and they have not gained formal religious authority. There are examples of individual mae chis 
that are venerated for their high level of Buddhist development. During the recent decades, sections of the mae chis, 
have increased recognition and authority and the mae chis have improved their position through education, strict 
Buddhist practice and establishment of self-governed nunneries. Women are not given bhikkhuni ordination (female 
monks’ ordination) by the Thai sangha and bhikkhunis ordained abroad are not accepted by the sangha in Thailand. 
Since 2001 Thai women are receiving novice and full ordination as bhikkhuni with assistance from female and male 
Buddhist monks from abroad. The re-established female ordination lineage and the female Buddhist leadership with 
bhikkhunis’ in the Thai Buddhist field are creating new female Buddhist authority.
This paper will address the recent decades processes of change in the Thai Buddhist field with focus on female Bud-
dhist authority. The paper will be based on anthropological research and give examples of how female Buddhist nuns 
and female monks interpret and deal with authority in their position outside the Thai male sangha.
Monica Lindberg Falk is associate professor of social anthropology and vice director at the Centre for East and South-
East Asian Studies, Lund University, Sweden. Her research interests include gender, education, Buddhism, anthropol-
ogy of disaster and social change in South-East Asia. Her scholarship includes extensive fieldwork in Thailand. She 
is the author of the monographs Making Fields of Merit: Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered orders in Thailand 
and Post-Tsunami Recovery in Thailand: Socio-cultural responses. She has published on themes related to gender and 
Buddhism, socially engaged Buddhism, Buddhism and disasters, education and student mobility.
Panel: Being Muslim in Contemporary Southeast Asia: Practice, Politics and  
Cultural Diversity 
convener: Muhammad Adlin Sila (Indonesian Ministry for Religious Affairs)
discussant: James Fox (Australian National University)
panel abstract
The panel portrays the various ways in which Muslims constitute their Islamic identities through observing practices 
of religion, politics and cultural diversity. This panel claims that there are many meanings of Islam which are scattered 
between members of the Muslim community, between the elites and the ordinary Muslims, and between Muslim 
clerics and lay people. Driven by this concern, the panel suggests that there is no single picture of Islam as Muslims 
construe their Islam in response to their surroundings. What it means to be a Muslim is constantly negotiated.
The theme of this panel (being Muslim) is intended to resonate how Muslims consider their everyday practices as 
Islamic across the Muslims in Southeast Asian countries. With the importance of social context, the panel attempts to 
approach Muslims as a social actor. Theoretically, the panel draws attention to investigating Islam as ‘practiced’ Islam 
rather than ‘normative Islam’ (Waardenburg, 1978: 315 and 2007: 72) and follows the concept of various ‘Islam local’ 
rather than conceptualizing ‘one Islam’ (El Zein, 1977, Asad, 1986; Anjum, 2007; and Bowen 2012). Although, Islamic 
practices are unified in their embrace of a single framework – which is Islam – distinctive expressions of Islamic 
practices among Muslims become a reflection of particular historical cultural legacies and socio-political contexts. 
As there is no single explanation of the process of Islamization in Southeast Asian Muslim countries, we argue that 
Islamization is a broad topic and multi-branched.
In this panel, we invite ethnographic studies of being Muslim in Southeast Asian countries which explore; 1). The 
distinctive features of Islamic practices and the specific history of Islamic conversion and socio-cultural heritage? The 
productive agency of the Muslims studied within the embodied meanings of being Muslims in reference to their sur-
roundings; 2). The understanding of the cultural meanings, religious symbols and systems expressed through rituals 
and festivals; and 3) What are the local beliefs about God, supernatural beings, stories of jinn and healing rituals? To 
what extent is the incorporation of their religious practices within an Islamic framework is responsible for the gradual 
process of acquiring Islamic knowledge leading to the formation of Islamic practices.

euroseas 2015 . book of abstracts
132
— Being Urban Muslim Youth in Indonesia: Constructing Identity via Popular Culture Consumption
Hariyadi Hariyadi (Jenderal Soedirman University)
The prevalent discourse on youth in Indonesia tends to conceive that young people, as they are searching for their 
identities, are vulnerable to the influence of modernity as well as religious resurgence. Both Islamisation and Wester-
nisation occur in urban areas in the sense that urban areas are the places where we can find a high level of consump-
tion and globalised lifestyles. I argue that Indonesian Muslim young persons are not passive objects of Islamisation 
or Westernisation. I understand the powerful influence of Westernised popular culture and the appeal of Islamisation 
on young people. However, according to findings in Jakarta and Bandung, Indonesian Muslim youth are capable to 
constitute their identities based on any cultural materials available to them, be that popular culture, religion, or both. 
Indonesian urban Muslim youth did not become easily targeted for Islamisation. Although some Muslims tried to 
nurture particular Islamic values through popular culture, Muslim youth are not passive consumers of Islamic popu-
lar culture and thus this culture is diverse. Muslim youths consume Islamic popular culture of varying ideological ori-
entations whilst remain critical. Thus, being urban Muslim youths in Indonesia means being in between of the waves 
of Westernisation and Islamisation, as well as being dynamic and cosmopolitan.
— The Symbolic Appropriation of Arabness - Being Muslim in Madura, East Java
Mirjam Lücking (University of Freiburg)
The socio-cultural relationship that Madura shares with Arab countries is rather ambivalent. On the one hand, the 
Madurese treat Arabness as a symbol of Islamic piety that illustrates a special connection to the Holy Land and access 
to religious learnedness. On the other hand, the Madurese can be critical of Arabic culture and customs, especially 
Wahabist ideology. In the context of pilgrimage to the holy Muslim sites in Mecca and Medina, Madurese Muslims 
newly imagine and localize Arabness. How can we grasp the ambivalent relationship with Arabness and what does it 
reveal about recent negotiations of Being Muslim in Madura? 
There are historical links between the Arab World and Madura, as is the case in various other places throughout Indo-
nesia. Madurese piety and the island’s famous and influential Qur’anic schools (pesantren) have a long tradition. Be-
cause of the island’s Muslim character, increased mobility with the Middle East, especially pilgrimage, is intensifying 
the staging of ‘Arabness’ in Madura. Similar to Indonesia on the whole, the pilgrimage business in Madura is booming. 
Desire to participate in the hajj (pilgrimage), to Mecca, is increasingly prevalent. Because waiting lists to take part in 
the hajj are so long, many people opt for the umroh (minor pilgrimage), first, thus postponing or substituting the hajj 
completely.
Madura represents an interesting case because many Indonesians claim that there is a distinctive affinity with ‘Arab-
ness’ in Madura and among Madurese communities in East Java and that the Madurese occupy key positions in the 
pilgrimage management, becoming intermediaries between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Moreover, pilgrimage, labor 
migration, and religious education are intertwined on Madura. Some Madurese pilgrims stay in Saudi Arabia seek-
ing employment and many labor migrants are honored as haji (persons having completed the pilgrimage) after their 
return to Madura. Both groups gain religious and spiritual knowledge (ilmu) during their time in Saudi Arabia - or at 
least claim to do so. Students who study at Middle Eastern universities frequently work as guides during the pilgrim-
age season. The pilgrimage appears to be the key feature of mobility between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia and the 
staging Arabness serves to communicate the accomplishment of the pilgrimage.
Arabic attributes are popular in everyday as well as ritual practices. Such attributes include: clothing style (like a white 
gamis for men and a black abaya for women), cosmetics (dark eyeliner), Arabic expressions (calling the parents Abha 
and Ummi), and Arabic writing on street and shop signs. Obviously, the characteristics of ‘Arab’ are connoted with 
being ‘Islamic’. Thus, staging what is imagined to be Arabic becomes a symbol used to express Muslim piety, while 
manifesting social hierarchies and expressing access to socio-political and economic capital.
I consider this symbolic appropriation of Arabness by analyzing narratives, practices of representation and rituals in 
the context of the pilgrimage and discuss its relevance for the self-affirmation of Madurese Muslims. The paper is part 
of my PhD project on Ideas of the Arab World in Madura and Central Java and is based on ethnographic fieldwork 
conducted in 2014.

euroseas 2015 . book of abstracts
133
— Migration, Religion and Politics: Analysis on Muslim and Christian Relation in Kaimana of West Papua 
Cahyo Pamungkas (Indonesian Institute of Sciences)
This paper aims to analyze the roles of migration and religion to explain political orientation of Muslim Kaimana. 
It argues that migration led to religious division that influences political orientation of Muslims and Christians in 
Kaimana. Most Muslim Kaimana tend to support of integration of Papua into Indonesian state because of the long 
relationship with people from Maluku and other East Indonesian islands. The historical approach shows that migra-
tion to Kaimana cannot be distinguished from ethnicity and religion. Spread of Islam in this region is related to migra-
tion and trade conducted by Muslims from East and Southeast Maluku. Migration is not only a physical movement, 
but also involves transfer of ideas and social attributes, such as religion. After Dutch colonialization and the coming 
of Christianity, different religious identities in Kaimana did not make the distance. Various religious affiliations in a 
family are common, but family or kinship identity remains a unifying instrument. However, disputes between Dutch 
and Indonesia about political status of Papua in 1961 led to political divisions based on religion. Most Muslim villages 
in Kaimana supported integration into Indonesia, while most Christian villages supported Kaimana status under the 
Dutch. These divisions continued until the 1998 reform when the aspiration of free Papua appeared some Christian 
villages. Political orientation of Muslim Kaimana who prefer to Indonesian state is resulted from the long relation-
ship with people of Indonesian islands. Muslim Kaimana culturally, historically and politically has close relations to 
Muslims from Seram and Tidore.
— Remembering the Prophet’s Birthday: Maulid Celebrations and Ahlul Bait Identity in South Sumatra 
Claudia Seise (Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies and Humboldt University Berlin) 
In Palembang (South Sumatra, Indonesia), Maulid celebrations form an important religious event in the lives of many 
Muslim. Traditionally, the centre of the annual Maulid celebrations has been the Mesjid Agung. However, since about 
ten years, Maulid celebrations are held at various locations, mosques and private homes for the length of 40 days. The 
driving force behind this extension of festivities is the young generation of Hadrami descendants (called Alawin, Ha-
baib or Ahlul Bait) living in Palembang through their organization Majlis Maulid Arba‘in. Re-established translocal 
connections with their ancestor‘s homeland in contemporary Yemen and the need for re-connecting young Muslims 
to their religion play a crucial role in the uplift of Maulid. 
Women usually gather in the morning before noon while men celebrate in the evenings. Celebrations are strictly di-
vided among gender lines, which reflects the Habaib tradition. In my paper I argue that this imposed separation is the 
only way for many women to express their emotions during this important celebration.
Furthermore, I argue that the celebration of Maulid among the Habaib community is utilized to remember, invigorate 
and reinforce the Ahlul Bait identity among its members in Palembang. At the same time a new sense of exclusiveness 
is promoted. Essential to the Ahlul Bait identity is their reference to the Prophet Muhammad, his daughter Fatima, his 
son in law Ali and his two grandsons Hasan and Husain.