So I have spent much of this year on Gili Meno, which is a Muslim island, off the coast of Lombok, the Muslim mainland. Lombok is known by the locals as the ‘Island of a Thousand Mosques’.
Given the brutal terrorist attacks that have continued to occur around the world this year and of course the other day in Paris – and as an update, also yesterday in Mali – and given people are pondering about the reportedly violent nature of Muslim people and their steadfast pact to convert the world and kill all infidels, it has got me thinking.
I live surrounded by Muslim people here. Eni is sweet and funny, she washes my sheets, and her fisherman husband Danny is very cheeky (he loves joking about sex). The family next door run a tiny shop there and sell nasi campur and their daughter and granddaughter Badea is the cutest most enterprising one year old you’ll ever meet despite her dirt covered face. Made’s friend Saut speaks almost no English, has the biggest smile in a very black face. He works at the beach harbour unloading supplies from the boats and is caretaker for the land on the other side of us which belongs to a Danish couple. His wife Marama also speaks no English. She cooks in the kitchen at the bungalows where I stayed earlier this year and laughs all the time. Those bungalows are owned by Kamri and Nur, a genuine and honest quiet couple whose son spends his afternoons jumping into the sea and being cheeky. They are happy with their small place which has 5 bungalows and a restaurant that serves the best fish curry (after Made’s of course). Unlike others here, they don’t seem money hungry at all. The lady who comes to our ‘door’ most days, having travelled by boat from Lombok to sell cakes and fruit, is slowly trying to learn how to count in English and to say more than ‘hello’ and ‘yes’. None of these people have smart phones or do social media. Perhaps they watch the news on TV, if they are interested, but apart from my Muslim landlord and his wife, I’ve yet to see anyone watch the news. 
Gili Meno is a tourist island and all of the locals, all Muslims, rely directly or indirectly on a mostly bikini-clad tourism for their livelihoods. They are used to westerners and as such the religion and culture seems progressive and moderate. Sure, the mosque rings out several times a day with the call to prayer, and almost every day we hear a dozen or so young children gather on a berugak at a house up the road in the late afternoon to piously sing the prayers from the Qur’an (and perhaps brainwashedly?). The women only don hijabs for weddings, ceremonies and whenever they leave the island. But apart from that I have yet to see any violence or radicalism, or efforts to convert ‘non-believers’. I don’t think many of them even pay any attention to world events.
Not once in Gili Meno holiday island (nor in Lombok for that matter), have I felt threatened or unsafe about the fact that I am living amongst Muslim people.
Sure there are huge cultural differences, naturally. As there are with any Asian country, or “3rd” world country for that matter. These can be dreadfully confronting and bloody frustrating, as well as hugely enriching. But the people here have been hospitable, welcoming, and caring. They are peaceful, deeply family-orientated people.
In Lombok, whilst I spend much of my time with Hindu people and am learning a lot about that religion and its customs, this has occurred with the constant backdrop and soundtrack of the regular calls to prayer that bellow through the loudspeakers from the many mosques.
Made’s mother, three of his sisters, and countless nieces and nephews, are Muslim. At the big annual Kuningan Hindu festival some of his Muslim family joined in at his Hindu uncle’s ceremonial gathering. At the local shop several hijab wearing young shop attendants always laugh easily and greet me by my name and in English, they give me high-fives, and laugh about how pretty I am (they love white skin!). The Muslim and Hindu people appear to live together in harmony and mutual respect in his town in North Lombok, although I am beginning to learn that the mutual respect is perhaps a little skewed, and in truth the Hindu people are more tolerant of the Mulsims than vice versa.
Lombok has an Islamic history that dates back over 500 years and is somewhat diluted by the Hinduism from the Balinese that occupied the country for a while, and a small population of Buddhists, as well as the island’s original traditional animist type religions. In this beautiful part of Indonesia, the people reportedly practise a oneness of spirit in a pluralistic society according to the national motto, Bhineka Tunggal Ika, which means ‘Unity in Diversity’.
But even given all this, and given I am a humanitarian, not a racist or bigot, I am a supporter in spirit of refugees (plus through ongoing small donations to UNHCR), and have read several books written by Islamic people, I am still not entirely convinced that the people here would stay peaceful if they were persuaded to do otherwise, or be otherwise, in the name of Allah. A lot of the Muslims are poorly educated, completely unworldly, and very devout. I wonder what would happen if an activist infiltrated the mosques, the schools, the villages…
I understand over recent years parts of Java are becoming more, what people call, Arabic, which means it is becoming more extreme in its Islamic customs and faith. In the Aceh territory in the Sumatran region of Indonesian they have Sharia law. This has appallingly archaic Islamic laws and practices including cruel punishments for women not dressed in hijabs and 100 lashes for homosexual conduct. I am learning, slowly, that there is mostly an undercurrent of single mindedness amongst the local Muslim people in Lombok too. They may seem friendly, going about their day-to-day lives, but when it comes down to it they do believe their religion is the only one that should exist on this planet. They have deliberately kept the Chinese people (there are lots in Mataram) out of the northern region of Lombok, and they are not happy if one of their own girls falls in love with a Hindu man. When it comes to business transactions, and also if it came to the crunch politically and religiously, Made doesn’t really trust Muslims. He has also told me about two popular Indonesian Muslim preachers from Java who are extreme Islamic activists and who – although Wikipedia states they are not affiliated with Isis – he says indicate otherwise in their provocative sermons. According to a site he has shown me online, 10million Indonesian people support Isis!!! That’s a small percentage of the total population, but a freekin hell of a lot of people. It is a sad generalisation but I do think the Muslim religion is the one that tends to be the most inclined to garner radicalism, and I guess that does cause me a wee bit of concern now when I’m in Lombok.
And yet today, as I write down these thoughts, I’m on my way to Kuala Lumpur, another Muslim country. I am literally the only westerner on this entire plane. When I went to Kuala Lumpur last time I could not have been more impressed with the Malaysian hospitality. People were the friendliest, most helpful and warmest I’ve seen anywhere in the world (and I’ve spent time in almost 20 countries so far now in my adult life). Partly I think that may be because the Malaysians speak English very well and are therefore more confident and comfortable talking with visitors compared to the Sasak people of Lombok whose high school English is generally poorer than my high school French (I think I can count to ten and say a few greetings). Sasak people tend to be more timid and reticent to communicate with visitors than the Malaysians. OMB as I write this I am sitting on the plane a thousand metres up, sandwiched between two smelly Muslim Sasak FIFO men, and just now a loud bang went off! Holey manoley – a bomb! For several minutes everyone around me looked frightened! Everyone around me was as shocked and intrigued as I was. It turned out the man next to me had a plastic bottle or bag that must have popped due to the rising air pressure! (That vital technical aviation feature doesn’t seem to function quite as well with AirAsia planes as it does with those of the fancier carriers ). Phew, I live to tell another tale.