Sadanand Dhume - My Friend the Fanatic: Travels with a Radical Islamist

Praise for My Friend the Fanatic

My Friend the Fanatic reminds us of why we must look beyond the Middle East to appreciate whether Muslims can modernizeand how. Giving us a fresh take on one of the worlds most pressing problems, Sadanand Dhume tells a profoundly human story replete with base instincts and high hopes.

Irshad Manji, author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslims Call for Reform of Her Faith

Sadanand Dhume has gone beyond V. S. Naipaul to bring us a riveting portrait of Indonesia in flux. It is fluid, funny, and required reading for anyone interested in the future of Islam.

Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

Fascinating A very fresh and quite urgent book on aspects of our great neighbour that we know absolutely nothing about.

Phillip Adams, Late Night Live, ABC Radio National

Dhume plunged into the friendly squabble that is Indonesia. Hes a casually elegant writer with an eye for the big ideas and hes fascinated by the crunch between Islam and modernity.

Australian Literary Review

Perfectly timed elegantly written.

Australian Financial Review

Takes on a big issue and delivers with flair.

Vishakha Desai, President, Asia Society

A troubling series of events over the past few months is lending credence to Dhumes concerns a marvelously fluid writer.

Asia Sentinel

Highly well written and entertaining read more than recommended.

Indonesia Matters

A thoughtful, oftentimes quirky political travelogue Dhume has a keen eye for detail, a wry sense of humour, and a rare humility. He paints for us a richly visual and varied landscape of the country while pulling together the disparate threads of Indonesias political, religious and social history.

New Indian Express

Shatters comforting certainties.

Salil Tripathi, Mint

A fascinating intellectual journey through many layers of the countrys rich cultural history a deft exploration of how global currents of Arabized Islam are inexorably transforming Indonesias easy-going syncretic Islamic culture. Dhume offers an engaging and deeply disturbing portrait of the worlds largest Muslim country, a must read for every concerned world citizen.

Nayan Chanda, author of Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers and Warriors Shaped Globalization

Sadanand Dhume has not only written a masterful travelogue, but has also turned the spotlight on a fundamentalist movement to which few outsiders have such meaningful access. My Friend the Fanatic should be required reading for anyone interested in the rise of radicalism in Indonesia, or in similar movements in other parts of the Muslim world.

Jamie F. Metzl, Executive Vice President, Asia Society

My Friend the Fanatic describes a journey between Indonesias extremes: the decadence of bohemian Jakarta, and the paranoia of the countrys growing fundamentalist minority. In his encounters with exhibitionist sex writers, Javanese sorcerers, or repressive Osama-philes, Sadanand Dhume brings to bear a light, tolerant, and ironic eye. He has the wisdom to allow the people he meets to be themselves, not stand-ins for something larger. He has the gift of making the most kitsch and sinister characters seem human, sad, and almost lovable.

Richard Lloyd Parry, author of In the Time of Madness: Indonesia on the Edge of Chaos

Copyright 2009, 2016 by Sadanand Dhume

First Skyhorse paperback edition 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Dhume, Sadanand, author.

Title: My friend the fanatic : travels with radical Islamist / Sadanand Dhume.

Description: [New York] : Skyhorse Publishing, 2016. | 2009

Identifiers: LCCN 2015049344| ISBN 9781634504218 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781602396432 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781510701410 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Dhume, Sadanand--Travel--Indonesia. | Islamic fundamentalism--Indonesia. | Islam and politics--Indonesia. | Indonesia--Civilization--21st century.

Classification: LCC DS620.2 .D497 2016 | DDC 959.804/2092--dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015049344

Cover design by Eric Clark

Printed in the United States of America

For my parents

My grandfather inculcated in me Javanism and mysticism. From Father came Theosophy and Islam. From Mother, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Sukarno
SUKARNO: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

In Java, said one of my informants with the usual Javanese sense for cultural relativism, the spirits are unusually disturbing: I dont know how it is in America, but here they are always upsetting one.

Clifford Geertz
THE RELIGION OF JAVA

Contents

Preface

Oddly enough, when I look back on the travels recounted in this book, my encounters with radical Islamists in the slipstream of the 9/11 attacks that changed our world, Im struck less by a sense of danger or foreboding and more by the relative innocence of those times. Back then it was still possible to dismiss radical Islamist violence as largely an aberration, and hope that the West, newly awakened to its dangers, would find a way to prevail over it.

This was before suicide bombers attacked London rush-hour commuters in 2005 killing fifty-two civilians. It was before the 2008 carnage in Mumbai unleashed by terrorists who arrived by boat from Pakistan. It was before two Chechen brothers robbed the iconic Boston Marathon of its simple association with the best of human endeavor. Of course, it predated the horrific assault on Paris by a band of European jihadists fresh from the battlefields of Syria, and its echo, a few weeks later, by a young couple in San Bernardino, California.

When I charted these travels across the Indonesian archipelago, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Pakistan were all less violent places than they are today. In Bangladesh, secular and atheist bloggers werent yet in danger of being hacked to death by machete-wielding zealots. Europes borders appeared secure. American politics wasnt consumed by Donald Trump and the issue of Muslim immigration. The idea of a resurrected caliphate was alive, but it seemed to belong firmly in the realm of radical Islamist fantasy.

In August 2015 I returned to Jakarta, my home for four years during the reporting for this book. Then, as now, Indonesia remained a beacon of hope for the Muslim world. Democracy had taken firm root, and the Indonesian media was the most raucous in the region. Compared to the grim news and grimmer images pouring out of the Middle East, Indonesia barely seemed to merit attention, let alone concern. To the casual visitor, the proliferation of upscale wine bars and chic malls was immediately reassuring.