Wall Street Journal Columnist

Reports on LibForAll Projects, and Associates, in Indonesia

In April of 2007, WSJ foreign affairs columnist Bret Stephens visited Indonesia with LibForAll CEO Holland Taylor, and reported on a variety of LibForAll projects and associates.  Stories that resulted from Mr. Stephens' visit include profiles of key LibForAll activists K.H. Abdurrahman Wahid ("The Last King of Java") and Dr. Abdul Munir Mulkhan ("The Exorcist").  Other articles in the series describe President Wahid and LibForAll Advisor K.H. Mustofa Bisri's defense of personal and artistic freedom ("Hips Don't Lie"), and the dangers of radicalization posed by "The Arab Invasion."

Bret Stephens reported on the social upheaval triggered by the phenomenal success of Indonesian music sensation Inul Daratista (right, with Mr. Stephens), and how her innovative dance style led extremist groups to draft legislation banning so-called "porno-action," which would include any form of dress or self-expression at variance with extremist notions of propriety.

LibForAll co-founder K.H. Abdurrahman Wahid and advisor K.H. Mustofa Bisri helped to discredit this legislation in the public mind, leading to its defeat. 

 

 

  

The complexity of the issues involved was apparent in discussions with the "King of Dangdut," Rhoma Irama (left, with LibForAll CEO Holland Taylor and Bret Stephens), who helped lead the movement to ban "porno-action" out of a sincere desire to help protect the morals of Indonesian society.

Bret Stephens' article on this social and political drama was entitled "Hips Don't Lie."
 
 
Mr. Stephens' visit with President Wahid led to the publication of a full-page "Weekend Interview" with this LibForAll co-founder and board member, whom the article ("The Last King of Java") described as "the single most influential religious leader in the Muslim world" and "easily the most important ally the West has in the ideological struggle against Islamic radicalism."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Mr. Stephens visited the remote village of Sendang Ayu on the island of Sumatra with LibForAll advisor and Senior Fellow Dr. Abdul Munir Mulkhan and CEO Holland Taylor (left, with villagers in front of the mosque in Sendang Ayu).  From this village Dr. Munir launched a campaign which resulted in his organization, the 30-million-strong Muhammadiyah, issuing a decree that bans the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired political party PKS (the Indonesian equivalent of Hamas), and its ideology, from the Muhammadiyah's institutions and activities.

Bret Stephens called his article on Dr. Munir "The Exorcist."

 
Abdul Munir Mulkhan, Bret Stephens and Holland Taylor had a long discussion with the assembled deans of faculty at the Muhammadiyah University in the city of Metro in Lampung Province, Sumatra (right).

The dean of the Religion department commented on the enormous significance of the Muhammadiyah decree banning the PKS and its ideology, while the head of dakwah (proselytization) described Muhammadiyah and University plans to counter penetration by the PKS and its ideology.

 

 

 Habib Rizieq (wearing white cap, with Holland Taylor, Bret Stephens and LibForAll staffer Hodri Ariev) described how Muslims must be violent with those who refuse to bow to the "demands of the Islamic community" for which he speaks.

Rizieq was among those whose threats caused Muslim rock star and LibForAll board member Ahmad Dhani to move his wife and children to safety in 2005, until Abdurrahman Wahid, C. Holland Taylor and Abdul Munir Mulkhan presented Dhani with the LibForAll Award in a nationally-televised press conference held at the headquarters of the world's largest Muslim organization, President Wahid's 40-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama.

Bret Stephens called his article on Rizieq "The Arab Invasion."

 
Some of the 4,000 students at Kyai Haji Yusuf Chudlori's Pondok Pesantren Asrama Perguruan Islam in Tegalrejo, Central Java -- one of the most respected Islamic boarding schools in Southeast Asia.  Its students receive a thorough grounding in Islamic studies, including Sufi mysticism, which generally inoculates them against the lures of Islamist extremism.

Yusuf Chudlori ("Gus Yusuf) is a close associate of President Wahid and of LibForAll Foundation.

 
Bret Stephens (center) at an historic gathering of Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama leaders who are committed to promoting a peaceful and tolerant understanding of Islam as the "middle path," eschewing the ideology of religious hatred and violence.

Left to right: LibForAll associate Dr. Ratno Lukito; LibForAll advisor and Senior Fellow Dr. Abdul Munir Mulkhan; Director of LibForAll's Nur al-Hikmah ("Light of Wisdom") Society, Hodri Ariev; Bret Stephens; LibForAll advisor and renowned NU leader K.H. Mustofa Bisri ("Gus Mus"); LibForAll associate Ridlo (standing behind Gus Mus); LibForAll CEO Holland Taylor; and regional NU chairman K.H. Achmad Said Asrori ("Gus Said").

 

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