"I hope you immediately put a stop to your activities in relation to the MUI edict that bans secularism, liberalism and pluralism and then repent and return to the rightful path before God shows His anger."

This text message remains stored in Sudarto's cell phone. He has also kept an additional 25 similar messages, all condemning his religious thoughts and activities.

"I have them to remind me that some people who hold a view different to mine are fond of threatening others and claim theirs is the only correct view," he told The Jakarta Post.

While Ulil-Absar Abdalla, the director of JIL (the Liberal Islam Network) in Jakarta, has become the target of anger by hard-liners, Sudarto, director of Pusaka (Center for Inter-Community Studies) is similarly targeted in Padang, West Sumatra.

Long before MUI (the Indonesian Ulema Council) issued its edict banning secularism, pluralism and liberalism in July 2005, hard-line Islamic organizations had intimidated Sudarto and his colleagues in Pusaka.

"I've never been bothered by such pressure as long as it does not involve physical violence," Sudarto said when asked whether the threats discouraged him. At present the pressure is weakening and Pusaka, temporarily, is reducing its activities.

Sudarto was born to a farming family in Sungai Tanduk, Kerinci, West Sumatra, on Oct. 27, 1974. After completing his Islamic secondary schooling there in 1994, he entered the Dakwah School (Islamic Mission) of Imam Bonjol State Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN) in Padang and graduated in 1999.

He based his pluralist interpretation on Islam after reading books by prominent Islamic figures such as Muhammad Arqoun, Nasar Hamid Abuzaid, Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, Nurcholis Madjid and Ahmad Wahib.

"In the third semester of my IAIN studies, I read these books and underwent a transformation of view. From someone who used to claim that his religion was the correct one, I have become someone that can appreciate pluralism," said Sudarto, who now has a child of his own.

As campus activities were not conducive to debates about Islam, he took a break of one semester. Then, he resumed and completed his studies because he did not want to disappoint his parents.

In 2000, he and his friends from various faiths and professions set up Pusaka. Since then he has been the director of this intercommunity organization, whose mission is to facilitate interfaith dialog in Padang and elsewhere in West Sumatra.

"We have decided to set up Pusaka because we realize that interfaith dialog sponsored by the Religion Ministry has been intended only for the elite, not for people at the grass roots. The diverse population in Padang and West Sumatra, in terms of religion and ethnic background, may result in conflict, especially as rumors about attempts to convert people to Christianity or Islam in this region have not been covered properly in the local mass media," he said.

In its five years of existence, Pusaka, assisted by donor institutions like the Tifa Foundation and the Asia Foundation, has held close to 40 discussions, workshops and seminars involving participants from different religions.

Aside from organizing religious dialogs for religious leaders, Pusaka has also organized leadership training for students with a pluralist view. The organization has also invited Ulil-Absar Abdalla as a resource person to one of its programs.

"Today, it is true that Muslims tend to be intolerant toward other religions. That's why we encourage Muslims to respect plurality. Of course, pluralism must be respected by both Muslims and non-Muslims. As Muslims are in the majority; we must protect the minority instead of instilling fear," he said.

"There is currently a tendency among Muslims to perceive Indonesia as a Muslim country," he added, “constitute the majority so think `I can do whatever I wish.' I don't think that is fair. If Muslims, who realize they are in the majority, would like to apply Islamic canon law, they would face the problem of feasibility.

"However homogeneous West Sumatra may be, we don't have monolithic loyalty. Still, what appears to be homogeneous remains heterogeneous deep down," he noted.

Non-Muslims aside, Islam is heterogeneous because it has Shiite, Sunni and Ahmadiyah subdivisions, and so on.

"So, which Islamic canon law should be applied? If you insist on applying a monolithic Islamic canon law, it won't be effective and won't last," he said.

Islam, Sudarto added, fully accommodates pluralism. The Koran accepts the reality of pluralism in two ways: First, it refers to human beings as unified mankind.

Second, it accepts pluralism in terms of food and marriages. Muslims may receive food from people of a different faith and Muslim men may marry women of a different faith (Al Maidah chapter, verse 5), “is my definition of Islamic canon law: Accept pluralism. It is wrong to say that I judge Islamic canon law; in fact, I have my own interpretation of it," he said.

"Many Indonesian figures of different views and ideologies were born in West Sumatra but were able to live harmoniously side by side, such as Bung Hatta, a nationalist; Tan Malaka, a socialist; and DN Aidit, a communist. Hamka, the founder of MUI and a noted Muslim figure, could engage in open debate with people of different views and respect them. This attitude should be held up as an example," he said.

Currently, there is an ongoing trend in several regions in Indonesia to implement regulations based on Islamic canon law. According to Pusaka data, there are in West Sumatra 23 regional regulations and official instructions on the obligation for students and civil servants to wear a Muslim headscarf.

Students and would-be brides and bridegrooms are also required to be able to read and write the Koran. In addition, civil servants are also required to pay zakat (an Islamic tithe).

"For me, such regulations are unnecessary as they are concerned only with minutiae and technical matters. If the state wishes to intervene, it should concentrate on the fundamentals for example how to ensure that there will no longer be any poor people or how not to privatize water. Government must, for example, also ensure that there will be more employment opportunities and that there will be no more starvation. Then the government should provide education and health services to badly off people. If the state involves itself in minor matters such as reading the Koran or wearing a headscarf what will ulema and families do?" he said.

In addition, he said, the information he has gathered shows that these obligations that are based on Islamic canon law are disadvantageous to minority non-Muslims.

“Almost every school, non-Muslim girls have to wear a headscarf. Some even have to learn the Koran to get good marks. It is wrong for the regional heads to say that their policies have the support of the community and that nobody is protesting.there really no protest at all or are people just too afraid to say anything? This is what our regional leaders should find out,"said Sudarto, who has been a teacher of Islam at Don Bosco Senior High School since 2003.

In Padang, Sudarto and Pusaka have enjoyed the support of minority groups and a handful of non-governmental activists and academics. Since the issuance of the MUI edict on the banning of secularism, pluralism and liberalism, Sudarto has been blacklisted by the local print media.

"Once I wrote an article under a pseudonym and had it published but later on I couldn't get any of my articles into print. We used to buy a full page of a local newspaper to advertise Pusaka activities but, the paper told us, the ulema said it should stop selling us the page," Sudarto said.

(The Jakarta Post, August 28, 2006)