Imam Feisal photographed during the interview (Karvarino/Gatra)

It was my second time to meet Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man who stirred a controversy in US for his plan of building an Islamic community center near Ground Zero.

We met in a hotel in downtown Jakarta on early December.  I first met and interviewed him in 2007 when he came to Jakarta to promote his book, What’s Right with Islam: a New Vision for Muslims and the West.

But this time he came to Jakarta as a state guest.

This is actually rather embarassing, but I should explain the reason of his visit.

Indonesian current president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) has recently developed a new habit of inviting ‘prominent experts’ to give lecture in front of him and members of the cabinet. Nobel prize winners, Harvard economists -all have been invited.

Feisal was also invited. He gave a speech entitled “Promoting Moderate Islam and Striving for Hamony Among Civilizations in the 21st Century” in the state palace.

While I admire my president’s deep passion for knowledge, I would admire him more if he doesnt use tax-payer’s money to invite those guys.

(Many Indonesian media have criticized this so called ‘presidential lecture’ and suggests that the president should invite local university professor if he wants to learn about ‘captalism’, ‘free-market’, ‘Islam-west relation’ or something like that. It’s cheaper to invite local professors and most are also educated in US. But that’s off topic).

During his visit in Jakarta Feisal gave interviews to media, including the magazine I work for.  We talked about 2 hours about many topics such as Islam in Europe, fundamentalist versus moderat, hijab, and of course about the Ground Zero mosque.

The interview has already been published in Gatra, which is unfortunately not available online. But I want to give a few highlights here. One thing to note, some of Feisal’s view actually would be considered unpopular by most Indonesian muslims. That is why my editor carefully selected which part of the interview to publish.

There were 3 persons from our magazine doing the interview with Feisal. My religion-desk editor, a woman reporter and I. Here are some of our discussion:

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Where to find muslim expats community in Jakarta?

Recently I wrote an article about Rahmania Foundation in Karet, Central Jakarta. They have a weekly gathering, on Thursdays after maghrib prayer, for english-speaking people wish to learn the Quran.

The gathering was named ‘English Quranic Studies’, and perhaps one of the very few available gatherings for muslim expats in Jakarta.

I met a woman named Cary, 27, at the gathering. She was from Oklahoma and converted to Islam in 2001. Funny enough, she learned about Rahmania Foundation when she was in Oklahoma (from Indonesian muslim society there).

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