Tifa Asrianti, Jakarta – Liberal and moderate Muslim scholars expressed concern that their voices were being drowned out as the public and mainstream media were more inclined to listen to the angry rhetoric of radical groups.
Muslim scholar Dawam Raharjo said the press needed to give more voice to moderate Islam given the growing atmosphere of intolerance, which he said was triggered by various edicts issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI).
"I visited a bookstore recently. What I saw was a plethora of books on religion that were mostly bigoted and unenlightening," he told The Jakarta Post last Friday.
Dawam, who once headed the renowned think tanks the Institute for Economic and Social Research, Education and Information (LP3ES) and the Institute for Religious and Philosophy Studies (LSAF), admitted that books and magazines promoting a more liberal approach to Islam failed to draw readers.
He surmised that it was because the writing style was not popular, so did not strike a chord with the readers. "Perhaps we should change the style to something more popular and less scientific," he said.
There have been several Islamic publications circulating in Indonesia, with conservative messages, including Sabili and Suara Hidayatullah, believed to have the most readers.
Publications that propagate a moderate viewpoint of Islam are rare, if not absent. Moderate Islamic magazines such as Panji Masyarakat and Ummat have long been missing from the local newsstands.
Madina, a magazine published by Paramadina University – which was established by respected Muslim scholar Nurcholis "Cak Nur" Madjid – was a recent contender to counter the conservative slant of Islamic media such as Sabili.
The magazine ceased publication two years after issuing its first edition in January 2008. Ihsan Ali Fauzi, one of founders of Madina, said the magazine stopped publishing because the middle-class Muslims it targeted did not buy it.
"There are two reasons why we closed down. First, we did not have many exposes in the magazine and we also had little advertising coming in. Second, we were a small publication. We dreamed that the magazine could reach out to many people, but it did not live up to the expectation," he said.
The magazine was first published in January 2008, with its first edition containing an interview with filmmaker Hanung Bramantyo about the difficulties in making Islam-themed films, sharia banking and Aga Khan Award for Islamic architecture.
Ihsan said that if the magazine had held out a bit longer, it would have drawn more people because it had already started to appear on the shelves of large bookstores such as Gramedia.
He said he still wanted to publish a similarly themed magazine, but added that he would have to be better prepared before doing so.