US Vice President Visits Indonesia, Praises Nation’s Islamic Tradition

Ismira Lutfia Tisnadibrata
2017.04.20
Jakarta
170420-ID-Pence-1000 U.S. Vice President Mike Pence listens to High Priest Nasaruddin Umar as Muhammad Muzammil Basyuni, chairman of the Istiqlal Mosque Management’s executive board, looks on, during the American leader’s tour of the mosque in Jakarta, April 20, 2017.
AFP

American Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday hailed Indonesia’s moderate tradition of Islam and held a closed-door inter-faith dialogue on the first day of a visit to the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.

Pence’s two-day trip to Indonesia is the first high-profile visit to Southeast Asia by an official from President Donald Trump’s administration and is being touted as aiming to foster closer bilateral ties, especially in the areas of security and trade.

“As the largest majority Muslim country, Indonesia’s tradition of moderate Islam, frankly, is an inspiration to the world,” Pence said during a joint news conference in Jakarta with Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

The visit comes amid anger across the Islamic world, including in Indonesia, over moves by the new U.S. administration to ban citizens from a handful of Muslim nations in Africa and the Middle East from entering the United States because of terrorism-related concerns.

“In your nation, as in mine, religion unifies – it doesn’t divide,” Pence said.

Neither he nor Jokowi touched on the issue of the U.S. immigration ban being pursued in the courts, but the two sought an enhanced strategic partnership in promoting regional peace, security and prosperity.

Among mutual concerns, Pence expressed an American wish to pursue a stronger defense partnership because, he said, both countries had to confront various security threats. He cited the “rise and spread of terrorism” as “one of the greatest threats.”

“[A]s the largest Muslim population country in the world, as well as the third largest democracy in the world, Indonesia also agrees to strengthen cooperation on peace,” Jokowi said for his part.

The American vice president also paid homage to Indonesians who were killed in a terrorist attack carried out by Islamic State-linked gunmen in central Jakarta in January 2016.

“Our hearts broke for your people,” Pence said. “We too know the terrible cost of terrorism and the United States stands with you to condemn it and to confront it.”

Later in the day, Pence visited the Jakarta secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is marking its 50th anniversary this year.

There, he announced that President Trump would travel to Asia in November to attend the U.S.-ASEAN Summit, the East Asia Summit and a meeting of leaders of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries in Vietnam and the Philippines, according to the White House.

Shoeless

After meeting with Jokowi and other government officials, Pence, his wife and two daughters toured the Istiqlal Grand Mosque in Jakarta, the largest mosque in Southeast Asia.

As is customary in Islamic practice, the Pence family removed their shoes and the women put on veils as they were shown around the immense mosque that can accommodate 200,000 worshipers, according to White House pool reports.

Nasaruddin Umar, the mosque’s Grand Imam (High Priest), led Pence and his family on the tour.

The imam showed the vice president a bedug wooden drum, made from a 300-year-old tree, that is used at the mosque to call the faithful to prayers.

The high priest told BenarNews that he allowed Pence to have a go at striking the great drum, which, he said, is a symbol of Islam blending into Java in the 14th and 15th centuries A.D., when Hinduism and Buddhism were the dominant religions.

“This shows that Islam came to Indonesia without posing a threat to the local culture,” Nasaruddin told BenarNews.

Following the tour, Pence took part in an inter-faith dialogue with leaders of Indonesia’s six official religions – Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Roman Catholicism and Confucianism – that was held behind closed doors.

Nasaruddin, who was at the meeting, said Pence showed his appreciation for Indonesia’s long-standing tradition of inter-religious tolerance.

All of the other participants representing a rainbow of religions spoke about their experiences of living in a pluralistic Indonesia, Nasaruddin said.

“The dialogue flowed very well and was very open. We introduced our diversity and [these various religions] are not to be treated differently. We put more of an emphasis on the aspect of their similarities rather than their differences,” Nasaruddin told BenarNews.

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