Musician Ahmad Dhani: Warrior of love

Last updated on: December 24, 2006 at 11:22 am by Guest Contributor

Musician Ahmad Dhani: Warrior of love 2006-12-24T11:22:00-04:00 Guest Contributor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Religious rocker rejects radicalism (Photo: Risya RS)

A rock star would be the last person one might expect to address a major defense policy conference. Yet the National Homeland Defense Foundation Symposium, held on October 3 in Colorado Springs, welcomed such a guest: thirty-four-year-old Ahmad Dhani.

Dhani is nothing short of a superstar in his native Indonesia, where he performs to sold-out crowds with his band Dewa 19, and where his music has defined a generation of young Indonesians. Frequently compared to U2 frontman Bono, Dhani and his band’s music took a political turn two years ago. Since dictator Suharto was ousted from power in 1998, the country has been engaged in a high-stakes “culture war”: Islamic political movements have been able to operate more freely, and extremist groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Islamic Defenders Front have been pushing for the adoption of sharia law. Indonesia has been plagued by major terror attacks in Jakarta and Bali, and by religious and communal violence, such as clashes between Muslims and Christians in early 1999. Dhani and his group, like many urbanites, were alarmed by these developments. They decided to use their music to respond to the hateful ideology that has been seducing so many Indonesian youths.

One of the largest groups responsible for the escalation of violence in 1999 was Laskar Jihad (“Warriors of Jihad”), a violent militia that was led by Jafar Umar Thalib, a veteran of the Afghan jihad who claims to have met Osama bin Laden. When a fight between a Christian bus driver and a Muslim passenger who refused to pay his fare escalated into communal violence on the Maluku Islands in January 1999, Thalib’s militia shipped thousands of fighters into the region by boat to “wage jihad.” The conflict lasted three years; an estimated 10,000 people perished on the island of Ambon alone, and around half a million Indonesians were driven from their homes. For its central role in the crisis, Laskar Jihad became, according to former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid and American philanthropist C. Holland Taylor, “a symbol and a byword for the suffering inflicted upon that region.” So it is fitting that, in turning toward political involvement, Dhani referenced the radical group in the title of Dewa’s November 2004 album. It was called Laskar Cinta, Warriors of Love.

The Laskar Cinta album was designed to provide Indonesian youth with a choice between joining the army of jihad and joining Dhani’s army of love. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies and became fodder for the Islamic Defenders Front, the most vocal radical group in Indonesia today, which accused Dhani of being an apostate and a Zionist agent. These attacks seem to have backfired, however. Nick Grace, a Washington, DC-based Indonesian-language political commentator, said that the attacks on Dhani and a lawsuit that accused him of defaming Islam only served to make him more prominent. Dhani’s message was juxtaposed with that of the radical groups on entertainment and celebrity gossip television programs.

This year, Dhani followed his 2004 effort with a new album, Republik Cinta (“Republic of Love”). One of the new songs on the album is called Laskar Cinta. Although some listeners may be confused that the song bears the same name as Dewa’s previous album, Dhani told the Indonesian edition of Rolling Stone that this isn’t an uncommon practice. He proudly noted that his favorite band, Queen, also did this.

Laskar Cinta is an innovative song, designed as a “musical fatwa” against extremism. The lyrics reflect Dhani’s Sufi faith: they are inspired by the Qur’an and ahadith (the sayings attributed to Prophet Muhammad) with the intention of rebutting the hateful ideology that inspires Islamic terror. There is even an annotated version of the song online that makes the theological inspiration behind the verses explicit. And it has found an audience: Laskar Cinta became the #1 song in Indonesia shortly after its release, while its music video reached the top spot on MTV Asia’s popular Indonesian- and Malay-language Ampuh program.

Dhani is an unlikely to emerge as a major cultural figure trumpeting a peaceful vision of the Islamic faith. A Wall Street Journal profile on Dhani published in mid-August notes that his grandfather “participated in the Daru Islam Islamist guerilla movement, which counted among its members the terrorist group leader who plotted the Bali bombings a few years ago. Dhani’s father, Eddy, followed in his father’s footsteps, figuring prominently in an organization bent on preaching Wahhabism.”

In an interview conducted for this article, Dhani described his father as “an Islamic fundamentalist,” and said that this led him to send Dhani to a Wahhabi school as a young man “because he wanted his son to have a sound perspective.” Dhani attended this school for about six years. Despite a strict upbringing at home and in school, Dhani began playing music when he was about six years old. Many conservative schools of Islamic thought consider music to be haram, or prohibited by Islamic law, and Dhani told me that he was exposed to these teachings. He noted, though, that he was never told that it was a crime to play music, just haram.

Dhani felt destined to play music. His mother Joyce, a convert from Roman Catholicism to Islam, was a musician and exposed him to music from a young age. Dhani states that music is the one thing that has consistently given him joy: “Music is the only thing that makes me have fun. I don’t like to do anything besides music. I don’t like riding bicycles or motorcycles; I don’t like other things but music.” So Dhani joined his first band in 1987, when he was still a teenager.

Yet even as a musician – and even after becoming a superstar in Indonesia – Dhani describes himself as continuing to hold very intolerant views. He voted for a conservative Islamic political party when he became old enough to vote, and despised those who didn’t vote the same way. He in fact describes himself as “an embryonic radical Muslim” during this period.
When Dhani was in his mid-twenties, however, his outlook began to change. A major factor in his transformation was his exposure to Sufism. Although Sufism isn’t universally known for being peaceful, it is often described in the terms that Dhani has used for it: “Sufism is the inner, spiritual dimension of Islam that focuses not on what separates people from one another or God; but rather, on what unites us. Sufi Islam teaches Muslims to love and respect all of God’s creatures, and not to unnecessarily harm anyone.”

It was changing from a fundamentalist outlook to a Sufi outlook that made Dhani more tolerant of religious and cultural differences – and, ultimately, this changed outlook transformed him into a cultural warrior battling against hatred and extremism.

Dhani isn’t the only figure in Indonesia’s entertainment industry to take a stand against the country’s growing extremist sentiment. Another Indonesian to take a stand is film director Joko Anwar, who is currently working on a film called Dead Time, which aims to subtly criticize efforts to establish sharia law. Anwar also challenged some of Indonesia’s conservative mores as screenwriter for the 2003 comedy Arisan!, which swept the national and international film awards and has been spun off into Indonesia’s top-rated TV sitcom. Upon learning that the ban of on-screen kissing in Indonesia only applied to kisses between a man and woman, Anwar refashioned the script to center the movie around a likable gay protagonist. The resulting same-sex kissing scenes became a national sensation, with celebrities jokingly declaring they were gay as a political statement.

And dangdut music sensation Inul Daratista’s suggestive “grinding” style of dance has gotten her banned from several Muslim-dominated towns and condemned by the Indonesian Ulemas Council. She has been openly supportive of liberal Indonesian political parties.

But unlike Anwar and Daratista, Dhani’s message is explicitly religious. This is reflected not only in his music, but also in his public pronouncements. Asked at the defense policy conference what can be done to help bridge the gulf between Islam and the West, Dhani replied that people in the West need to respect Islam: not to respect radical Islam or the ideology of al Qaeda, but to respect the faith itself. Dhani said that it isn’t just a matter of voicing respect for Islam, but that Westerners should actually feel this respect in their hearts because that language of love and respect will ultimately be communicated back to the Muslim community.

Al-Husein Madhany, executive editor of Islamica Magazine, says that the religious element of Dhani’s message should not be ignored. “If mainstream Muslims do not engage in religious rhetoric,” he warns, “there’s no way to engage the youth. What we’ve seen is that those who are successful in engaging the youth and are making an argument with religious rhetoric – with the Qur’an, the ahadith, and sheikhs backing them up – are the ones winning the argument.”

Madhany says that the fact that Dhani is a recording artist is also significant. He states that the arts are important because they engage the local culture, and also engage identity on multiple levels. “When you have an artist doing that and he’s selling a million records, we need to take note of that and try to replicate it in other contexts, including in America,” Madhany says. “It’s the youth who are being attracted to extremism, and the way they’re being attracted to it is through religious rhetoric. We need to come up with a creative counter to that, and I think this is one good example.”

Dhani has been actively trying to engage the youth, and offer them a religious alternative to extremism. He has expressed his vision for change: “My hope is that in the future, Dewa’s fans – who are primarily young and not yet contaminated by extremist ideology and intolerance – will grow up to be more tolerant than the present generation and break the cycle of hatred that has begun to plague our society.”

Dhani’s vision clearly merits his inclusion at the defense policy conference in Colorado Springs. How to foster a more moderate Islam is one of the critical questions of the war on terror to which, at present, there are few compelling answers. At the end of the day, the rock musician from Indonesia may have had more wisdom to impart than most of the other speakers.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is a senior consultant for the Gerard Group International and author of the forthcoming book My Year Inside Radical Islam.

Reviews

Previous Post

December 20, 2006

Terminology: Agreeing on a definition of Islamophobia

Next Post

December 24, 2006 Holiday charity: Christmas and Eid thoughts among the cane toads

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2012 Elections 30 Dayd 30 Writers (2017) 30 Days 30 Writers 30 Days 30 Writers (2015) 30 Days 30 Writers (2016) 30 Days 30 Writers (2018) 30 Days 30 Writers 2017 Ali Asadullah Ali Eteraz Alper Bilgili Arthur Richards Asides Asma Uddin Black History Month Briefings Charles Turner Commentary Cyrus McGoldrick Eman H Aly Fatimah Popal Hajj Hajj and Dhul Hijjah Hesham Hassaballa Hisham Hellyer Ibrahim Abusharif Inas Younis Irfan Yusuf Jalal Baig Junaid Afeef Laila Alawa Laila Alwala Mas'ood Cajee Muqtedar Khan Nakia Jackson Newsmakers Parvez Ahmed Podcasts Rabia Chaudry Rafia Zakaria Ramadan Reviews Safiyyah Ally Saud Inam Shahed Amanullah Svend White The Opinionated Oncologist Visions Wajahat Ali Zahed Amanullah Zahir Janmohamed Zainab Khan

Select a Month November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many days was Jesus tempted in the wilderness?

Select your answer to see how you score.

30 days 50 days 60 days 40 days