Events

Jointly organized by Asia Research Institute, and Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore.

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Amelia Fauzia, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

This talk will discuss the history and contemporary developments of Indonesian students in the Arab Middle East, especially Egypt, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. Focusing on Muslim students (of both university and non-university) provides an insight into the impact of Middle Eastern notions, concepts, thoughts, practices, and influences on the broader Muslim community in Indonesia. For centuries, a small but substantial amount of the Indonesian Muslim community has travelled to the Middle East, particularly Egypt, Yemen, and Saudi, to study at a variety of Islamic institutions, from leading centers of Islamic learning such as Al-Azhar University to informal madrasah or mosque-based schoolings.

This tradition of educational travel continues till today. At present, Egypt, Yemen, and Saudi comprise the largest countries in the Middle East that host Indonesian Muslim students. However, unlike in the past centuries where most, if not all, students learnt Islamic sciences, in contemporary era a great deal of the Indonesian Muslim students study secular sciences. Thousands of Indonesian Muslim students in the Arab Middle East now pursuing diverse studies from Islamic disciplines to hard sciences and engineering. Drawn from years of research and fieldwork in the Arab regions, this talk will discuss the plurality and complexity of these intellectual sojourners, highlighting their motives, purposes, networks, changes, and recent developments.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Sumanto Al Qurtuby, a Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Middle East Institute of National University of Singapore, teaches Cultural Anthropology at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Prior to joining KFUPM, he was a visiting professor and a research fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, the United States. He has degrees in anthropology, sociology, conflict transformation, and Islamic studies. He holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Boston University and an MA in Conflict and Peace Studies from Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. His research interests focus on the study of Muslim politics and cultures; conflict, violence, and peacebuilding; inter-and intra-religious relations, the role of religion in public sphere, and Arab–Indonesian connection.

A columnist and a freelancer of several media outlets in Indonesia and abroad, he has authored, co-authored, and written more than 17 books, dozens of academic articles, and hundreds of popular essays (in Indonesian language and English). His most recent book from Routledge (London & New York) is Religious Violence and Conciliation in Indonesia: Christians and Muslims in the Moluccas. He is now completing a book manuscript, titled Saudi Arabia and Indonesian Networks: Migration, Education and Islam. The book will be published by I.B. Tauris (London & New York) in association with Muhammad Alagil Chair in Arabia-Asia Studies, National University of Singapore. In addition to completing this book, he is conducting research on Saudi Arabia’s domestic terrorism and counterterrorism.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you click on the “Register” button above to RSVP.