"Obama never studied in an Islamic madrassa"

Julien — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:09:38 +0100

Rully Dasaad, a fellow pupil at Barack Obama's primary school - labeled as an "Islamic madrassa" by the conservative American media - tells us about their childhood growing up in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the polemic that it's causing now.

First, a look at the democratic candidate's early youth: in 1961, when Barack Obama was a baby, his parents divorced. His mother remarried with Indonesian Lolo Soetero, before moving the family to Jakarta in 1967, where Obama's half-sister Maya Soetoro was born. "Barry", as his friends called him there, was then six. The family was comfortable, but not rich enough to send the future senator to the capital's international school, where most expat children went. So Obama studied for two years at the Catholic school Fransiskus Assisis, before joining the state primary school SDN Besuki Menteng 01, where he also stayed for two years. This small state school located in a pretty district of the capital would become the centre of American media attention in January 2007, when Insight Magazine declared it an Islamic madrassa establishment. In 1971, and after four years in Asia, Barack Obama headed to Hawaii to be brought up by his grandparents. He never returned to the Indonesian islands, but his former school friends still remember him.

Post written with the help of our Observer in Jakarta, Dyssia Hayat.

Mein Kampf in pride of place on bookshop shelves

Julien — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:30:04 +0100

Bookshop shelves displaying both Mein Kampf and a book about Barack Obama in a department store in Jakarta

Hitler's notorious diary ‘Mein Kampf' was translated into Indonesian in 2007. An immediate bestseller for publishers Narasi, it became one of their top five favourites. An employee from the publishing house explains why. Should we be worried about this seemingly unhealthy interest coming from the most populated Muslim country in the world?

The book comes in two volumes; both with the swastika on the front cover. It's got prime place in most big bookshops; in a country that consists 85% Muslims, and has only thirty confessed Jews despite a 234 million-strong population.