American troops bombed and invaded Aceh in 1832, becoming the USA’s first military intervention in Asia. The affair began with the Friendship, a trading vessel flying American colors, coming to port in Kuala Batu, Aceh on the 7th of February 1831. This was not unusual as American merchant ships had been trading regularly on the western […]
Tag Archives: indonesia
The Raid
I can’t recommend The Raid: Redemption. It’s an Indonesian action movie that has won some acclaim internationally. I watched it because I’d seen Merantau, by the same director (Gareth Evans) and starring the same actor (Iko Uwais). Merantau wasn’t bad if you are a martial arts fan: the production quality was high and the pencak […]
The Border Town of Sirikin
Sarawak and Sabah share a long land border with Indonesia that runs mostly through remote areas of rugged mountains and deep forests. From Kuching though, there are several easy border crossings within an hour or two’s drive. I recently had cause to head down to one of them, to the small village of Sirikin just […]
Islamic Universities in Indonesia
A window into the intellectual evolution of Islamic higher education in Indonesia: an interview with the rector of UIN Sunan Kalijaga Prof. Amin Abdullah by Prof. Farish Noor of The Other Malaysia.
…what is happening in places like UIN SUKA: You have pious Muslim students who are practicing Muslims who nonetheless can actually read the Quran and Hadith using the methodology of discourse analysis; who can write papers about inter-textual interpretations