8 April 2009

Wearing a traditional long white-flowing robe and sporting a beard, Fadzlan Rabbani Al-Garamatan has been going door-to-door and visiting the remote areas of West Papua province to promote Islam.

"I offer different kind of life to animists and non-Muslims there by applying humanity approaches," Fadzlan told IslamOnline.net in an interview.

West Papua, formerly West Irian Jaya or Irian Jaya Barat, is the least populous province of Indonesia.

The former Dutch colony has a population of approximately 2.6 million.

Christians make up nearly 78 percent of the population, Muslims 21 percent while the rest are Buddhists and Hindus.

There is also substantial practice of animism, though it is not recorded by Indonesian census. Fadzlan, 40, has been spreading Islam in the province since 1990 by door-to-door visits to various remote areas.

He educates people about cleanness, health, patience and politeness as the basic elements of Islamic teachings.

"I was walking twelve days to reach one remote area and when they started to say Shahadat, I was crying."

He recalls a visit to another remote area where locals were very suspicious about him.

"Some of them were bombarding me with stones and even arrows, but now they are with us."

Through his Al-Fafti Kaffa Nusantara foundation, Fadzlan says they have built 900 mosques, providing medical services and teaching locals about their new religion.

"At least 10 thousands people have been our followers."

Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state comprising 17,508 islands. With Muslims making up some 90 percent of the 225-million population, it is also the world's most populous Muslim country.

"At least 109 tribal chiefs have embraced Islam. Each tribal chief leads 500 local people under him."

Born into a Muslim family on the 17th of May 1969 in Patipi, Fak-fak, he was already studying Islam since at a very young age.

His father was an elementary school teacher, as well as teaching Qur’an in his village.

“We in Irian, especially in our village, must already study Al Qur’an when we go in to the elementary school at class 1” he said.

His religious knowledge increased when he was at university and being active in various religious organizations in Macassar and Java.

This third child from seven siblings chose the way of da’wah in the end. He formed the Al Fatih Kaaffah Foundation of Nusantara.

Through these social bodies and human resources development, Ustadz Fadzlan – thus he was always called—introduced Islam to the Irian society, even reaching into the remote areas.

He also expands the available potentials and resources, finding opportunities for the local children to undergo educations outside of Irian.