Jon Emont: Institutions affiliated with the organization have provided the school with Muslim teachers and connected Ms. Shinta with sympathetic religious leaders and faculty members throughout Java, the island where more than half of Indonesia’s people live.
The irony that a transgender prayer academy is supported by Indonesia’s most prominent traditionalist Muslim group is not lost on Ms. Shinta. “It’s because Javanese culture is far more open to gender issues, because Javanese people were already introduced to transgender women well before Islam arrived,” she said.
Jeremy Menchik, an assistant professor in the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and the author of “Islam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance Without Liberalism,” says that Indonesia challenges common assumptions about where tolerance comes from. “The general idea is the more tolerant individuals will be the more urban, educated, liberal and secular,” he said. “What’s interesting about Indonesia is among the organizations I study, NU, the traditionalist one, the rural one, the conservative one, is the most tolerant.” More here.