Arif Maftuhin

It is my second Ramadhan in the US and it means that I will miss mudik for like wise second time. Ramadhan itself has been almost a routine to me (and this is bad, supposedly). In Ramadhan 1980, when I was still 6 years old, I decided to observe fasting for a full day and full month. For many at that age, as we just learn how to fast, first fasting days are observed in a half day -- we break the fasting at noon and we call it poso mbedug, because we were breaking the fast when bedug (a traditional instrument, like a drum, to announce the time of prayer) was hit. No religious thing, to be sure, was for that little Arif. I just observed fasting because my family do. In addition, I have to thank my parents that they never push me to do that. One day, I was so thirty and hungry, just returning back from school. I found my mother was preparing cake for the day of Ied. The cake looks so delicious and I really want it. Fully understand what my face look like, my mother indeed asked me to brea...

Denzel Washington is a great actor. Who can simply forget his roles in Malcolm-X, Philadelphia, The Pelican Brief, and other incredible movies. Jodie Foster, another great name in the movie, is a two-time Academy-Award-winning. Still Clive Owen we know, among others, from his excellent role in Sin City. When a movie is full of such talented and great stars, what are we going to expect? Sure, worth watching movie. But, believe me, that is not true about Inside Man. Well, Washington does show his acting throughout the movie, but the character he plays is not that strong. Ms Foster appears a couple times and just shows a limited role in the movie. The movie would go smoothly even if Jodie was not there. Much less, the "cool" Briton Owen has to use his mask in most part of the movie. If you watch this movie because of its great names, don't waste your money. But, wait a minute. I would say that the movie is very excellent. It is 4 stars movie (out of 5). Forget who play and e...

Published in the Jakarta Post A Malaysian friend, an activist with a feminist NGO, Sisters in Islam (SIS), e-mailed me recently about how difficult it is to get support for feminist interpretations of religious texts in Malaysia as compared to Indonesia. In an increasingly conservative Malaysia, where Islam is considered monolithic, challenging clerics' interpretations could be considered a sin. She received, for her part, verbal attacks when she criticized a fatwa that isolates people living with HIV on an island. The growing conservatism in Malaysia is also represented in its politics. There is seemingly no significant difference between the ruling Barisan Nasional -- a supposedly secular party -- and its opposition Partai Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), in their campaign for the Islamization of Malaysia. In response to PAS' promotion of Islamic law and the relative success of the party in Kelantan, UMNO follows in its footstep in a bid to maintain its hegem...