Saudi Arabia Quietly Spreads its Brand of Puritanical Islam in Indonesia

When Ulil Abshar-Abdalla was a teenager in Pati, Central Java, he placed first in an Arabic class held at his local madrasa. The prize was six months of tuition at the Institute for the Study of Islam and Arabic (LIPIA), a Jakarta university founded and funded by the Saudi Arabian government. At the end of six months, LIPIA offered him another six. He stayed on. After that, it offered him four more years of free tuition to obtain a bachelor’s degree in Islamic law, or shariah. He accepted...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - mardi 17 janvier 2017