Rhyming Boy

Carefully researched and engagingly written, this fine book deserves to be read by everyone interested in Indonesian Islam, as well as by the general reader curious about the varieties and future of Muslim politics. -- Robert W. Hefner, Professor of Anthropology, Associate Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs (CURA), Boston University. Giora Eliraz's book represents a valuable addition to the all too sparse collection of scholarly writing on Islam in the world's largest Muslim nation. With very few exceptions, most such studies are the work of area specialists with a deep understanding of their country of study but comparatively little knowledge of the Middle East. Eliraz's book is very different; it is the fruit of a sharp academic mind honed through decades of study of modernist Islamic thought and related movements in the Arab world now turned upon parallel developments in Indonesia. The result is a very well informed study uniquely enriched by the ability to read developments in Southeast Asia from a Middle Eastern perspective. Consequently anyone seeking to understand Indonesian Islam and its global context will benefit from this work - regardless of whether they are seasoned observers or are coming to this increasingly important subject for the first time. -- Greg Barton.