Very rarely is a first-time author compared to Nobel prize winners. Well, Sadanad Dhume’s My Friend The Fanatic: Travels With A Radical Islamist was not just compared to VS Naipaul’s Beyond Belief, but widely applauded as a superior work on many counts.
Eminent historian Ramachandra Guha will be introducing Dhume to Bangalore, and launching the book at Crossword, Residency Road, on Thursday, 6.30 pm.
Dhume, who spent a few childhood years in Indonesia, returned there as a foreign correspondent of the Far Eastern Economic Review and The Wall Street Journal. His articles spoke of the growth of hardline Islam, but standing amidst the leftovers of twin bombings in Bali, Dhume was filled with foreboding and curiosity about the scale of transformation to come over that country, believed to be immune to religious fundamentalism. Six months later, in April 2003, Dhume quit full-time journalism to start work on the book.
To chart the rise of radical Islam in Indonesia, he found an unlikely companion - Herry Nurdi, a young Islamist who hero-worshiped Osama bin Laden. As the managing editor of the fundamentalist mouthpiece Sabili, he opened many doors for Dhume. With Nurdi, he travelled across the country, meeting Islamic teachers, preachers, jihadists, even controversial dancers who were under constant attack from the fundamentalist and many other influentials.
Through My Friend … Dhume shares what he saw with elan. Always sketching evocative portraits, many times backed with wry wit, Dhume gives you contemporary Indonesia. He presents the extremes — the debauchery in its nightclubs and the careless arrogance of fatwa-spewing hardliners who declares ‘No prestige without Jihad’ in loud signboards.Princeton-educated Dhume’s atheist eye finds a stark contrast with the fervour of his companion. Nurdi does not mince words when he cites his favourites: “First Osama bin Laden. Second Shamil Basayev. Third Abu Bakar Bashir.”
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