November 23, 2011  Do not confine the image of Thai-Muslims to tea, mosques, sarongs or bearded and skull-capped men. Or trouble, either. Try something else, because the image can be colourful, modern, non-stereotypical - and yes, it can be pretty cool as well. Despite, or because, the South is still burning with trouble and the Arab Spring seems so far away, the Thai-Muslim population, like everyone else on this chaotic planet, are trying to find their own voice, while struggling to communicate with others. So it's wise for us all to take notice, and listen.
So let's hear a new voice: Two new free-sheet magazines are presenting the picture of Thai-Muslims that goes against the traditional perception of the sub-culture. On a recent cover of Halal Life - a magazine put out by a group of young people who extend the meaning of halal beyond food - two young Muslims pose like indie hipsters, with a lively photoshop trick, in an overall design that could easily recall a popular publication like A Day. Meanwhile, Salam Art - another paper by a group of young writers - combines news with cultural features and titbits in an effort to showcase the idea of Islam as an art of living.
The concept of the two monthlies is rooted in the fact that their young publishers - men and women, the latter in headscarves - choose to view their religion and its implications less from a spiritual and more from a contemporary angle, a 21st-century Bangkok looking-glass, so to speak. They are both an expression of subcultural pride, and yet they're fashioned in a way that's teasing with mainstream recognition.
"We talk about Muslims, we don't necessarily talk about religion," said Furaqon Ismail, 31, a native of Bangkok and one of the founders of Halal Life.
 Halal Life team: (L-R) Naiem Wongkesorn, Asma Kunsun and Furaqon Ismail
"It's not that we don't see the importance of Islam as a religion. We do very much - but we only believe that not every Muslim represents the identical imprint of the religion. What interests me is how we can confirm our identity, our Muslimness if you will, and at the same time happily be a part of this society as a whole. This is the question that the young generation of Thai-Muslims will have to deal with."
"We define Islam as the art of peace, the art of living, and through that lens everything in this world can be described as Islamic," said Zalma Boontamtan, a young, lively Bangkok-born woman who started Salam Art with two other friends. Her colleague, Ilyas Daengvijit, adds that his fascination with the prophet's life was also an inspiration for the idea of the magazine.
"Prophet Muhammad's manners and his attention to every detail in his everyday life is amazing. And to me, it shows that Islam is delicate in every aspect. That's what we think our magazine can be - something that pays attention to the details that people may forget."
 For instance, the five-issue-old Salam Art recently ran a feature on the merry-making event at the end of the fasting month under the title, "How to party, Muslim-style", which shows that while the paper has the demographics of Thai-Muslims as its principle readers, it's doing a cultural service to non-Muslims who care to pick up a copy (or to go online). In another issue, the publisher features a Muslim activist who works with Muslim inmates in a Bangkok prison. And in another issue, the magazine interviews a group of experts in the art of "Khat", or Islamic calligraphy, a sacred, elegant practice that is little known, even among Muslims in Thailand.
Halal Life, meanwhile, focuses on profiling Muslims who have made their mark, or who are representing the possibility of a career in the modern society. The two men on the cover shown here are a cafe owner and a graphic designer; of course there are Thai-Muslims doing all kinds of jobs, but the enclose of stereotypes can make us easily forget that. Besides the regular food reviews (Muslim restaurants) and music reviews (Islam-related albums), Halal Life thrives on contemporary perspectives and quality photos and on par with most Thai glossies. It would be too gross to say it's hip, or even fashionable, but Halal Life is clearly updating the image of young Thai-Muslims as a reflection to the image of the society as a whole.
 The need to speak up is not new. Both Halal Life and Salam Art have been motivated by predecessors in Muslim-oriented free papers, most notably Roti-Mataba, which came out in the mid-2000s and was a successful attempt to make "Muslim" a cultural rather than a religious term (the magazine, founded by Davood Lawang, is still published, but not regularly).
In 2004, Furaqon of Halal Life teamed up with another group of friends to create Kampong, a news-heavy free magazine that caused a sensation among Thai-Muslims both in Bangkok and Southern provinces for its partisan view on the Muslim world.
"After the 9/11 attacks and trouble in the three southernmost provinces, we felt the need to say something," said Furaqon, 31. "Kampong was successful because Thai-Muslims in those days were hungry for alternative information, and we gave it to them. During that time, the spotlight was on us - it's still on us more or less - and we couldn't ignore it. We had to show what we were and what we thought."
On the internet, the MuslimThai.com site is the equivalent to Pantip.com for Thai-Muslims. Founded by Somkid Leewan, it has commanded a wide popularity - and criticisms, when the democracy of opinions sometimes stray into dubious terrains - among users for many years, and it recently launched a free-sheet paper, Muslim Thai Post, as an ancillary. As the name suggests, the paper focuses more on news and politics in the Islamic world, nationally and globally, and in terms of reportage and viewpoints, it remains slightly more traditional compared to the lifestyle-oriented and youthful-looking take presented by Halal Life and Salam Art.
"Mainly, we think about Muslim readers, but we hope that the magazine can be for everybody," said Zalma of Salam Art. "We hope to inspire people to look at Islam and Muslims differently, from an angle they might be aware of before. And this implies to people of all religions. What's frustrating to me is the fact that, while Thai-Muslims complain that they're misunderstood by the world, they still do not understand themselves or what's happening in their own society. So how can we communicate with others effectively?"
What the two magazines are doing is broadening the concepts of Muslim to the public, non-Muslim space, and even though the publishers operate within the confines of their faith, they still run into opposition from time to time. This reflects the inner tussle between the "moderate" and the hardliners when defining the essence of Islam and Muslims. Two months ago, Halal Life put on its cover two musicians from a Muslim band, and they were criticised by a number of strict Muslims for popularising the "non-Islamic" practice of secular music.
 Salam Art team: (L-R) Wallapa Anant, Ilyas Daengvijit and Zanma Boontamtan
The publishers of Salam Art, likewise, admit they have to be careful when dealing with "sensitive subjects". For instance, when the magazine decided to put a female artist, donned in a headscarf, on the cover, they decided to use illustration of her portrait instead of a photograph.
"Yes, we played it safe, because there will be people who still can't accept the picture of a Muslim woman on the cover," explained Ilyas. "But we're not sacrificing what we want to say. In this case, we believe that there's a way to do it without losing our quality and to find the right balance. We won't compromise our message with paranoia."
"As a paper, we're a recorder of history," said Furaqon. "We know that some people do not totally agree with our presentation of the Muslim culture, but we're presenting what's going on in the society. The problem with some Muslims is that they look down on themselves and blame others for making their lives difficult. But that's not true. We don't have to be ashamed of who we are, and we don't have to lose our identity to be a part of the society either. I think this is more or less what Halal Life is trying to say, to Muslims first, and to everybody else, too." |
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