[Zulkifli Al-Humami]
_____________________________
Does atheism sell in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country and home to such bigoted religionists as the Bali bombers?
Will it ever have a place in a "God-fearing" society whose forefathers had unanimously decided to place the Abrahamic doctrine of the Unity of God as its first national credo?
The default answer would be unsurprisingly "no". Atheism books like Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, Sam Harris' The End of Faith or Christopher Hitchens' God is Not Great may have been on the bestselling charts somewhere else and can now be spotted in nearly all international airports, but the top local publishers have no interest in bringing these books to local bookstores.
Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia (KPG), which publishes the Indonesian translation of River out of Eden, a book by the card-carrying atheist Dawkins who happens to be an excellent writer on popular science, had considered translating The God Delusion, but abandoned the idea.
"We thought about it last year and we decided that it was too provocative," Candra Gautama, the publisher's editor in chief, said.
KPG, however, plans to publish The Selfish Gene, Dawkins' book that has now become a classic in popular science literature. Gautama said the book, despite its apparent atheistic tone, did not explicitly support atheism. Dawkins, he argued, is only explaining how evolution works; it has nothing to do with the question of the existence or non-existence of God.
"The other reason why we don't publish the book (The God Delusion) is that in it Dawkins, as a scientist, does not provide us with compelling scientific arguments," he said.
Serambi, a small publisher that has enjoyed sizable profits from selling the translation of Dan Brown's controversial novel, The Da Vinci Code--a golden opportunity passed out by the giant Catholic-leaning publisher Gramedia Group--said it had invited experts and readers alike to discuss the possibility of publishing Dawkins' book. The conclusion they reached was that the public was not yet ready to accept such an offensive book.
"We fear that people won't even read the book as there is already prejudice against it. We actually have no problem with its content and even think that it could actually enlighten people to reexamine their faith," Serambi's editor in chief, Qomaruddin SF, said.
The book, he predicted, was unlikely to gain considerable success in the Indonesian book market, while Serambi, as a commercial publisher, had to seek a balance between the margins of its idealism and, of course, profits.
The country's biggest Islamic publisher, Mizan, which offers books containing progressive thoughts in Islam, is not interested at all in publishing books that "attack religions".
"There is no use in publishing those books for the public. They can of course be used as an intellectual exercise for a small number of readers, and I think their availability in English editions at some local bookstores is enough," the publisher's founder, Haidar Bagir, said.
As a Muslim scholar, Bagir sees the new wave of books on atheism as a sign of frustration of the anti-religion thinkers who predicted that religions would naturally disappear in the twenty first century, and who are now facing what appears to be the opposite: Religions persist and there are more people returning to their faiths.
"We, on the contrary, publish books that counter the arguments of atheists," he said, adding that Mizan tried to be consistent with its mission: Religious propagation and education.
If Mizan was to publish books critical of religions, it would only consider the works of a sympathetic author like Karen Armstrong, a former nun who calls herself a "freelance monotheist". Her books, such as The Battle for God (translated into Berperang Demi Tuhan), Bagir said, had been selling well in the past few years.
While the answer is -- for different reasons and degrees of rejection -- "no" for the big players, the smaller publishing companies are taking all the risks to say "yes".
Pustaka Alvabet, a Jakarta-based publishing company, said it had secured the right to publish The God Delusion, of which Dawkins claimed, "If this book works as I intend, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down."
The publisher is now preparing to release Sam Harris' A Letter to A Christian Nation (translated into Surat Terbuka Kepada Bangsa Kristen) and has already published Spiritualitas Tanpa Tuhan (The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality by French writer Andre Comte-Sponville), which advocates atheism.
"We are looking for the right moment for its release," Zulkifli A.H., the publisher's editor in chief, said, suggesting that it could be by the end of this year or early next year.
He said the company was aware of all the risks; being accused of advocating atheism, being attacked by the beleaguered religionists, especially those who liked to mob buildings and burn books in the name of, sadly, God, or getting the books banned by the government.
Yet, he is upbeat that the atheism books the company sells will not face severe resistance from the public or the government like communist and Marxist books, which are considered by many as politically threatening. "So far, no one has protested Sponville's book," he said.
He did not expect, of course, that anti-religion books would sell like hot cakes -- especially since books on atheism seem to mock the whole nation for believing in Pancasila, the first article of which is, according to Dawkins and his allies, nothing but a delusion.
"We dare to publish those books because we think we have to. In the past decade, we have seen that religion, any religion, is being used to justify a lot of atrocities.
"In Islam, we all know, there is terrorism. Meanwhile, the foreign policies made by such developed countries as the U.S., especially when dealing with Iraq and Afghanistan, are undeniably influenced by certain theological considerations," he said.
Zulkifli considers books by stringent atheist authors like Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris as "enlightening" as well as "inspiring" critiques on religion. He said such books needed to be advertised appropriately, but admitted that it would not be an easy task.
"I think the most important thing we need to do in the Reform era is first give the public access to any kind of information, including atheism," he said.
Harris' The End of Faith was translated and published last year under the title Terbenamnya Iman: Teror dan Masa Depan Nalar by Pustaka Pelajar, a publisher in Yogyakarta. The circulation was, however, so limited that it virtually went unnoticed.
Local English bookstore Aksara said it never had a problem selling books on atheism, which were placed in its stores' "religion" section.
"We always refer to the New York Times best-seller list in determining the books we'd like to offer. We don't promote certain ideas, of course. But as long as they encourage a healthy discussion, we would provide them here," Penny Purnawati, the bookstore's marketing manager, said.
Those books, however, are never on the bookstore's best-selling list, although, she said, "they have their own consumers."
The God Delusion and John Connor's The Atheist Bible may have surpassed the other titles in the genre, but they, even at Aksara, according to Penny, could not compete with Habiburrahman El-Shirazy's Ayat-ayat Cinta or Lakmis Pamuntjak's Jakarta Good Food Guide.
A man browsers the "God and Religion" section of Aksara's Plaza Indonesia outlet. Aksara and other International bookstores in the country, like Kinokuniya and Periplus, sell books on atheism.
A man browsers the "God and Religion" section of Aksara's Plaza Indonesia outlet. Aksara and other International bookstores in the country, like Kinokuniya and Periplus, sell books on atheism.(JP/Ary Hermawan)
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar