Hefner in CSM on Protests in Jakarta
Robert Hefner, Professor of Anthropology and International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, was interviewed on recent protests in Jakarta, Indonesia calling for the ouster of Gov. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama.
Hefner was quoted in a November 4, 2016 article in the Christian Science Monitor entitled “The Story Behind a Massive Muslim Protest Against a Christian Governor.”
From the text of the article:
“It has to do with this ongoing debate in Indonesia about how these constitutional guarantees of religious freedom which are very strong on paper, how in practice they should be,” Robert Hefner, a professor at Boston University who has researched Muslim culture tells The Christian Science Monitor in a phone interview. “The hardliners are trying to shift public opinion in a less protective way … in a way that I think undermines religious freedom.”
You can read the entire article here.
Robert Hefner has directed 19 research projects and organized 18 international conferences, and authored or edited nineteen books. He is former president of the Association for Asian Studies. At CURA, he has directed the program on Islam and civil society since 1991; coordinated interdisciplinary research and public policy programs on religion, pluralism, and world affairs; and is currently involved in two research projects: “The New Western Plurality and Civic Coexistence: Muslims, Catholics, and Secularists in North America and Western Europe”; and “Sharia Transitions: Islamic Law and Ethical Plurality in the Contemporary World.” You can read more about him here.