KHUTAB III - 24. EMMANUEL (RAIS) MANOPPO

24. EMMANUEL (RAIS) MANOPPO

Brothers in Islam

I would like to take you back to the activity of Christian missionaries in Indonesia during Suharto’s rule about thirty years ago, namely, in the seventies and eighties. The Muslim party Masjumi had been banned by the earlier president Sukarno. The activities of Muslim students were oppressed by the ruler who considered them a threat to his authority, and Christian missionaries from abroad were given more opportunity to propagate their religion among Muslims, especially when they got protection and facility from some high ranking Christian officials. In West Irian, now called West Papua, they had access to remote areas by means of their own air transportation, including planes and helicopters. (We do not know who called the area West IRIAN for the first time. I was told that it was the abbreviation of “Ikut Republik Indonesia Anti Nederland” meaning “Joining the Republic of Indonesia and Anti Netherlands”, but Gus Dur, - Abdurrahman Wahid, the former President of Indonesia - who suggested to change the name said that it was from the Arabic word ‘aryān meaning “naked”).

For this missionary purpose they spent a huge amount of money. The fund designated for 1986 alone, twenty years ago, for example, was $70 million. They had a plan to Chrstianize Indonesia in 50 (fifty) years, and the island of Java (with more than 60 million inhabitants at that time) in 20 (twenty) years. Although they denied this plan, they had succeeded in Chrstianizing 4 % of the total population, especially the poor. It was frustrating according to them, because it was below their expectation, compared to the efforts and the money spent on it. 

In this poor and helpless condition of the Indonesian Muslims, Allah made His “divine intervention”.  The only son of Mr. Samuel Manoppo, the Head of the Indonesian Council of Churches (Kepala Dewan Gereja Indonesia), whom he had expected to take over his missionary activity, converted to Islam in 1990. He has two elder daughters, and his son Emmanuel Manoppo, the youngest, had a dream. He said:

 In my dream I was dead and buried. In the grave I saw someone wearing completely white clothes and a turban. He said to me: “You have to convert to Islam no matter how hard the obstacles and the trial you are going to face. Face your father, even though he is a minister or a pastor. What is important is that you have to be resolute and place your trust in Allah..”  I asked him: “Who are you actually, what is your name and where do you come from?”’ He answered: “You do not have to know my name. Just ask the Muslims; on the night of the 27^th of Ramadan, my duty is to come to give inspiration to people who like to follow the right path, including you.”

          Emmanuel asked his friend Muhammad Tawfiq the meaning of his dream. Tawfiq took him to Bandung to meet his brother who later told him that it happened in Laylatul Qadr (“the Night of Power”) the merit of which is more than one thousand nights. He also told him that he would be lucky if he became Muslim. So, he studied Islam and became Muslim.

In 1990 he was circumcised in Bandung in the house of Muhammad Taufiq’s brother by H. Nawawi SH, the Head of the State Court in Mataram, Lombok. He gave him a Muslim name, from Emmanuel (meaning “God with us”) to Effendi Hadi Rais.

One month later H. Nawawi wanted to return to Lombok. He told him to come to Lombok if his parents mistreated him and promised to protect him legally, and would adopt him and take him to one of the Muslim religious boarding schools at Situbondo, East Java. This is what he said: 

After undergoing the circumcision I went home. At home I felt that I had to perform the obligatory prayers, as Muslims should do. I did it secretly. How? Every morning, if I woke up late, wearing my shorts and putting my sport shoes on, I told my father, ‘I am going for sport.’ With regard to the mid-morning (duha) prayer, early afternoon prayer (dhuhr) or late afternoon prayer (asr) I was free, as my father was in his office and my mother was shopping. I stayed at home alone. With regard to the early evening prayer (maghrib) I prayed quickly, and while at home, I never said my supplication (du^cā), and never said my dhikr (glorification of Allah). I was afraid that my father might have suddenly come home. For the later evening prayer (‘ishā’) my father had given me a timetable where I could go out at night from 7.00 p.m. till 11.30 pm. After that, the door would be locked. Therefore, I performed my prayer at Muhammad Taufiq’s house. After prayer

 I read the Qur’ān, till 10.30 p.m., and then went home.”

    What he did (with prayer) he did the same with his food, until 11 November 1990. What happened at that time was that coincidentally his mother went to Manado, so he stayed at home with his father. While he was preparing to go to the mosque to pray (Friday prayer) it rained. Therefore, he decided to pray in his room. At that time—it might have been Allah’s decree—he forgot to lock the door of his room. His first thought was it was safe; the second, his father might have already come home and looked for him in the guest room and elsewhere, and finally at his room. When his father opened the door he was prostrating to come to the last rak‘ah (unit of prayer).

“Emmanuel! What are you doing upside down?”, asked his father. As he was praying, although he had already lost his concentration, he did not want to cancel it. He kept praying. In his prostration it came to his mind that, if he kept his becoming Muslim secret like this, when could he increase his knowledge, and when could he uphold Islam. He felt that he had to seek knowledge. He became defiant and continued his prayer. He said Allāhu Akbar then bowed. While he was bowing his father saw the prayer rug. He knew that prayer rugs belonged to the Muslims. At the last prostration his father kicked his buttock, pulled his ear and asked, “Emmanuel, what is your religion?”

 Then he admitted, “It is true, dad, I am having now a new religion, Islam. Now, whatever you want to do to me, I am ready.”  His father wept, and said,

Emmanuel, if you convert to Islam, it is like throwing feces at my face. I am the greatest pastor in Indonesia, especially in the [Seventh Day] Adventist denomination. I have become the Head of the Indonesian Council of Churches, and you are my only son, whom I expect to become a pastor. If my generation and my students know that you have converted to Islam, where shall I hide my face?

His father continued:

Let us put it this way now, Emmanuel. If you love me and you still acknowledge me as your father, return to your previous religion, and I promise, if you do, I shall give you everything I have, and I shall go to Manado with your mother, and settle there.

This meant that Emmnuel would get three cinemas, two jewelry stores, and one restaurant if he returned to Christianity. But he said he could not accept it even if he gave him the world with its contents.

His father became furious. He burned all his clothing, his residency card, even his Senior High School certificate. He was still unsatisfied. He took a kasti (a kind of game similar to baseball) beater and hit him about ten times. His left ear membrane was broken, and pus came out of it.

          “Emmanuel,” said his father, “this very night, this very second, this very day, you may go out of this house. But remember, I give you this permission to go once only. This is the only time I give you permission to go. Remember, you will not escape from my surveillance. I shall keep looking for you; I shall order my men to look for you, including your elder sister who is a policewoman. Once you are caught in the street or anywhere, I shall send you right away to Manado where I shall take you to a special Christian hostel for mischievous youth.”

He went to Muhammad Tawfiq’s house who advised him to go to his elder brother in Bandung, who, in turn, advised him to go to H. Nawawi in Lombok later after he got his residence card. So, he stayed there in Bandung for several months, until on the 7^th of March [1991], at 5 o’clock in the evening two district employees came hurriedly and said, “Rais, Rais, go away quickly.”

“What is the matter?” he asked.

“Your elder sister is in the district office and she is coming here,” said they.

So he ran away to Semarang, then to Kudus and arrived at about 6 o’clock in the morning. It was Friday. He was just about to enter the mosque when he saw the car of his sister parked in front of the mosque. He ran away to Jepara, where he stopped and told his story to a group of people. His speech was recorded and later distributed to people.

            Emmanuel (Rais) said in the recording that the objective of the Christians in Indonesia had been discussed at a meeting in 1973 among four priests of the four denominations: the Catholic, the Protestant, the Advent and the Pantecostal. They held a meeting to discuss how and by what means Indonesia would become majority Christians by any means, legal or illegal. They were targeting poor people. If they found posters of Qur’ānic verses in the houses of Muslims, they did not try to convert them. They received financial assistance nationally as well as from abroad, especially from Italy, Rome, Australia, the United States and Germany. The funds were sent to the office of Emmanuel’s father, because he was the Head of the Indonesian Council of Churches. Then he distributed it to various posts in Central Jawa, East Java, and all over Indonesia. He bought a 13-hectare piece of land in Jogja region, and Jogja-Semarang regions where they were planning to build a complex for rural Christianization. There were supporters among the government officials, especially non-Muslims ministers. There were also supporters among business owners, such as Djarum Cigarette Company, as one cigarette from every pack was donated for Christianization activity. Moreover, the word Djarum itself is the abbreviation of Demi Jesus Aku Rela Untuk Mati (“For the sake of Jesus I am ready to die”). The Hai Magazine is also said to be the abbreviation of Hancurkan Agama Islam (“Destroy the Religion of Islam”), and the name of the newspaper Kompas is the abbreviation of Komando Pastur (“Pastor’s Command”).  . 

 Their youth were instructed to have influence upon Muslim girls, especially those with weak faith. In order to marry these Muslim girls, they often pretended to be Muslims. After having children they forced their wives to follow them to become Christians. Otherwise, they would divorce them. Being weak, they automatically followed their husbands. Emmanuel mentioned the licence plate number of his sister’s car and the address of his father in Jakarta and of H. Nawawi in Lombok.

We should not be pessimistic of what is happening in the Muslim world today. There are always high tides and lower tides in the history of man and of a nation. These are the vicissitude of life. Sooner or later, نَصْرُ الله, Allah’s help will come. (ANUMA, 10 March, 06)