My Friend The Fanatic

My Friend the Fanatic is a portrait of Indonesia, a nation in the midst of a profound shift towards both Islamic orthodoxy and Islamist politics. This portrait is painted through the travels of a pair of unlikely protagonists. Dhume is a foreign correspondent, a Princeton-educated Indian atheist with a fondness for John Updike and an interest in economic development. His companion, Herry Nurdi, is a young Islamist who hero-worships Osama bin Laden.

It is a work made timely by a deep hunger for knowledge about Muslim cultures. But it is equally the story of a sprawling land at the edge of the world captured at a defining moment. How does a society go from broad inclusiveness to shrill intolerance in the space of a generation? Will Indonesia be radicalised alongside other parts of the Islamic world? Does Herry represent the future?