Integration through Communal Activities

5.9.2 Integration through Communal Activities

For the Dusun Muslim converts, the rituals in the commitment stage indicate their formal affiliation to Islam. However, whether this affiliation can lead to an integration into the Muslim community is dependent upon the individual convert. Brunei government has been focusing on efforts to generate and maintain the participation of the new converts into the mainstream Muslim community through the establishment of various religious institutions. Such government support of religious involvement, in it self, is a significant aspect of Brunei‟s majority-religion context that shapes the characters of the consequences stage of the Dusun Muslim converts.

One of the religious institutions that promote converts‟ communal participation is the mosque. In Brunei, as in many Islamic countries, mosques have been revitalised in

order to realise its real role as a multipurpose educational and community centre (Saedon 1994:25). The interview data of the Dusun Muslim converts reveal that the converts‟ participation in religious classes organised by the mosque in their

neighbourhood area has evolved from a learning tool that allows them to learn about Islam in-depth into a network tool which permits the converts to establish rapport with other Muslims in their area. This can be seen from the experience of a 51-year-old female convert who believed that she has benefited tremendously from her attendance to religious classes:

[E70.Muslim Dusun.I18]

After I finished the guidance courses conducted by the Islamic Da’wah Centre, I started to attend weekly religious classes at the mosque. The class is not only for new converts, and it was open to any Muslims who were interested to improve their religious knowledge. They taught us many things, such as the proper recital of the Al-Quran verses which are used in the prayer. If it was not for this class, I believe it would have taken me ages before I could do the prayer on my own. And also,

I have made friends from the class, many of whom I had never talked to before although we live in the same village... [Trans.]

Similar experience of communal integration was also reported by a 57-year-old male convert:

[E71.Muslim Dusun.I17]

Soon after my conversion, I started to attend the mass prayers, especially Maghrib and Isya’ prayers at the local mosque. I felt a bit awkward at first but the people there were really welcoming. I also met many other new converts who invited me to attend a class which was conducted by the imam. I found this class very useful. I only knew the very basic things about the Muslim prayers in my early days, but after regularly attending this class, my recital of the Al-Quran verses has improved a lot. The imam is a kind man as well, always asking how I was doing... [Trans.]

The communal involvement clearly gives the converts a positive sense of being accepted and of being a part of the Muslim community. As exemplified by the above interview excerpts, the new converts slowly developed connections with the members of the Muslim community, following the availability of the acceptance resources from the community. Subsequently this facilitates a successful attainment of the new religious identity as a Muslim by the new converts through direct instrumental and affective relationships that they have been gradually forging with the existing members of the Muslim community since their conversion.

There are also informants who utilise da’wah institutions as the basis of their involvement within the Muslim community. The number of informants who extend their communal involvement through this means however is very small (this study only identifies 4 out of 46 informants who have been actively involved in da’wah activities after their conversion), and yet, it does to some degree demonstrate their affinity with, and identification as part of, the Muslim community.

The Islamic Da’wah Centre of Brunei Darussalam is aware that ethnicity plays a pivotal role in designing effective da’wah programmes. As argued by one of the key informants of this study, in view of the fact that the target of the da’wah activities are the non-Muslim ethnic groups, the daie should be capable of promoting Islam to these particular groups. This is where one can see the voluntary participation of the Dusun

Muslim converts in the Centre‟s missionary effort to cultivate an interest towards Islam within their own ethnic group, as told by a 63-year-old retired schoolteacher:

[E72.Muslim Dusun.I4]

It was in 1994 when I started to get involved in the da’wah activities. We were put into groups to visit new converts and to promote Islam to the non-Muslims. We found that the non-Muslims Dusuns would be more welcoming if they knew there are Dusun converts in the daie group... [Trans.]

The communal da’wah activities brought the above informant to a new level of involvement within the Muslim community by assisting the missionaries to propagate the religion within his own ethnic realm. As he has the advantage of being able to speak the Dusun language, it facilitates his dialogue with the non-Muslim Dusuns. Moreover, as Dusun community is a close-knit community where its members are more likely to be related by blood or by marriage to one another, meeting a „relative‟ The communal da’wah activities brought the above informant to a new level of involvement within the Muslim community by assisting the missionaries to propagate the religion within his own ethnic realm. As he has the advantage of being able to speak the Dusun language, it facilitates his dialogue with the non-Muslim Dusuns. Moreover, as Dusun community is a close-knit community where its members are more likely to be related by blood or by marriage to one another, meeting a „relative‟

Such kind of communal involvement without doubt is an illustration of the successful attainment of religious identity where, as mentioned earlier, such positive experience of the consequences stage is primaril y due to Brunei‟s Islamic-laden context surrounding. In fact, the above discussion on the consequences stage generally contains positive description which could make the discussion appear similar to an advertisement for Islam although that is not the intention of the discussion.

Another equally significant finding of the above discussion is the identification of the key component of context for the consequences stage, that is the acceptance component. In the case of the Dusun Muslim converts, the availability of the acceptance component in facilitating the adoption of Islamic lifestyle and their involvement in the communal activities has been briefly pointed out earlier on, and to further suggest the connection between the influence of the acceptance component of context and the actual characteristics and definitions of the consequences stage in the conversion process of the Dusun Muslim converts, the following discussion will look at the situation experienced by the early converts, and to compare those experiences to that of the later converts when the effects of Islam as the majority religion of the

country is already deeply felt and manifested in every aspect of people‟s life.