Wow - "native Japanese Muslims" - now that is a very interesting topic - would never have occurred to me honestly.
It started around 2004-2005 when I was still researching materials for a different book project. It was about Dutch-East Indies' history between the mid-1930s to 1942 or just before the Japan invasion - a time period that's still not discussed much here, or so it seemed to me. I've actually started to take a Dutch language course to prepare myself to do the research in the Netherlands, and have already planned to take a Japanese course to do the same in Japan.
Unfortunately, due to health reasons, I had to abandon all those plans and came up with this one during the recovery that took me several years to get back on track. It began with my concern after seeing many people in Indonesia seem to start developing a mindset not too different from the kind that gave rise to ultranationalism and even fascism whether it's based on race, religion, politics, and so on. I believe you are already well aware of how it went if it goes unchecked.
As such, as a part of the "majority" in this country, I feel that I really need to go out there somewhere away from this country to see and experience how others live. How a developed country treats and protects its minorities or in this case, its Muslim citizens. I also want to learn how they integrate into their own society and culture - something that's not working too well in many parts of Europe when it comes to integrating their Muslim immigrants there.
Admittedly, although I still identify myself as a Muslim, I don't see myself as religious according to the common standards so this probably came as shock for some. Therefore while most Muslims here are eager to go to Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage, I really don't have the same inclination to go there.
Ah yes. There's actually a Japanese man living in Tokyo (IIRC) who actually came to Islam in Brunei. He's one of few Japanese Muslims whose names that I already know and whom I want to meet someday when I can finally start this project.
During one of our meetings he told me about the Japanese and his families involvement regarding the efforts to create a pan-Asian anti-western alliance during the late 30's and early 40's involving Brunei respectively it's local population incl. Royal family members.
The 3A's propaganda?
We're pretty familiar with it ourselves:
en.wikipedia.org
So might be worth a try to hit onto Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah or his son Prince Abdul Malik's wallet to "sponsor" some research-work.
Ahaha, yeah that could probably work.
But still, if I ever have some individuals or companies as my sponsors, I don't want to just live off of their money while I'm in Japan. My plan includes finding a job there to support myself while working on this project. Hopefully, I can keep my current profession too because while it's not paying that much but I do love my current job.
Anyway I will keep my thumbs pressed and will look forward to such a truly worthy book.
Thank you. But first, it's still has to start someday, though
Again, thank you. I've already known some of the points on that website, especially regarding the population but I will still read it more carefully after this. Also, while I'm not surprised that there are already some books about this topic, I believe that there are still many other things that went unnoticed.
nationalpost.com
