The day before yesterday, I went to the theology library of Doshisha University, Kyoto. The last time I visited this library was in February 2007, and I needed to check the journals and the Christian newspapers for these five months of absence.
I found an article about Malaysia in the latest issue of “The Muslim World”(Vol.97, No.2, April 2007) published by Hartford Seminary, Connecticut, the U.S. The title of the article is ‘Explaining Islam’s Special Position and the Politic of Islam in Malaysia’ by Muhammad Haniff bin Hassan, Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
I have not read it yet, but to tell the truth, I am already fed up with this kind of Islamic writing. The content is quite familiar with me, because Muslim leaders of Malaysia repeatedly do such speeches and lectures in both Malaysia and Japan.
This journal has a subtitle ‘A Journal Devoted to the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations in Past and Present’. It was founded in 1911 and sponsored by Hartford Seminary since 1938. It is edited by the Duncan Black MacDonald Center at Hartford Seminary.
As for the seminary, I have visited there in August 2005 with my husband to do some literature research about the late Rev. Dr. William G. Shellabear, who was a British Methodist missionary to British Malaya during the colonial period. I did an oral presentation partially on him two years ago, and I will compile as an article to submit to a relevant journal.
When I was in Hartford, Rev. Dr. Steven Blackburn, the library director of Hartford Seminary told me that the seminary itself was not so familiar with Malaysia or other South-East Asia except for Indonesia, the largest Muslim country, but was more concerned about Kosovo, North Africa, Middle-East, and South Asia regarding Islam.
However, I knew it was not always true. This journal displayed some articles about Malaysia in the past. Also, I could make acquaintances with a Chinese Christian lady from Singapore and a Muslim youth from Southern Kalimantan through this visit.
I sometimes feel the good old days have gone in the seminary. Uchimura Kanzo, a founder of Mukyokai, the church-less church, once studied here for a while（http://d.hatena.ne.jp/itunalily2/20100111）and other prominent theologians from Japan also received degrees from the seminary long time ago. Now the focus of the center is heavily Islam and Muslim matters. Studies of Christianity have shifted to Feminist Theology, Black Theology, and Hispanic Theology now.
