In 1967, Barack Obama's mother Ann Dunham married her second husband, Lolo Soetoro from Indonesia. Like many Javanese Muslims, Lolo practiced a syncretic form of Islam that blended traditional Islamic beliefs with indigenous Javanese spirituality and Hindu-Buddhist influences.
Obama's Indonesian Stepfather and Javanese Islam
When Ann Dunham married Lolo Soetoro in 1967, she wasn't just gaining a husband—she was opening a door to one of the world's most fascinating religious traditions. Lolo, a geologist from Indonesia, practiced Javanese Islam, a form of the faith unlike anything found in the Middle East.
What is Javanese Syncretic Islam?
Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population, but Islam arrived there relatively late—around the 13th century. By then, Java had already absorbed centuries of Hindu-Buddhist civilization and even older animist traditions.
The result? A uniquely flexible form of Islam called Islam Kejawen or Javanese Islam. Practitioners might:
- Pray five times daily while also honoring ancestral spirits
- Fast during Ramadan while participating in traditional Javanese ceremonies
- Blend Islamic teachings with meditation practices rooted in Hindu-Buddhist mysticism
This wasn't considered contradictory—it was simply how Islam had always been practiced in Java.
Young Barry in Jakarta
Six-year-old Barack Obama—then called Barry Soetoro—moved to Jakarta with his mother and stepfather in 1967. For four formative years, he experienced this religious pluralism firsthand.
Lolo wasn't particularly devout, but the household reflected typical Javanese spirituality. Obama later wrote in his memoir that Lolo "followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths."
Young Barry attended both a Catholic school and a Muslim school during his time in Indonesia. He learned to recite the Quran in Arabic, ate with his hands in the traditional style, and absorbed the easygoing religious tolerance that characterized Indonesian society.
A Lasting Influence
Obama has credited his Indonesian years with shaping his worldview. In a 2009 speech in Cairo, he referenced his childhood in Indonesia, noting that he heard the call to prayer "at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk."
The experience of living in a Muslim-majority country with syncretic traditions may have contributed to his nuanced understanding of religious diversity. Unlike the more rigid interpretations of Islam often portrayed in Western media, Javanese Islam demonstrated that faith traditions could coexist and blend.
Lolo Soetoro died in 1987, long before his stepson became a U.S. Senator, let alone the 44th President. But the religious environment he and Ann created for young Barry left an indelible mark—a firsthand understanding that the world's faiths are far more complex, and often more accommodating, than headlines suggest.