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Fred R. von der Mehden is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Rice University. He served as Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison from 1957 to 1968 where he was Director of East Asian Studies. From 1968 to 1998 he was Albert Thomas Professor of Political Science at Rice University and is now Emeritus and a scholar with the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice. Mr. Von der Mehden has written extensively on Islam in Southeast Asia and has completed field studies in the region assessing attitudes in the area towards the Middle East. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley.
Religious interaction between the Arabian Peninsula and Indonesia has a long history. Traders and missionaries from the Peninsula were the primary sources of Islam to the archipelago. Saudi Arabia’s Islamic credentials in Indonesia have been strengthened by the fact that Mecca and Medina are part of the Kingdom.
