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Islam, Democracy and Human Rights in Contemporary Indonesia63Apart from his formal and non-formal education, Natsirwas also deeply influenced by his social surroundings and thepeople around him. During his childhood in the village, he wasaccustomed to living along the lines of the traditions and religiongenerally applied in the Minangkabau Muslim communities.At the same time, Natsir also witnessed religio-intellectualdebates by local reformers challenging traditions. He alsoexperienced the ideological debates between communism,nationalism and Islam, which swept the Minangkabaucommunities in the first decades of this century. The influenceof his teacher, Engku Mudo Amin, one of the reformist ustadz(religious teachers) in Minangkabau, appeared to have a fairlydeep impact on Natsir%u2019s personality. Not surprisingly, after beingin Java, he felt somewhat associated with reformist %u2018ulamas, suchas Ahmad Soorkati %u2014a Sudanese-born %u2018ulama and a prominentfigure of the modernist movement among Indonesian Arabs%u2014and Ahmad Hassan, an %u2018ulama born in Singapore but of Tamilstock, who then resided in Bandung, West Java. At that time,Hassan was known as a radical %u2018ulama, who was alwayspolemical against %u2018ulama holding different opinions %u2014hesometimes deliberately involved Natsir in open debatesagainst %u2018ulama at different schools of thought, which was obviousin Natsir%u2019s intellectual career.Agus Salim was also a figure who opened up Natsir%u2019sintellectual insight. Salim was viewed by many foreign andIndonesian scholars as %u201cthe Father of Indonesian MuslimIntellectuals%u201d. He combined both intellectual and politicalactivities. As with Hassan, Salim was also inclined towardsdebate and polemical methods. Nevertheless, if Hassan wasknown to be a hard-headed intellectual in holding certain ideas