Abdurrahman Wahid, former President of Indonesia, once told me a joke: ‘If God visited Indonesia and declared that Islam is erroneous, most Indonesians would continue following Islam, and expel God’. Abdurrahman Wahid, who was affectionately known by his nickname Gus Dur, was notorious for his humour; it gained him countless enemies. But his jokes were always pointed, never frivolous.