Ansor Congress and Film Launch. On the morning of November 26, 2015, the 15th National Congress of the world’s largest Muslim youth organization, GP Ansor (established 1934), opened with the screening of a film (The Divine Grace of East Indies Islam) that the New York Times hailed as “a relentless religious repudiation of the Islamic State and the opening salvo in a global campaign by the world’s largest Muslim group to challenge the ideology of the Islamic State head-on.”
Muslims praying during Ramadan at a mosque in Jakarta in Indonesia. The country has the world’s largest Muslim population. Nyimas Laula/Reuters
The leadership of Ansor is closely aligned with the spiritual wing of its parent organization, the Nahdlatul Ulama (est. 1926). Haji Yaqut Cholil Qoumas — a member of Indonesia’s parliament and nephew of Kyai Haji A. Mustofa Bisri, former chairman of the NU Supreme Council — was elected Chairman of GP Ansor for the 2015 – 2020 term. Under his leadership, Ansor is expected to work closely with the Nahdlatul Ulama and Bayt ar-Rahmah in addressing the threat posed by Islamist extremism.
Gerakan Pemuda Ansor’s View Regarding the Republic of Indonesia’s Strategic Interests and National Security Agenda. On April 17 – 18 2017, representatives of the world’s largest Muslim young adults movement, Gerakan Pemuda Ansor (est. 1934), gathered for the organization’s XXIst National Conference. Regional and provincial leaders discussed a number of geopolitical developments that pose a grave threat to Indonesia’s security. These include “the brutal conflicts raging in the Middle East and other hot spots; the rampant social turbulence that prevails almost everywhere in the Muslim world; the spread of religious extremism and terrorism, which pose a global security threat; and a rising tide of Islamophobia among non-Muslim populations, in response to these developments in the Muslim world.” Conference delegates also discussed “the threat posed by the political and military agenda of the People’s Republic of China, as it seeks to achieve regional hegemony in East and Southeast Asia.”
NU General Secretary to the European Union and Its 28 Member States: “You cannot win if you do not fight back.” Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf — General Secretary of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Supreme Council — delivered a video address to senior EU officials and representatives of 28 Member States at the headquarters of the European Council, which defines the EU’s overall political direction and policies. His address was part of a broader expert presentation on risk assessment hosted by the government of Estonia, which currently holds the rotating Presidency of the EU Council. Member States holding the rotating Presidency work together in groups of three to set long-term goals and prepare a common agenda determining the topics and major issues that will be addressed by the Council over an 18-month period. The presentation was delivered to the Terrorism Working Party (TWP), which leads and manages the Council’s agenda on counter-terrorism. Attended by law-enforcement and security officials of the 28 EU Member States, TWP is also responsible for exchanging information and assessments of terrorist threats; countering radicalization and recruitment of potential terrorists; and carrying out peer evaluations of Member States’ best practices in the fight against terrorism.
Conference room at EU headquarters in Brussels, where Mr. Staquf’s address was delivered
The address came at a time of rising controversy and political discord between EU Member States regarding the volatile issues of mass migration, the distribution of refugees and counter-terrorism policy. The NU aims to reduce polarization between Muslim communities and the West, and help generate the societal consensus required to address the threat posed by Islamist extremism and terror. If heeded, NU/Bayt ar-Rahmah recommendations could help reconcile severe policy differences — regarding Islam and Muslims — that have strained relations between Western European nations led by Germany and the V4 (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia). Inclusion of the NU General Secretary’s address within the TWP agenda may thus be interpreted as a move by the EU rotating Presidency to bridge policy differences and establish a common platform capable of addressing issues that threaten not only international peace and security, but EU solidarity as well.
Nahdlatul Ulama General Secretary Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf
NU General Secretary to Europe’s Intellectual and Political Elites: “The West must stop equating a rational critique of Islamist terrorism with Islamophobia.” In the wake of yet another devastating terror attack in Europe — which killed or injured over 140 on the streets of Barcelona — Germany’s leading newspaper published a lengthy interview with Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) General Secretary Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf. Headlined “Terrorism and Islam are Intimately Connected,” the interview was placed on the front page of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’s widely-read Feuilleton (arts and culture) section, which also addresses moral issues that transcend partisan politics. Within hours of its publication, the interview was trending as one of the most popular articles shared in Germany.
Promoted as a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) exclusive, the newspaper’s internet home page linked to a description of the interview which reads:
“‘There is a crystal clear relationship between fundamentalism, terror and the basic assumptions of Islamic orthodoxy,’ says Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf, General Secretary of the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia. . . This is particularly true in regard to the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims. The position of Muslims vis-à-vis the State and its legal system are also problematic and lead to segregation and enmity. ‘Too many Muslims view civilization, and the peaceful co-existence of people of different faiths, as something they must combat’ says Yahya Cholil Staquf. As a result, the West’s growing fear of Islam is completely understandable. And it is essential that people speak clearly about the connection between Islam and terrorism: ‘The West must stop equating the rational discussion of these issues with Islamophobia.’”
Harry Athwal, 44, stays with an injured boy after the Barcelona attack
Nahdlatul Ulama General Secretary’s “Message to Europe” helped shape public discourse amid the heat of Germany’s 2017 national election campaign. In June of 2017, several organizations affiliated with the spiritual wing of the Nahdlatul Ulama — including Gerakan Pemuda Ansor, Bayt ar-Rahmah and LibForAll Foundation — launched a strategic messaging campaign and began implementation of the road map. On August 19 one of Germany’s leading newspapers, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), published a hard-hitting interview with NU General Secretary Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf, which promptly went viral amidst an historic election campaign in Germany. Mr. Staquf’s message was quickly translated and conveyed via print and internet/social media throughout the EU, eliciting a strong, favorable response across the political spectrum and the continent, in regions as diverse as Spain, Belgium, Poland, Denmark and Finland.
The timing and extent of media coverage within Germany — combined with a nuanced analysis of that nation’s September 24, 2017 election results — suggest that Mr. Staquf’s FAZ interview legitimized public discourse regarding the relationship between terrorism and Islam, and thereby accelerated European voters’ abandonment of political parties that refuse to acknowledge any causal relationship between Islamist terrorism and certain problematic elements of orthodox Islamic teachings and practice. This result is in keeping with GP Ansor and Bayt ar-Rahmah’s strategy to develop a peaceful, common platform and alternative bloc in support of the principles, strategy and objectives articulated in the Gerakan Pemuda Ansor Declaration on Humanitarian Islam, including the need to identify and contain the threat posed by Islamist extremism.
Scholar Cites NU General Secretary’s Role in Stripping Saudi Control of Brussels Terror Mosque, after three years in which Belgians played a prominent role in Islamic State attacks in the Belgian capital as well as Paris. “I view this as a positive sign,” said KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf when asked about the controversy raging over control of Brussels’ Grand Mosque. “Both the Saudis and Europeans are having to confront the real world consequences of their respective policies related to Islam. Rather than deny that there’s any causal relationship between terrorism and certain problematic tenets within orthodox Islam — such as enmity between Muslims and non-Muslims, which the Saudi religious establishment has deliberately fostered for decades — both sides need to acknowledge this problem and address it.”
Nahdlatul Ulama targets the weaponization of religion for political purposes. From 23 – 25 November 2017, the world’s largest Muslim organization convened 1,200 religious scholars for a National Assembly of Ulama and Major Conference, whose primary agenda was to strengthen the values of nationalism, counter religious extremism and improve the economic welfare of all sectors of Indonesian society. Attendees included Indonesia’s President and Vice President; the chiefs of Indonesia’s military, national police and state intelligence agency; numerous cabinet ministers; and foreign emissaries, including ambassadors from Iran and Saudi Arabia.
In his opening address, NU General Chairman Kyai Haji Said Aqil Siradj said that “Indonesia is different from the Middle East, where people who are religious are generally not nationalists, and those who are nationalists are generally not religious…. We are fortunate that our situation is so different from that in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and so many other nations, whose people are overwhelmingly Muslim and yet trapped in horrendous civil wars with no end in sight… To preserve the unity of the Republic of Indonesia and the tranquility of its people, radical groups and their ideology must be expelled [from the public space]!”
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kansas and MAGELANG, Indonesia: On January 1, 2018, Strategic Review — “The Indonesian Journal of Leadership, Policy and World Affairs” — published a two-part cover story titled “Maneuvering within Islam’s Narrative Space.” The authors are LTC Brian Steed, Assistant Professor of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and C. Holland Taylor, Chairman & CEO of LibForAll Foundation, which he established in 2003 with former Indonesian President H.E. Kyai Haji Abdurrahman Wahid. Mr. Taylor also represents the world’s largest Muslim youth organization, Gerakan Pemuda Ansor, and works closely with senior figures within the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) — including its spiritual leader and former Chairman, Kyai Haji A. Mustofa Bisri, and KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf, the current General Secretary of the Nahdlatul Ulama Supreme Council — to expand NU and Ansor operations worldwide.
Colonel Steed and Mr. Taylor met at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany in May of 2017, when both were invited to address the Partnership for Peace Consortium (PfPC) Combating Terrorism Working Group (CTWG), an annual event that gathers CT professionals from dozens of nations to share best practices in countering violent extremism. They subsequently decided to collaborate on the cover story published in the January – March 2018 issue of Strategic Review.
Colonel Steed’s pioneering work establishes a unique conceptual framework for understanding the “narrative space,” in which Islamist movements including ISIS and al-Qaeda have decisively out-maneuvered their Western opponents. Terrorist organizations accomplish this by weaponizing religious, socio-cultural and historical narratives to mobilize support and wage asymmetric warfare, both online and upon the physical battlefield, which now includes public streets, restaurants, office buildings, stores, churches, synagogues, museums and concert halls in cities throughout Europe and North America.
The Enduring Threat of Islamist Politics in ‘Reformasi’ (Post-Soeharto) Indonesia and its Global Ramifications
On May 22nd, 2018, Indonesia’s leading English-language daily, The Jakarta Post, published a collection of articles that analyzed the progress and prospects for reform in the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy, twenty years after the fall of Soeharto. Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf, General Secretary of the Nahdlatul Ulama Supreme Council, contributed an 1,800-word essay in which he examined the perennial Islamist threat to Indonesia and its roots within Islamic orthodoxy.
As Mr. Staquf writes: “[O]ne thing cannot be denied: the aspiration for Islam to attain political domination is, indeed, an intrinsic part of orthodox Islamic teachings, if we employ the term ‘Islamic orthodoxy’ to describe ‘an array of theological doctrines accepted, by the majority of Muslims, as the most authoritative religious reference standard.’ And how could this not be the case? Islamic orthodoxy includes a remarkably extensive discourse about public law, both civil and criminal, which is generally described as ‘God’s law’ (sharia) — or at least, as ‘the interpretation of God’s law’ — which must be operationalized in daily life. Obviously, this cannot be achieved without political domination by those who wish to implement sharia, which precisely describes the Islamist agenda. . . .
“So long as obsolete, medieval tenets within Islamic orthodoxy remain the dominant source of religious authority throughout the Muslim world, Indonesian Islamists will continue to draw power and sustenance from developments in the world at large…. Preservation of Indonesia’s unique civilizational heritage — which gave birth to the Republic of Indonesia as a multi-religious and pluralistic nation-state — requires the successful implementation of a global strategy to develop a new Islamic orthodoxy, which reflects the actual circumstances of the modern world in which Muslims must live and practice their faith.”
White House Declares Support for @NahdlatulUlama. In May of 2018, the Vice President of the United States invited NU General Secretary KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf to the White House, where they discussed the pressing need for religious freedom and for decisive action to bring this about. Within minutes of their meeting, the Vice President tweeted: “@POTUS Trump Administration stands with NU in its fight for religious freedom and against jihad.” News of the meeting quickly spread to major media outlets in the U.S. and Indonesia. Christianity Today reported, “US supports major Sunni group’s effort to fight radicalization… [The NU] has been championed as a model of ‘moderate Islam’” and quoted Pence saying, “As the largest Muslim majority nation, Indonesia’s tradition of modern Islam, frankly, is the inspiration to the world.”
In May of 2018 President Joko Widodo appointed NU General Secretary K.H. Yahya Cholil Staquf to the 9-member Dewan Pertimbangan Presiden (Presidential Advisory Council), a constitutionally-authorized body whose members may attend cabinet meetings and are accorded a rank equivalent to Minister of State. Mr. Staquf advises President Jokowi and the Indonesian government at large on religious, domestic and international affairs.
To prevent another Christchurch, Islam must confront the attacks in its name that have radicalised the West
by Yahya Cholil Staquf
“How can we – Muslims and non-Muslims together – prevent another atrocity like the one in Christchurch? As I have watched New Zealanders of all faiths mourn, this has been the question on my mind. So far, few of the answers offered have come close to the truth.
What the massacre revealed was the need for a clear understanding of the weaponisation of ethnic, religious and political identities that is going on throughout the world. This was Brenton Tarrant’s evil aim: to contribute to a polarisation of the West – and to a parallel phenomenon in the Muslim world. His actions, which eerily resemble those of Isil and other Islamist terror groups, were calculated to intensify the hostility and suspicion that already exist towards Muslims in the West. They were also designed to elicit a response from Islamists and so encourage a cycle of retaliatory violence.
We must not let him, or anyone else, succeed. Solidarity across racial, religious, cultural and political lines to address this global crisis is the only answer. But this means resolutely acknowledging the causal factors of the violence that we are seeing in so many parts of the world. As a Muslim, this leads me to questions that require difficult but honest answers.” Read the full article (PDF).
World’s largest political network embraces Humanitarian Islam: Centrist Democrat International adopts PKB resolution, signaling a profound shift in global discourse regarding extremism and terror. On April 10, 2019, the Executive Committee of Centrist Democrat International (CDI) — the world’s most extensive political network, with over 100 affiliated parties in more than 70 nations — unanimously adopted a resolution endorsing the “universal principles and aspirations” of the global Humanitarian Islam movement, and calling for the “widespread dissemination and study” of its foundational texts.
A “Resolution on acknowledging that universal human fraternity is essential to the emergence of a global civilization founded upon respect for the equal rights and dignity of every human being,” was drafted and presented to the Committee by the National Awakening Party (PKB), Indonesia’s largest Islamic political party. The resolution commends Nahdlatul Ulama — the world’s largest Muslim organization — for its “groundbreaking” role in having “first articulated the concept of universal human fraternity as a shari‘ah basis for legal equality between Muslims and non-Muslims” at its National Congress held in Situbondo, East Java, in 1984.
Members of the CDI Executive Committee during their April 10, 2019 meeting in Brussels
Saint Sebastian’s Church in Columbo, Sri Lanka following an attack on April 21, 2019
Prominent Jewish figures warn about the perils of weaponizing identity, Muslim leader concurs: “Overcoming white supremacism, antisemitism and Islamist extremism will require courage, honesty and compassion.” In the weeks following white supremacist Brenton Tarrant’s live-streaming of his brutal slaughter of Muslims at prayer in New Zealand, Jews, Muslims and Christians have all fallen victim to shocking acts of terror. In response to these tragedies, a number of prominent Jewish figures have joined Nahdlatul Ulama General Secretary Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf in urging religious, cultural and political elites to end the practice of weaponizing identity, which exacerbates communal hatred and short-circuits analysis of the complex phenomena that contribute to ethnic and religious violence.
“Solidarity across racial, religious, cultural and political lines to address this global crisis is the only answer,” says Mr. Staquf. “The cycle of mutual recrimination and bloodshed we are witnessing is deeply rooted in history, including ancient animosities and ‘tribal narratives’ embedded within the collective memory of entire ethnic and religious groups. We must understand what fuels these hatreds, which extremists seek to awaken through heinous acts of terror, such as those which occurred recently in New Zealand, Sri Lanka, America, Nigeria and Burkina Faso.”
texMr. Staquf’s observation is borne out by the example of John Earnest, who on April 27, 2019 — six weeks after Brenton Tarrant committed his atrocity against Muslims in Christchurch — attacked a synagogue in Poway, California, citing Tarrant as his inspiration and explicitly referencing Christian scripture as part of his justification for murdering Jews. A number of publications honed in on this fact, including the Washington Post. In a piece titled “The alleged synagogue shooter was a churchgoer who talked Christian theology, raising tough questions for evangelical pastors,” the article examined how Calvinist theology, mixed with white supremacist beliefs, motivated Earnest in his targeting of both Jews and Muslims, and how ministers of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in America are responding to this disturbing reality.
Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama helps shape British government policy through high profile commentary and Policy Exchange report On Islamophobia. On May 15, 2019, the British government rejected calls to adopt a vague yet sweeping definition of the term “Islamophobia,” that would undermine counterterrorism policy, empower Muslim extremists, enable media censorship and open the door to criminalization of frank discourse about Islam, including the crystal-clear links between jihadist doctrine, goals and strategy and certain problematic tenets of Islamic orthodoxy and its historic practice.
The move follows a series of high-profile interventions in continental Europe and the UK by Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf, General Secretary of Nahdlatul Ulama. In his latest intervention, Mr. Staquf supported a broad cross-section of British civil society and its political establishment, who warned the British government not to adopt the policy recommendations of an informal grouping of UK parliamentarians — the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims (APPG) — that seeks to weaponize a highly problematic definition of Islamophobia as “a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.”
Speakers at the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom roundtable event, “An Exploration of Religiously Motivated Violence,” from right to left: Faith McDonnell (Institute on Religion and Democracy); Dr. Thomas K. Johnson (International Institute for Religious Freedom); Dr. Paul Marshall (Hudson Institute); and Jacob Rudenstrand (Swedish Evangelical Alliance).
World Evangelical Alliance Envoy Highlights the Potentially Historic Significance of Humanitarian Islam: “A serious response to religiously motivated violence,” whose sophisticated theology “merits attention from scholars, diplomats and activists.” On the morning of Thursday, July 18, 2019, Reverend Professor Thomas K. Johnson (above, speaking), Special Envoy to the Vatican and Senior Advisor on Religious Freedom for the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) — which represents more than 600 million evangelical Christians worldwide — delivered a penetrating analysis of the Humanitarian Islam movement and its theology on the sidelines of the U.S. State Department’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom. Hosted by the DC-based Institute on Religion & Democracy, which is affiliated with the WEA and forms part of its coalition of over 100 international organizations and churches present in 129 nations, the address was attended by a range of delegates to the Ministerial, including Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf, General Secretary of Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama and co-founder of the global Humanitarian Islam movement.
Professor Johnson began his presentation by sharing a heartfelt account of the martyrdom of one of his seminary students and two other Christians, who were murdered by Islamist radicals in Malatya, Turkey, in 2007. Humanitarian Islam offers a more hopeful vision, believes Professor Johnson, who lauded its representatives in both oral and written versions of his speech, for their “serious response to religiously motivated violence and thoughtful attempt to establish a better paradigm for how religions [may] relate to society.”
Labour MP Khalid Mahmood, H. Muhaimin Iskandar and Dean Godson, the executive director of Policy Exchange
Chairman of Indonesia’s largest Islamic political party champions Humanitarian Islam in the UK, advises government officials on issues related to Islam, security, and migration. On September 16, 2019, H. Muhaimin Iskandar — Deputy Speaker of Indonesia’s upper legislative assembly (MPR) and General Chairman of its largest Islamic-based political party (PKB) — arrived in London for private talks with key policymakers within the administration of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Mr. Iskandar, whose political party is rooted in Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama, was accompanied by C. Holland Taylor, who serves as Emissary for the UN, Americas and Europe for Gerakan Pemuda Ansor, NU’s 7-million-member young adults movement. Thomas Dinham — Director of Strategic Outreach for Bayt ar-Rahmah, a U.S.-based nonprofit headed by Mr. Taylor and Nahdlatul Ulama’s spiritual leaders — also attended discussions.
The wide-ranging talks, hosted by influential think tank Policy Exchange at its headquarters adjacent to the Palace of Westminster, explored enhanced cooperation between the United Kingdom and the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy in numerous areas, including bilateral diplomatic relations, trade, security, and geopolitics. Nahdlatul Ulama’s spiritual leaders have begun to engage in the UK at a decisive moment in the country’s recent political history, as it searches for new partners after its exit from the European Union (“Brexit”) and forges relations with Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
Thomas Dinham enters the British Prime Minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street
Following their meeting at Policy Exchange, Mr. Iskandar joined other members of Indonesia’s legislature to participate in a series of events arranged by the Indonesian Embassy to the UK, while Mr. Taylor and Mr. Dinham visited 10 Downing Street to hold a confidential discussion with close advisors to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Drawing Battle Lines: Center-Right Parties Take On Civilizationalism – Analysis
January 26, 2020 | James M. Dorsey
Centrist Democrat International (CDI) meeting in Indonesia with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban attending.
The Centrist Democrat International (CDI), in an attempt to counter the rise of civilizationalist states and leaders, has called for the creation of an alliance of nations, political parties and faith groups, that would seek to ensure that politics and international relations remain grounded in humanitarian values at a time of increasingly unimpeded violations of international law and human rights abuse.
CDI’s call carries weight given that it is the world’s largest coalition of almost 100 political parties from across the globe, including ruling parties in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere ranging from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union to Fidesz, the party of Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, a professed illiberal who envisions his country as a Christian nation.
The call takes on added significance because it was issued by a group that traces its roots to European and Latin American Christian democracy at a meeting in Indonesia, the world’s third largest democracy and its most populous majority Muslim country, hosted by the largest Indonesian Islamic political party, the National Awakening Party (PKB).
PKB, founded by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the world’s largest Muslim organization, joined CDI little over a year ago as part of the International’s effort to expand its reach beyond Christian democracy and NU’s advocacy of a humanitarian interpretation of Islam that encourages cooperation across political, ethnic and religious divides on the basis of a shared respect for human rights and international law. Read the full article (PDF).
Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al Issa (center) with KH. Said Aqil Siradj, Chairman of the NU Executive Board (center right); KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf, General Secretary of the Nahdlatul Ulama Supreme Council (center left); and H. Hilmy Feisal, General Secretary of the NU Executive Board (far right), photo courtesy of Tempo magazine
Muslim World League visit to NU headquarters in Jakarta comes amid intense competition for religious and political authority in the Muslim world. For the first time in the 58-year history of the Saudi-backed Muslim World League, its Secretary General visited the headquarters of the world’s largest Muslim organization, Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama. The NU was founded in 1926 in direct response to the Saudi/Wahhabi conquest of Mecca and Medina, in order to preserve the spiritual traditions of Sunni Islam by blocking the spread of Wahhabi extremism in Maritime Southeast Asia (i.e., the Malay Archipelago).
The visit comes at a time of intense rivalry between Middle East powers — including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey and Iran — for political and religious authority, as reflected in the wars raging in Syria, Libya and Yemen, and intense maneuvering to influence governments and civil society throughout the Muslim world and the West.
As reported by Indonesia’s national wire service, Antara: “The Secretary General of the Muslim World League, Shaykh Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al Issa” — fresh off a ‘groundbreaking’ visit to Auschwitz in the company of prominent Jewish leaders — “praised Nahdlatul Ulama for its ability to foster peace by harmonizing religion and nationalism, both within Indonesia and on the global stage.” Al Issa also acknowledged NU’s role in defending religious minorities and preserving Indonesia from the turmoil that afflicts so much of the Islamic world.
NU General Secretary defends British anti-racism campaigner from accusations of Islamophobia. On March 9, 2020, Nahdlatul Ulama General Secretary and co-founder of the global Humanitarian Islam movement, KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf (“Gus Yahya”), defended one of the UK’s most respected anti-racism campaigners from accusations of Islamophobia, in the epilogue to a comprehensive report by premier British think tank Policy Exchange. In doing so, the Indonesian Islamic scholar added his authoritative voice to that of prominent center-left and center-right UK figures in confronting the political weaponization of Islam, which threatens to drag Muslim communities into the highly polarized and increasingly lethal “culture wars” roiling much of the West.
Islam and the Disappearing People: Prominent Muslim scholar acknowledges “the long and tragic history of religious persecution in the Islamic world.” The General Secretary of Indonesia’s 90-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama has called upon Muslims to lead by example and act to end the widespread, systematic and ongoing persecution of religious minorities across the Islamic world.
“Systemic prejudice and discrimination towards others, and the weaponization of ‘tribal’ identity — whether for self-preservation or self-aggrandizement — have been characteristic of nearly all societies throughout history,” said Nahdlatul Ulama General Secretary Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf, in response to recent upheavals in the U.S. and Western Europe triggered by the death of George Floyd at the hands of a U.S. policeman.
Mr. Staquf issued his remarks in conjunction with the publication of his article, “Responding to a Fundamental Crisis Within Islam Itself,” in Public Discourse, which is the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute, a non-profit research center located in Princeton, New Jersey. The declared mission of Public Discourse is “to enhance public understanding of the moral foundations of free societies,” based on a “commitment to the idea that truth exists, is knowable, and should inform our politics and culture.” Public Discourse is widely read by an ecumenical audience of conservative-leaning intellectuals representing a variety of religious backgrounds — Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, and non-believing humanist.
In his extensive essay, Mr. Staquf discusses Stephen Rasche’s newly published book, The Disappearing People, “which paints a disturbingly vivid picture of the tragedy he witnessed in Iraq” and “[t]he calamitous fate of Iraq’s Christians.”
Britain turns to Nahdlatul Ulama to help formulate a new Indo-Pacific strategy: “South and Southeast Asia are poised to emerge as independent pillars of support for the rules-based international order.” KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf — General Secretary of the world’s largest Muslim organization — has joined a high-profile international commission dedicated to forging “a new approach” to the Indo-Pacific as Britain seeks to place this strategically vital region at the center of its pursuit of a renewed global role in the wake of its exit from the European Union (Brexit).
Newly established by the most influential think tank in the United Kingdom, Policy Exchange, the Indo-Pacific Commission is led by former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who recognizes the formative effect its recommendations are likely to have upon British foreign policy. Writing in The Telegraph — a prominent British newspaper with close links to that country’s governing Conservative Party — Harper said:
“As a former prime minister, I. . . note a timely ingredient for a special British initiative in the Indo-Pacific – the Johnson ministry’s powerful majority in the Commons, effectively locked in until 2024. The Government, with its attractive Global Britain agenda, can make international commitments and has the time to deliver on them politically.”
Among the Commission’s 16 members are highly influential figures from within the U.S. foreign policy establishment, including Ely Ratner, the former Deputy National Security Advisor to then Vice President Joe Biden and Nadia Schadlow, former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor and the author of America’s current National Security Strategy, which sets the superpower’s strategic priorities in the areas of defense and foreign affairs. A number of preeminent current and former British officials also sit on the Commission, including former UK Defense Secretary Sir Michael Fallon and Claire Coutinho MP — the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the most powerful member of Boris Johnson’s administration after the Prime Minister himself.
Representatives of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth open one of dozens of mosques recently constructed in Central Java. The transformation of the Indonesian landscape has been continuously progressing for over two generations.
On July 30, 2020, veteran correspondent, Middle East expert and senior fellow at Singapore’s Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Dr. James Dorsey, published a hard-hitting analysis of Saudi policy in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation and democracy titled, “Indonesia: A Major Prize in the Battle for the Soul of Islam.”
The article, which first appeared in the U.S.-based online magazine Inside Arabia, reveals that “Saudi support of religious ultra-conservatism in Indonesia contradicts Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s promotion of an undefined form of moderate Islam intended to project his kingdom as tolerant, innovative, and forward-looking. It also suggests that Saudi Arabia is willing to work with the Muslim Brotherhood despite its denunciation of the group as a terrorist organization.”
Dr. Dorsey writes that “Indonesia is in a category of its own in a global rivalry for Muslim religious soft power in which Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the southeast Asian state are major players.” He describes on-going Saudi efforts to promote ultra-conservative Islam in Indonesia as driven, in large part, by a need “to counter a challenge, this time around not from a militant rival but from one that threatens to bypass the kingdom as well as the UAE as a result of its moderation.”
The article identifies that challenge as “a concept of humanitarian Islam that propagates tolerance and pluralism and endorses the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, put forward by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU),” the world’s largest Muslim organization, whose “success in accessing European leaders as well as the Trump administration left the Saudis and the Emiratis with two choices: co-opt or be seen to engage.
Europe’s Largest and Most Influential Political Network Responds to Inflammatory Remarks by Turkish President: “With his call to revive Islamic supremacism, President Erdogan is stoking a fire that threatens to engulf the entire world.” On July 22, 2020, members of the largest political networks in the world, and Europe, set aside long-standing differences to join Indonesia’s National Awakening Party, PKB, in a call for “Muslims and people of good will of every faith and nation to prevent the political weaponization of religion.”
Centrist Democrat International (CDI) adopted — and the European People’s Party (EPP) publicly endorsed — a PKB statement issued in response to inflammatory remarks by President Erdogan of Turkey regarding the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.
PKB is deeply rooted within Nahdlatul Ulama — the world’s largest Muslim organization with over 90 million followers — and is Indonesia’s largest Islamic political party. Through its membership in CDI, PKB is actively promoting NU’s Humanitarian Islam agenda worldwide.
The unexpected unity shown by EPP comes after years of intense public wrangling by its member parties — including Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Hungary’s Fidesz — over issues related to Islam, terrorism and migration. PKB’s statement warned of the threat to “the rules-based international order [posed] by the emergence of authoritarian, civilizationist states that do not accept this order, whether in terms of human rights, rule of law, democracy or respect for international borders and the sovereignty of other nations.”
The PKB/CDI statement came in response to President Erdogan’s effort to present himself as a leader of the global Muslim community and restore political Islam to a position of dominance in the world order.
The European People’s Party featured the PKB/CDI statement prominently on its home page, the first time a statement by a non-EPP member party has ever been posted on its website
The Islamic Religious Community of Italy (COREIS): “Hagia Sophia unites Christians and Muslims across the globe. The largest international political network, inspired by Christianity, allies with the world’s largest Islamic organization to denounce the political weaponization of religion.”
Two days before the Islamic New Year (1 Muharram 1442 AH) Imam Yahya Sergio Yahe Pallavicini — President of the Islamic Religious Community of Italy (COREIS) — published a message from Nahdlatul Ulama General Secretary KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf to the 1.4 million Muslims who live in Italy.
In an article that accompanied the NU General Secretary’s message, COREIS welcomed the recent adoption — by Centrist Democrat International (CDI) and the European People’s Party — of a statement issued by the NU-based National Awakening Party (PKB) of Indonesia.
The PKB/CDI statement, which addressed concerns related to Turkey’s interventionist foreign policy, warned that “President Erdogan’s words and actions. . . threaten peace and security in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where similar narratives employed by al-Qaeda, ISIS, al-Shabab and Boko Haram have led to countless terrorist attacks and produced millions of refugees.”
Nahdlatul Ulama General Secretary helps shape British grand strategy for the emerging “Eurasian century.” Current and former Prime Ministers from four of the world’s most economically powerful countries have endorsed recommendations contained within a landmark report on the future of the Indo-Pacific Region (IPR). Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf, General Secretary of Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama, helped shape key elements of the 52-page strategic plan, which was warmly received by 10 Downing Street, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Britain’s Parliament. Mr. Staquf serves as one of 16 members of the Indo-Pacific Commission, which is chaired by former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
In a major foreign policy speech that accompanied the launch of the Commission’s report, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed “the UK’s acknowledgment of the strategic significance of the Indo-Pacific Region” and said: “I endorse the report’s vision for a reinvigorated community of free and independent nations with a single overriding goal, namely: to reinforce a sustainable rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific that is resilient but adaptable to the great power realities of the 21st century.”
Hudson Institute’s Current Trends in Islamist Ideology: “Nahdlatul Ulama has emerged as a formidable challenger to powerful state actors in the battle for the soul of Islam.” A leading U.S. think tank has published an in-depth analysis of “The Battle for the Soul of Islam,” reporting that Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama has emerged as a formidable contender in the Islamic world’s competition for religious soft power and leadership — capable of operating on the same level as states such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey and Iran.
The 18-page article by Dr. James M. Dorsey — a Middle East expert who is a senior fellow at prominent universities in Singapore, Germany and Israel — appeared in the journal Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, which is published by Hudson Institute’s Center on Islam, Democracy, and the Future of the Muslim World.
How to Make the Islamic World Less Radical
Recontextualize the teachings of Islam to address extremism — and to inspire reform.
by Yahya Cholil Staquf
Why is the modern world plagued by Islamic extremism? Why do al Qaeda, Boko Haram and Islamic State display such savagery? As I told the United Nations General Assembly recently, the doctrine, goals and strategy of these extremists can be traced to specific tenets of Islam as historically practiced. Portions of classical Islamic law mandate Islamic supremacy, encourage enmity toward non-Muslims, and require the establishment of a universal Islamic state, or caliphate. ISIS is not an aberration from history. . . .
Classical Islamic orthodoxy stipulates death as the punishment for apostasy and makes the rights of non-Muslims contingent on a Muslim sovereign’s will, offering few protections to nonbelievers outside this highly discriminatory framework. Millions of devout Muslims, including many in non-Muslim nations, regard the full implementation of these tenets as central to their faith. . . .
The most enduring way to address an extremist religious ideology is to recontextualize its teachings and reform it from within. Four centuries ago, Catholics and Protestants routinely killed each other; now they coexist. I believe the same type of change can occur within Islam in one or two generations. What’s needed is a credible alternative that is consistent with Islamic orthodoxy and developed and promulgated by those with religious and political authority in the Muslim world.
Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest independent Muslim organization, for which I serve as general secretary, is promoting such an alternative. Read the full article (PDF).
Religious Freedom and a Free and Open Indo-Pacific: Indonesian and U.S. Statesmen agree that “shared civilizational values” are essential building blocks of a rules-based international order. On July 14, 2021, Hudson Institute Distinguished Fellow Kenneth Weinstein moderated a discussion between Yahya Cholil Staquf, General Secretary of Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama, and Hudson Distinguished Fellow and former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency/U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo. It was the first time the Indonesian and U.S. statesmen had met face-to-face since Secretary Pompeo addressed leaders of the Humanitarian Islam movement in Jakarta on October 29, 2020, days before the U.S. presidential election.
Former Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo:
“The places where we can build peace, the places where we can identify overlapping interests will always revolve around shared values.”
Their wide-ranging discussion covered a variety of topics including: Indonesia’s and America’s founding values; mobilizing public support for a sustainable rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific that is resilient and adaptable to the great power realities of the 21st century; the future of the post-World War II human rights project; the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities; threats posed by the political weaponization of identity; genocide; the role of sovereign nation states, and civil society, in preserving and strengthening the rules-based international order; and the need to maintain a stable balance of power within the Indo-Pacific region.
NU General Secretary Yahya Cholil Staquf:
“We need to mobilize civil society actors and mass-based organizations to foster societal consensus regarding fundamental values, if a rules-based international order is to endure.”
“A house divided against itself cannot stand” ~ Abraham Lincoln
Fundamental Principles of Nahdlatul Ulama: Historic speech, published in English for the first time, offers a stark reminder to the West. The world’s largest Muslim organization has made a century-old speech by one of its founders, KH. Hasyim Asy’ari, available for the first time in English. The publication of this speech — titled Introduction to the Fundamental Principles of Nahdlatul Ulama — is part of a larger effort by the 90-million-member NU to promote shared civilizational values and discourage the political weaponization of identity.
The speech, which was delivered at the inaugural meeting of Nahdlatul Ulama in 1926, warns that social divisiveness “is the root of destruction and bankruptcy, the source of collapse and ruination, and the agent of humiliation and chaos.” Nearly a century after its delivery, this address, which articulates the ethical and theological framework embraced by the world’s largest Muslim organization, remains the foundational document of Nahdlatul Ulama.
Al-Arab: “The Taliban’s control of Afghanistan spotlights the failed model of government in Muslim states.” In a hard-hitting article published on the eve of the 9/11 attacks’ 20th anniversary, veteran foreign correspondent and Senior Fellow at National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute, Dr. James M. Dorsey, argued that Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama constitutes a unique exception to the cycle of authoritarianism, underdevelopment and violence that afflicts so much of the Muslim world.
A wide range of international media outlets swiftly translated and/or republished the article, including prominent Arabic-language newspaper Al-Arab.
Dr. Dorsey’s analysis reflects a growing awareness among Muslim and non-Muslim thinkers across the world of the need for Middle East states to follow Indonesia’s lead in blocking the political weaponization of Islam if they are to transition into modern, developed societies fully integrated with the global economy, much less return to the glory the Muslim world enjoyed during its golden age over one thousand years ago, when Islamic societies were characterized by relative openness, intellectual freedom and prosperity.
In contrast to the heavily politicized legacy of Islam in the Middle East, which continues to inspire many of its government and religious leaders, Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama seeks to foster a Humanitarian Islam that is rooted in the principle of universal love and compassion (rahmah).
Regent University, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson, invites Kyai Haji Yahya Cholil Staquf to deliver a keynote address at its commemoration of the 20th anniversary of 9/11. The invitation may signal a major shift in evangelical attitudes towards Islam and Muslims, inspired by Nahdlatul Ulama’s willingness to acknowledge and address certain tenets of Islamic orthodoxy that underlie and animate Islamist extremism worldwide. These tenets are often employed by groups such as ISIS, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram to condemn those they regard as infidels, thereby legitimizing the widespread persecution of Christians in the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.
Over the past year, the World Evangelical Alliance, then-U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, and former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback have endorsed Mr. Staquf and the Humanitarian Islam movement he leads.
Nahdlatul Ulama is renowned in Indonesia, and increasingly in evangelical circles worldwide, for defending Christian churches from attack by radical Muslims. Regent University, together with the Christian Broadcasting Network, may be said to represent “the beating heart of evangelical Christianity in the U.S.”
A banner depicting and naming participants in the Erbil conference is hung from a checkpoint in Anbar Province, the birthplace of the Iraqi Awakening Movement. The banner declares “Normalization is Treason.”
Peace conference ends in death threats and recrimination, participants claim they were misled. New York Times quotes the son of keynote speaker: “Four times al-Qaeda tried to assassinate us. One day they blew up our house in Baghdad. Now we are wanted by everyone.”
A conference held in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region of Iraq attracted global media coverage when its keynote speaker issued a demand for Iraq to join the Abraham Accords and recognize the state of Israel. Yet within 24 hours, conference participants were denying any foreknowledge of the event’s controversial agenda as Sunni and Shiite militias launched a manhunt for those involved.
Held two weeks before Iraq’s national elections, the conference appears to have inadvertently played into the hands of Islamist militias and extremist political parties, including that of prominent Shiite cleric Muqtadr al-Sadr, whose party won a plurality of votes in the election. Sadr was swift to condemn the event in Erbil and to declare that it is legitimate to shed the blood of conference participants.
2021 National Conference of Nahdlatul Ulama Religious Scholars Press Conference: “[Strengthening] East Indies Islam and NU Autonomy, for the Sake of Global Civilization”
Nahdlatul Ulama moves to prevent foreign and domestic interference in its affairs: “NGOs often weave ‘beautiful narratives’ to impress donors, while in reality undermining progress or even placing others in jeopardy.” The Central Board of Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest Muslim organization, has instructed all of its chapters, institutions and autonomous bodies to cancel or suspend all activities with an Indonesian NGO and two of its foreign partners, and to submit any proposed future activities for approval by the Central Board. The order is designed to protect and enhance minority rights while preserving social harmony and political stability, rather than seeking to curtail NGOs’ freedom to engage in activities of their choice.
The order was issued in the form of a circular letter distributed to those who govern Nahdlatul Ulama, in response to efforts by the Leimena Institute, a Jakarta-based NGO and its foreign backers — the U.S.-based Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) and the American Jewish Committee (AJC) — to harness Nahdlatul Ulama and Indonesia’s powerful Ministry of Religious Affairs in service of a potentially disruptive agenda dictated by foreign actors, who seek to reshape Indonesia’s complex socio-cultural, religious and political landscape.
For the past century, Nahdlatul Ulama has consistently sought to block the infiltration of Wahhabism, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist movements into Indonesia’s religious mainstream. The unanimous decision by NU’s Supreme Council and its Executive Board to cancel or suspend any and all cooperation with Leimena, IGE and AJC suggests that NU is also concerned about Western NGOs acting in pursuit of agendas that have the potential to induce social unrest and political instability in Indonesia. View the full report.
The Honorable Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, Indonesia’s Minister of Religious Affairs: “To my brothers and sisters in the Baha’i community, wherever you may be, I wish you a joyful celebration of your new year 178 EB [marking the anniversary of your founder’s teaching]”
Indonesia’s Ministry of Religious Affairs affirms the constitutional right to freedom of conscience. In July of 2021, Indonesia’s Minister of Religious Affairs responded to harsh Islamist criticism of a video address — in which he warmly conveyed a New Year’s greeting to Indonesia’s miniscule Baha’i minority — by affirming that every Indonesian citizen has a constitutional right to religious freedom, and to practice the teachings of his or her faith.
A government regulation dating from the mid-1960s provides official recognition to only six religious communities in Indonesia: Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Confucianism.
Muslim extremists were swift to condemn Minister Qoumas for acknowledging and greeting members of Indonesia’s Baha’i community. Despite the viral nature of the controversy that exploded in print, broadcast and social media, the Minister did not apologize for his action. Demonstrating the strength of his convictions — and widespread popular support for his position — the Honorable Minister of Religious Affairs simply instructed officials within his Ministry to explain the constitutional, legal and regulatory framework that guarantees freedom of conscience to every Indonesian.
KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf with Prof. Dr. Amarulla Octavian, Rector of Indonesia’s prestigious National Defense University
NU General Secretary Addresses Indonesia’s Defense Establishment: “Indonesia is strategically positioned to foster global stability and help ensure the survival of the post-WWII international order.” Nahdlatul Ulama General Secretary KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf addressed the assembled faculty, staff and students at Indonesia’s National Defense University, stating that Indonesia has a strategic role to play in preserving and strengthening the post-WWII international order, as well as shaping its future.
“It is time for us to realize this great potential and act wisely, so that Indonesia’s influence among the community of nations may steadily rise, reflecting its status as the world’s fourth most populous country and sixteenth largest economy. . . As the world moves towards a new equilibrium between major powers, Indonesia has a vital interest in preserving and strengthening our current, rules-based international order. Likewise, the international community has a strategic interest in ensuring that Indonesia remains strong, independent and sovereign,” Mr. Staquf told senior members of Indonesia’s defense establishment.
Saudi Arabia and Indonesia: Clashing Visions of Moderate Islam. Two diametrically opposed visions of moderate Islam have emerged as major Muslim powers battle to define the soul of their faith in the 21st century in a struggle that is as much about geopolitics as it is about autocratic survival and visualizations of a future civilization and world order.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Yahya Cholil Staquf, the newly elected chairman of the central board of Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest Muslim civil society movement, expressed their dueling visions in separate but almost simultaneously published interviews.
While the timing of the interviews was coincidental, they neatly laid out the parameters of a rivalry among major Middle Eastern and Asian Muslim-majority powers to dominate the discourse of Islam’s place as the world transits into an as yet undefined new world order.
Autocratic vs. Democratic Islam. Writing in The Times of Israel, geopolitical analyst and scholar Dr. James M. Dorsey has drawn a stark contrast between Nahdlatul Ulama’s democratic vision and the autocratic view of Islam represented by Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah, Chairman of the United Arab Emirates Fatwa Council.
Illustrating a deep-rooted phenomenon within the Middle East, which Turkish-American scholar Dr. Ahmet Kuru has termed the “ulama-state alliance,” Shaykh bin Bayyah advocates an autocratic approach to constrain radical discourse within Islamic societies, in order to avoid what he describes as “the chaos of the fatwa.” Nahdlatul Ulama, by contrast, employs grass-roots education and a profoundly spiritual understanding of Islam to counter extremist narratives within a democratic framework.
Nahdlatul Ulama invites Muslim World League Secretary General to co-chair R20 Summit: “Helping to ensure that religion functions as a genuine and dynamic source of solutions, rather than problems.” The official host of this year’s G20 Summit — the Republic of Indonesia, led by popular two-term President Joko Widodo — has decided to place religion and religious leaders near the center of geopolitical discourse for the first time in the history of the G20.
The world’s largest Muslim organization, Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama, established the G20 Religion Forum (R20) in order to “help ensure that religion in the 21st century functions as a genuine and dynamic source of solutions, rather than problems.”
In order to fulfill this vision, the R20 will mobilize diverse religious, political and economic leaders from G20 Member States and elsewhere throughout the world “to prevent the weaponization of identity; curtail the spread of communal hatred; promote solidarity and respect among the diverse peoples, cultures and nations of the world; and foster the emergence of a truly just and harmonious world order, founded upon respect for the equal rights and dignity of every human being.”
Nahdlatul Ulama (est. 1926) has selected the Mecca-based Muslim World League (MWL) to jointly host the historic event. The NU decision comes in the wake of recent dramatic changes in policy by Saudi Arabia and the Muslim World League (est. 1962), which for decades propagated ultraconservative Islamic teachings worldwide, prior to the appointment of Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud as Saudi Crown Prince in 2017.
KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf and Shaykh Mohammad al-Issa during a bi-lateral meeting between the two Muslim leaders in Riyadh
At Saudi Conference, NU Chairman Invites Religious Leaders to Develop a Strategy for Transforming the Mindset of Religious Communities Worldwide. For the first time in its 61-year history, the Saudi-funded Muslim World League has chosen to engage substantively with the world’s largest Muslim organization — Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama — and convey NU’s message of religious pluralism and tolerance to Muslims worldwide.
Long known for spending billions of dollars to promote ultra-conservative Sunni Islam, in recent years the Muslim World League (MWL) has begun to shift its messaging and modes of engagement under the leadership of Dr. Mohammad bin Abdulkarim al-Issa, who was appointed Secretary General of MWL in 2016.
On May 11 – 12, 2022, the Muslim World League convened 90 religious leaders for the Forum on Common Values among Religious Followers. Participants included 47 Muslim scholars, 24 Christian leaders, 12 rabbis and 7 Hindu and Buddhist figures.
Nahdlatul Ulama’s involvement in the Forum on Common Values represents a potential turning point in the Muslim World League’s engagement with Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation and democracy. For nearly sixty years, the MWL has worked closely with Islamists who sought to transform Indonesia from a multi-religious and pluralistic nation state into a de facto Islamic state.
Indonesia’s Religious Soft Power on Display in the Middle East: “Nahdlatul Ulama is arguably the world’s only mass movement propagating a genuinely moderate and pluralistic form of Islam.” The fierce competition for religious soft power between Middle East nations was on stark display with the announcement of diametrically opposed initiatives by major Islamic organizations backed by the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Reflecting the growing influence of the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, Indonesian religious leaders are at the heart of both initiatives.
The Times of Israel: “Major Muslim and Hindu organisations are battling to define the role of religion in global politics.” Leading international affairs expert Dr. James M. Dorsey has published an in-depth analysis of the G20 Religion Forum (R20) and its geopolitical ramifications. Writing in The Times of Israel, a multi-language newspaper that documents developments in Israel, the Middle East, and around the Jewish world, Dr. Dorsey argued that the R20 “positioned Nahdlatul Ulama. . . . as a leading force in defining moderate Islam and promoting concepts of genuine religious reform not only of Islam but also of other major faiths such as Hinduism.”
R20 participants from India observe a Hindu ritual at Prambanan Temple on the Indonesian island of Java
As G20 Presidency moves to India, the R20 “is part of a larger Muslim struggle that is likely to define Islam in the 21st century.” Geopolitical expert and commentator James M. Dorsey has written an extensive, 1,300-word analysis of the intensifying soft power competition surrounding the G20 Religion Forum, or R20, the results of which will determine whether Muslims “choose between taking the high or the low road to coming to grips with history.
“The high road involves confronting painful truths in a quest for a healthier, more pluralistic, and socially cohesive society. The low road allows autocrats to either rewrite history or sweep it under the table and opportunistically bend it to their will.”
Founded by Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf in 2022 in conjunction with Indonesia’s Presidency of the G20, the next R20 Summit will occur in India in 2023. At stake, observes Dr. Dorsey, is whether the event will retain its original focus “on coming to grips with the problematic histories of various religions, including Islam, to generate genuine religious reform” or follow other interfaith summits and become “geared towards themes likely to curry favour in Western capitals.”