Growing body of academic research assesses the global significance of Nahdlatul Ulama and its Humanitarian Islam movement
“Foreign policy stakeholders, international development agencies, and university staff should join Indonesia’s peace initiative.”
~ Dr. Amanda tho Seeth
Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien
(German Institute for Global and Area Studies)
“[T]he Humanitarian Islam vision, if implemented successfully, has the potential to bring about peace among and within different religious communities, a pressing need given persisting inter- and intra-faith conflicts.”
~ Sara Loo and A’an Suryana
ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore
(formerly, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies)
HAMBURG, Germany, SINGAPORE, and ANKARA, Turkey, 1 October 2024 — A growing number of scholars in a wide range of academic disciplines are making Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and the global Humanitarian Islam movement a focus of systematic research and analysis.
The campus of Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Turkey
In an article titled “Religion and Politics in Indonesia: The Case of Humanitarian Islam,” Dr. Murat Kaçer of Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University’s Faculty of Political Sciences observes that “it is essential to acknowledge that NU stands as the largest and most influential Islamic organization, not solely within Indonesia but on a global scale.” As such, Nahdlatul Ulama’s Humanitarian Islam movement offers potential solutions to “[o]ne of the most pressing concerns in the Islamic world, the misuse of religion, which leads to the emergence of radical movements and acts of terrorism.”
In another wide-ranging analysis, Dr. Amanda tho Seeth of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies notes how “Nahdlatul Ulama (‘Revival of Islamic Scholars’) has… kick[ed] off a global movement for reforming Islamic jurisprudence by interpretations that benefit all humans, regardless of religious affiliation. This includes the legitimisation of the United Nations Charter.”
Crediting Nahdlatul Ulama as central to what she terms “Indonesia’s Islamic Peace Diplomacy,” Dr. Seeth goes on to note that NU’s G20 Religion Forum (R20) “has put religion in the spotlight with regards to world politics and set the agenda for upcoming G20 summits.”
On 8 September 2024, Singapore’s ISEAS — Yusof Ishak Institute published a volume titled “Prospects and Challenges in Promoting Humanitarian Islam — Nahdlatul Ulama’s International Social Partnerships.” Part of the Institute’s “Trends in Southeast Asia” series, the 42-page monograph explores the origins and development of Humanitarian Islam, including its global expansion under the auspices of “North Carolina-registered non-governmental organizations Bayt ar-Rahmah and the Center for Shared Civilizational Values, [which] serve as ‘international hubs’ with vast networks which facilitate the establishment of international social partnerships.”
These publications are part of a growing body of scholarship on Nahdlatul Ulama and Humanitarian Islam published by academic institutions throughout the world. In August 2023, one of continental Europe’s oldest and most prestigious academic publishers released an edited volume containing essays on Humanitarian Islam by leading scholars of Islam in Europe and the United States. Co-published by Brill (est. 1683) and the University of Vienna (est. 1365), Humanitarian Islam: Reflecting on an Islamic Concept was edited by Dr. Rüdiger Lohlker and Dr. Katharina Ivanyi. It appeared as Volume 24 in an academic series titled “Religion and Transformation in Contemporary European Society.”
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