2024_11_22_The Road Not Yet Taken

Nahdlatul Ulama launches “The Road Not Yet Taken Initiative: A Multireligious Path Towards Middle East Peace”

“I have told President Prabowo that Indonesia must speak up about the conflict in Gaza, and he agreed with me that Nahdlatul Ulama is the most appropriate and potentially effective actor to foster peace in the region.”

~ H.E. Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, Chairman of the National Council of Economic Advisors, Republic of Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia — On the afternoon of Friday, 22 November 2024, leaders of the Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board, the newly established Institute for Humanitarian Islam, and the Center for Shared Civilizational Values (CSCV) held a public seminar to launch The Road Not Yet Taken Initiative: A Multireligious Path Towards Middle East Peace. The official launch of this initiative followed months of discussions NU and CSCV leaders have held with major stakeholders in the region, including a recent visit by NU Chairman KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf to Washington, D.C.

Lieutenant General (ret.) H.E. Luhut Binsar Panjaitan — one of the most influential figures in the presidential administration of H.E. Joko Widodo (2014 – 2024) and currently Chairman of President Prabowo Subianto’s Council of Economic Advisors — delivered a keynote address in which he declared:

As the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia and the world, Nahdlatul Ulama must take the lead in Middle East peace efforts, employing the Humanitarian Islam and multireligious approach, engaging various parties…. With more than 100 million followers, NU has eighteen times the membership of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. As a result, NU has enormous political power, which includes determining the direction of [Indonesia’s] national politics.

His Excellency Luhut Panjaitan noted the widespread economic disruption caused by the Israel-Gaza War, and the potential for even worse economic turmoil should the conflict spread further in the Middle East. Hence, the importance of NU’s potential contribution to Middle East peace, for the sake not only of the peoples directly involved, but also of the global economy at large, including that of Indonesia.

The seminar, titled “Humanitarian Islam and a Multireligious Path Towards Middle East Peace,” also featured a panel discussion that delved into issues associated with this topic.

Moderated by H. Muhammad Najib Azca — Deputy Secretary of the Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board and Professor of Political Science at Gadjah Mada University — the panel featured presentations by (pictured from left to right, above) Rev. Martin Sinaga, from the Federation of Indonesian Protestant Churches (PGI); the widely revered Roman Catholic priest and scholar, Rev. Franz Magnis Suseno, S.J.; KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf, General Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board; H. Muhammad Azca; Ambassador Muhsin Shihab, expert staff and advisor to the Foreign Minister, Republic of Indonesia; and C. Holland Taylor, Special Advisor for International Affairs to the General Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board, as well as Deputy Chairman & CEO of the Center for Shared Civilizational Values.

In his remarks, Mr. Staquf observed that religion plays a major role in perpetuating conflict throughout the Middle East. Failure to address theological rationales that legitimize discrimination and violence towards the religious “other” — whether Sunni or Shi’ite, Christian, Druze, Yazidi, or Jew — has resulted, for example, in decades of “cold peace” between Israel, Egypt, and other Arab states, including Jordan.

Mr. Staquf stressed the need for honesty in addressing these theological rationales within Islam and Judaism, as well as the actual history of conflict within the region. Yet he also emphasized the necessity of not weaponizing the unpleasant truths of history, for doing so can only result in perpetuating the hatred, supremacy, and visceral urge for revenge that underlies and animates so many conflicts within the Middle East, including the current war between Israel and Gaza.

Father Magnis Suseno (pictured speaking above) stressed the need for Arab states to accept the existence of Israel within the 1948 boundaries established by the United Nations, and for both sides to accept a two-state solution, in which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the framework of a rules-based international order applies to Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Rev. Sinaga (above, with H.E. Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, former Indonesian Minister of Religious Affairs and Executive Director of the Institute for Humanitarian Islam) discussed the need for a trialogue between Muslims, Christians, and Jews, to foster reconciliation and peace throughout the region.

His Excellency Muhsin Shihab (pictured speaking above) — whom President Prabowo Subianto has nominated to serve as Indonesia’s ambassador to Canada — emphasized the distinction between the constraints inherent in a government approach and the relative freedom enjoyed by NGOs such as Nahdlatul Ulama to pursue a Middle East peace strategy. Citing one example of this distinction, Ambassador Muhsin stated that from the perspective of the Government of Indonesia, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict results from the occupation of Palestinian lands and a long history of injustice perpetrated by Israel towards Palestinians. From this official Government perspective, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has little or nothing to do with religion.

As Muslim participants in the seminar readily understood, any acknowledgment of the actual religious dimensions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, unless carefully handled, could easily provoke — among the inhabitants of the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation — a response inspired by classical tenets of Islamic orthodoxy associated with jihad and the obligation to support one’s fellow Muslims engaged in warfare with infidels. Similar concerns have long induced both Western and Middle East governments to deny the intimate links between al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorism and authoritative elements of classical Islamic law.

Over the past decade, Nahdlatul Ulama has acted decisively to address these obsolete and problematic tenets of Islamic orthodoxy — parallels to which may also be found within Orthodox Jewish teachings, such as “The Laws of Kings and Their Wars” (Melachim uMilchamot, Chapter 6: 1 – 4), which appears in the final section of Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah.

In his presentation, Mr. Taylor (pictured above) outlined key elements of The Road Not Yet Taken Initiative, including the fact that it builds on the G20 Religion Forum (R20) and several of its Working Groups, including:

Working Group 1 on the need to identify shared values and establish reciprocity among the world’s diverse peoples, cultures and religions, by treating one another in accordance with the highest moral standards embraced by our respective traditions (“WG-1 on Shared Values and Reciprocity”);
Working Group 2 on historical grievances, truth-telling, compassion, reconciliation, and forgiveness (“WG-2 on Truth and Reconciliation”);
Working Group 3 on the recontextualization of obsolete and problematic tenets of religious orthodoxy (“WG-3 on Recontextualization”); and
Working Group 7 on Political Engagement and Strategic Communications (“WG-7 on Political Engagement”).

Mr. Taylor explained the process of consultation that will lie at the heart of The Road Not Yet Taken Initiative, leading to the development of a coherent strategy and roadmap to address problematic elements of religious orthodoxy, and mobilize religious authorities to help ensure that religion functions as a genuine and dynamic source of solutions, rather than problems, in the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Echoing a point made by KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf, General Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board, Mr. Taylor emphasized the need to build a religious, socio-cultural, and political movement designed to transform the prevailing mindset among the various parties to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. Mr. Taylor concluded his presentation by stating:

Although we can neither claim nor expect our approach to produce peace in the short term, Nahdlatul Ulama is capable of forging a multireligious path towards peace in the Middle East by adopting a strategy founded upon the noble principles of religion, including honesty and transparency.