2025_01_23_European External Action Service

NU Chairman articulates a binding legal framework to secure peace between Muslims and non-Muslims

Pacta sunt servanda (“Agreements must be honored”)

~ Brocard (Legal maxim in Latin)

“Acknowledging the leading role of Nahdlatul Ulama in interfaith dialogue and the promotion of a moderate, positive paradigm for religious actors across the world, it will be a great honor to… hear about the activities of Nahdlatul Ulama, both in Indonesia and internationally.”

~ Aude Maio-Coliche
Director, Strategic Communication and Foresight (SG.STRAT), Secretariat-General of the European External Action Service

BRUSSELS, Belgium — On 23 January 2025, Religion and Diplomacy Advisors representing the European Union and its 27 Member States assembled at the headquarters of the EU’s foreign service (above), for an annual working group meeting to discuss the complex interplay of religion and foreign policy. The gathering featured a major policy address by, and 90-minute discussion with, Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf.

Convened by Ms. Aude Maio-Coliche, Director of Strategic Communication and Foresight at the European External Action Service (EEAS), the meeting was also addressed by Ambassador Olof Skoog, the EU’s Special Envoy for Human Rights, who on 1 March 2025 will assume the position of EEAS Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs.

The meeting was chaired by Mr. Constantinos Alexandris, who serves as an Expert on Religion and Diplomacy at EEAS. Members of the EU Working Group responded favorably to the NU Chairman’s analysis of Islamic law and his observation that the principle that agreements must be honored is as fundamental to Islamic law as it is to the Western tradition of international law. Participating Religion and Diplomacy Advisors also expressed a high degree of interest in Nahdlatul Ulama initiatives, including the G20 Religion Forum (R20); the Humanitarian Islam movement; the Fiqh al-Hadarah (Islamic Jurisprudence for a Global Civilization) Movement; and The Road Not Yet Taken Initiative: A Multireligious Path Towards Middle East Peace.

The Advisor from the Netherlands (above) expressed her appreciation of the fact that Indonesians are notably mild and forbearing in their engagement with the Dutch, considering their colonial history. In fact, the principles of reconciliation and forgiveness lie at the heart of the R20, and particularly of R20 Working Group 2 on Historical Grievances, Truth-Telling, Compassion, Reconciliation, and Forgiveness.

Mr. Staquf, who participated in the meeting remotely, explained the need to employ a strategy that can decisively neutralize religious hatred, supremacy, and violence:

In recent decades, it has become commonplace for religious leaders to talk about moderation, tolerance, and harmony. Yet however attractive such discourse may sound, it cannot decisively address or resolve the threat posed by religious extremism.

This is for a simple but seldom acknowledged reason: most religions contain obsolete and problematic teachings that are perfectly orthodox and may be readily used to justify a supremacist and violent interpretation of one’s religious obligations.

If we rely purely on assertions about the peaceful nature of religion, the other side — that is, religious extremists — will respond with their own interpretations, which are generally rooted in the classical teachings of their particular tradition.

Having closely studied ISIS, we know that their agenda and behavior are intimately related to specific tenets of Islamic orthodoxy, such as the religious obligation to establish a caliphate and to wage war against infidels.

Although it is essential to foster a pluralistic, tolerant, and peaceful understanding of religion among our followers, this is not enough. Rather than deny the existence of obsolete and problematic tenets of religious orthodoxy, we need to employ a strategy that is capable of “cutting the Gordian Knot” of this otherwise intractable problem.

The strategy I have in mind places “international consensus” at the heart of our search for solutions.

The inviolability of contracts and treaties is a matter of universal consensus within Islam, which teaches that agreements freely reached between two or more parties are legally binding. When clearly articulated, such agreements are not subject to interpretation or debate. So long as the agreement in question does not conflict with the fundamental principles and values of Islam, it may in fact become a new source of Islamic law.

Indeed, an agreement reached through consensus can actually alter the Islamic norms and laws that prevailed prior to reaching the agreement in question.

This is what I mean by “cutting the Gordian Knot.”

The importance of treaties as sources of Islamic law was demonstrated by the Prophet Muhammad himself in the Treaty of al-Hudaybiya, which he reached in 628 CE with the tribe of Quraysh in Mecca. One of the stipulations of the treaty was that Muhammad and his followers — who had set out from Medina on a pilgrimage to Mecca known as umrah — turn back and only return to Mecca the following year.

This clearly violated the religious norms that apply to umrah, as Muhammad and his followers were already in a state of ritual purification known as ihram, which required them to complete the pilgrimage.

The Treaty of al-Hudaybiya, however, superseded the stipulations of umrah and Muhammad, peace be upon him, returned to Medina with his followers.

Indonesia’s success as a multi-ethnic and multireligious nation state is directly linked to this exact principle, established through the example of the Prophet Muhammad. Our ancient and enduring traditions of religious pluralism and tolerance find modern expression in Pancasila — the five-part foundational philosophy of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia — which roots an inclusive, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic nationalism within a profound and spiritually grounded respect for religious and cultural diversity….

Indonesia’s national consensus, as embodied in the 1945 Constitution and Pancasila ideology, has endured for nearly eighty years. While a small minority of Indonesian Muslims may reject Pancasila, the overwhelming majority accept that, like the Treaty of al-Hudaybiya, Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution are valid social contracts, and thus binding upon all Indonesian citizens.

Nahdlatul Ulama is widely acknowledged as the primary guarantor of Indonesia’s status as a Pancasila nation state. Rather than engage extremists in endless debates about the tolerant nature of Islam, we have established Pancasila as a source of Islamic law and the final, valid, and binding consensus for Indonesian citizens.

We neutralize radical discourse by constantly reminding Indonesians that the nature of our constitutional settlement is not a matter for debate and has been definitively settled within Islamic law.

We believe that just as the 1945 Constitution and Pancasila constitute a binding treaty for Indonesian Muslims legitimizing the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, so the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provide an existing, legitimate, and readily available foundation upon which to build key tenets of a new Islamic orthodoxy for Muslims worldwide.

Strikingly, the principle that agreements must be kept is as fundamental in the Western tradition of international law as it is in Islamic law. This principle, known in Latin as pacta sunt servanda (“agreements must be honored”), is arguably the oldest principle of international law. It was an important element in the writings of the 17th century Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius — the father of international law — and is enshrined in Article 26 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

Following Mr. Staquf’s presentation, Sweden’s Advisor on Religion and Diplomacy (above) remarked that Nahdlatul Ulama’s emphasis on the sanctity of legally binding agreements — one key element in NU’s efforts to recontextualize obsolete and problematic tenets of Islamic orthodoxy — bears remarkable similarity to fundamental principles of international law, which lie at the heart of the European Union’s worldview.

Mr. Staquf’s presentation was followed by a wide-ranging, hour-long discussion of Nahdlatul Ulama’s international vision and initiatives, with representatives of various EU Member States posing questions and making comments (above and below).

Leila Fernandez-Stembridge, Head of Division, Southeast Asia and ASEAN, EEAS (below left), and Constantinos Alexandris, EEAS Expert on Religion and Diplomacy (below right), thanked Mr. Staquf for his participation in the meeting. The Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman welcomed his hosts’ enthusiasm and interest in further engagement, and suggested that this be coordinated through Nahdlatul Ulama’s affiliate, the Center for Shared Civilizational Values, which serves as the R20’s Permanent Secretariat and has an EU-based office in Warsaw.