Launch of the Nahdlatul Ulama National Leadership Academy (AKN–NU)
“This heralds the dawn of a new era in Nahdlatul Ulama strategic leadership education, [for AKN–NU is] designed to meet the very real challenges of our times”
~ NU Online
“Inaugurating the National Leadership Academy, Kyai Miftah [Chairman of NU’s Supreme Council] states, ‘Our cadres must be prepared to face a wide range of geopolitical and economic threats’”
JAKARTA, Indonesia — On Saturday 21 June 2025, senior leaders of the Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board (PBNU) and the Center for Shared Civilizational Values (CSCV) gathered at the Yuan Garden Hotel in Central Jakarta for the opening ceremony of the Nahdlatul Ulama National Leadership Academy (AKN–NU), a strategic initiative jointly developed by Nahdlatul Ulama and its U.S.-based affiliate, CSCV.
KH. Miftachul Akhyar (above), who heads the NU Supreme Council, traveled 10 hours by car from his home and Islamic boarding school in Surabaya, East Java, to deliver an opening address in which he stated, “AKN–NU is vital to our organization, for it will enable us to understand geopolitics, geoeconomics, and other forces shaping our contemporary world…. AKN–NU will help ‘globalize’ Nahdlatul Ulama and enhance our organization’s ability to influence the world at large, by fostering the emergence of a rationally and spiritually coherent Nahdlatul Ulama Sunni (ahlussunnah wal jamaah an-nahdliyyah) worldview, rooted in universal love and compassion (rahmah).”
Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf (above) described the newly established academy’s vision and mission in a series of lectures that will constitute the introduction to AKN–NU’s foundational course, which is titled “Understanding Nahdlatul Ulama’s Civilizational Mission and Acquiring a License to Spiritually Transmit Its Teachings.” This refers to the venerable Islamic tradition of ulama (religious scholars) and murshidun (spiritual masters) providing qualified students and/or disciples with an ijazah (certificate or license) authorizing them to teach a particular subject, and/or to convey a specific dimension of spiritual knowledge.
Twenty-eight senior PBNU leaders, who serve on the NU Supreme Council and Executive Board, were selected to participate in the six-month-long foundational course, which will last from 21 June to 22 December 2025. Graduates will receive an ijazah from KH. Miftachul Akhyar upon their successful completion of the foundational course.
A Plenary Meeting of the Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board, held on 27 – 28 July 2024, authorized the creation of AKN–NU, which is tasked with “preparing NU leaders to transform Indonesian society and shape the emergence of a global civilization in the 21st century” (KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf).
“Final moments of the 2024 PBNU Plenary Meeting: ‘Nurturing All of Creation, Developing Civilization’”
Under the leadership of KH. Miftachul Akhyar and KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf, PBNU has made significant progress in developing the capacity of its national cadres. NU Deputy Chairman Amin Said Husni recently announced that 105,462 NU members have completed the “Nahdlatul Ulama Cadre Movement Basic Education Course” (PD PKPNU). As of 12 June 2025, 1,266 basic educational training sessions have been conducted throughout Indonesia as part of this program, which was launched in June 2022. An additional 3,624 individuals have graduated from the “Nahdlatul Ulama Cadre Movement Secondary Education Course” (PMKNU), whose systematic training has been conducted at 54 locations throughout the archipelago.
AKN–NU represents the third, and highest, level of NU cadre education. As stated in a concept paper that CSCV developed in 2024, in cooperation with PBNU:
With well over 100 million followers, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) is the world’s largest Muslim organization. Constituting approximately half of Indonesia’s population, it is a potent force in the social and political life of the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy and Southeast Asia’s largest economy. In recent years Nahdlatul Ulama has also become an increasingly important, dynamic, and influential actor upon the world stage.
In order to sustain, expand, and effectively leverage Nahdlatul Ulama’s growing influence, it is essential to equip a significant number of NU cadres for strategic leadership at both the domestic and international levels. If these cadres are to transform Indonesian society and positively impact the world at large, they will require a firm grounding in the integrated religious and civilizational worldview of ahlussunnah wal jamaah an-nahdliyyah (“Nahdlatul Ulama Sunni Islam”).
Senior NU cadres should also possess a strongly developed capacity to understand and navigate the historical, political, cultural, and economic dynamics shaping the 21st century, and the fundamental skills and habits of successful leadership, including the ability to craft and deploy persuasive narratives capable of prevailing in what NU General Chairman KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf terms “an intense competition regarding what values will form the basis of a new global civilization.”
The National Leadership Academy of Nahdlatul Ulama (AKN–NU) is designed to meet this challenge.
CSCV developed the AKN–NU Foundational Course under the leadership of its Deputy Chairman & CEO, C. Holland Taylor (H. Muhammad Kholil), and its Director of Strategic Initiatives, Dr. Timothy Shah. Twenty-two distinguished international scholars are teaching individual segments of the foundational course. A professional film crew employed by the Institute for Humanitarian Islam (IFHI) — which is closely affiliated with Nahdlatul Ulama and CSCV — is working with CSCV to produce a complete digital version of the entire foundational course, for use in training future AKN–NU cohorts. The complete course will consist of approximately one hundred lectures, each with a duration of sixty to ninety minutes.
PBNU and CSCV leaders at AKN–NU’s opening ceremony (21 June 2025)
During the second week of AKN–NU, CSCV Chairman KH. A. Mustofa Bisri — former head of the NU Supreme Council and Co-founder of the Humanitarian Islam movement — discussed Nahdlatul Ulama’s civilizational mission:
If we intend to offer “shared civilizational values” to the world, we must become truly humane and civilized ourselves. Nahdlatul Ulama stands heir to an extraordinary heritage bequeathed to us by its founders and by Gus Dur (KH. Abdurrahman Wahid), whose influence has helped shape contemporary Indonesia and the world at large. Gus Dur embodied the moral and spiritual values of NU, and of Nusantara (East Indies) civilization itself.
Our personal character and actions must be aligned with the civilizational vision we are offering the world. We, ourselves, must embody the virtues that lie at the heart of Nusantara civilization. This includes respecting elders, treating those who are younger with loving kindness, and opening our hearts to all humanity.
In a speech titled Mukaddimah Qanun Asasi (Introduction to the Fundamental Principles of Nahdlatul Ulama), delivered in Surabaya at the first meeting of the newly established organization [in 1926], Kyai Hasyim Asy’ari urged Nusantara ulama to inspire Indonesian Muslims to “become a truly virtuous religious community,” by following the noble example of our Prophet (saw.).
KH. A. Mustofa Bisri addressing AKN–NU during a session moderated by NU Vice Chairman KH. Miftah Fakih
We should consistently employ a personal approach, and invite others to embrace moral and spiritual nobility. Ulama (Muslim religious scholars) are those who “view their fellow human beings through the lens of rahmah” (universal love and compassion). This impulse lay at the heart of Nahdlatul Ulama when it was founded a century ago. Before NU was even established, a large community of ulama and Muslims who embraced these principles already existed in Nusantara.
How can we be so bold as to embark upon a civilizational mission, seeking to share our vision, and values, with the world at large? It is because we recognize that humanity is facing a civilizational crisis. As the world’s largest Muslim organization, founded on the principle of gotong royong (mutual aid and cooperation), it is our duty to export love and compassion.
We must embody the principle of istiqomah — that is, we must be steadfast, consistent, and persevering on the right path, upholding moral values with unwavering dedication. We must truly care about our fellow human beings, serve them, and stand by their side in good times and bad.
It is a fundamental principle within Islam to act in accordance with one’s inner-most convictions. For us [as members of Nahdlatul Ulama,] rahmah is a primary message of Islam. That is why we are certain that the answers to the world’s manifold problems lie in the noble values of religion, including universal love and compassion.
KH. A. Mustofa Bisri with AKN–NU participants
Kyai Haji Masyhuri Malik, Rector of the Nahdlatul Ulama National Leadership Academy (AKN–NU), who as a young man studied at a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Lasem, Central Java, under the tutelage of KH. A. Mustofa Bisri, who was himself then teaching at the pesantren of Kyai Maksum
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