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. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_11_18_CDI Siem Reap
Centrist Democrat International endorses Indonesian initiative to promote Humanitarian Islam worldwide
CDI “welcom[es] the efforts of PKB, Nahdlatul Ulama, and the Government of Indonesia ‘to unite Islamic principles with an inclusive and humanist national spirit,’ as part of the Republic of Indonesia’s historic ‘commitment to promote solidarity, independence, and world peace,’ both regionally and globally”
~ CDI Resolution quoting His Excellency Prabowo Subianto, President of the Republic of Indonesia
Members of the CDI Executive Committee attending a gala dinner held at Thammanon, a 12th-century Hindu temple within the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat
SIEM REAP, Cambodia, 17 – 19 November 2024 — At its biannual meeting, the Executive Committee of the world’s largest network of political parties, Centrist Democrat International, unanimously endorsed a Resolution on the outcome of the 2024 general elections in Indonesia, and CDI Member Party PKB joining the government of H.E. Prabowo Subianto.
Hosted by the Cambodian People’s Party and the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia, the three-day meeting addressed a number of critical issues, including global threats to democracy and the erosion of a rules-based international order. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_11_06_International Conference on Humanitarian Islam
Distinguished scholars from around the globe convene in Indonesia to examine the significance of Nahdlatul Ulama’s Humanitarian Islam movement
“The ethical message at the heart of Humanitarian Islam is one the whole world needs to heed now more than ever”
~ Professor Robert W. Hefner, Boston University
President of the American Institute for Indonesian Studies
JAKARTA, Indonesia — During the first week of November 2024, prominent scholars from North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia gathered to examine the significance and global impact of the Humanitarian Islam movement. The three-day conference was co-sponsored by the Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board, the Center for Shared Civilizational Values, and Universitas Indonesia.
Dr. Robert W. Hefner (above) — a renowned professor of anthropology and global studies at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Affairs, and president of the American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS) — serves as lead editor of the academic volume that will emerge from the International Conference on Humanitarian Islam, held from 4 – 6 November in Jakarta. A second volume, containing foundational “source” texts of the Humanitarian Islam movement, will be published in conjunction with more than 20 essays produced by scholars for the Conference volume itself. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_11_05_Presidential Address to the International Conference on Humanitarian Islam
Indonesia’s new president endorses the vision and values of Humanitarian Islam
“The Golden Indonesia Vision 2045 represents our commitment to transform Indonesia into a developed country that plays an active role in fostering world peace. Humanitarian Islam is a key pillar in our efforts to achieve this vision.”
~ H.E. Prabowo Subianto, President of the Republic of Indonesia
Former President H.E. Joko Widodo (left) watches H.E. Prabowo Subianto take the presidential oath of office at Indonesia’s National Assembly on 20 October 2024
DEPOK, West Java, Universitas Indonesia — On Tuesday 5 November 2024, the newly inaugurated President of Indonesia, H.E. Prabowo Subianto, outlined key elements of his foreign policy agenda in an address delivered at the opening session of the International Conference on Humanitarian Islam.
Unable to attend the event due to exigent circumstances, President Prabowo instructed his newly appointed Minister of Religious Affairs, Dr. Nasaruddin Umar, to read the presidential address before an audience that included six ministers in his Merah Putih (“Red and White”) cabinet, as well as foreign ambassadors, religious authorities, university administrators, professors, students, and top scholars from around the world who participated in the International Conference on Humanitarian Islam.
Following remarks by Professor Ari Kuncoro, Rector of the University of Indonesia; Shaykh Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, Secretary General of the Muslim World League; and KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf, General Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board, President Prabowo’s speech outlined his vision for Humanitarian Islam, just two weeks after his inauguration as leader of the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation and democracy. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_11_04_Institute for Humanitarian Islam
Launch of the Institute for Humanitarian Islam
“This initiative seeks to address a multitude of contemporary crises, through the realization of Islamic teachings rooted in universal love and compassion, empathy, and responsibility towards others”
~ H. Yaqut Cholil Qoumas,
Executive Director of the Institute for Humanitarian Islam
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 4 November 2024 — On the eve of a high-profile Conference on Humanitarian Islam attended by eminent scholars from North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, senior Nahdlatul Ulama leaders launched the Institute for Humanitarian Islam (IHI), in order to accelerate the movement’s global expansion from its newly established headquarters in Jakarta.
Headed by Indonesia’s former Minister of Religious Affairs (2020 – 2024) and co-founder of the Humanitarian Islam movement, H. Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, IHI will systematically promote the Humanitarian Islam agenda in cooperation with Nahdlatul Ulama and a group of closely affiliated entities, including Gerakan Pemuda Ansor, LibForAll Foundation, Bayt ar-Rahmah, the Center for Shared Civilizational Values, and the G20 Religion Forum (R20). Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_09_17_The Washington Institute
Amidst a deepening crisis in the Middle East, Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman consults with U.S. Government officials and policy experts
“A leading Muslim thinker explains how religious figures can play a truly effective role in regional peacebuilding by questioning the embedded norms that fuel intercommunal violence, including in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
~ The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
WASHINGTON, DC, 15 – 17 September 2024 — Against a backdrop of escalating tensions in the Middle East that threatened to erupt into a full-scale regional war, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) General Chairman KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf visited the United States to consult with U.S. policymakers, government officials, and Washington insiders regarding NU’s strategy to transform religion from a source of conflict into an engine for Middle East peace.
Head of the world’s largest Muslim organization and founder and Chairman of the G20 Religion Forum (R20), Mr. Staquf traveled to America shortly before the inauguration of Indonesia’s newly elected president Prabowo Subianto and his administration, which occurred on 20 October 2024. Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation and democracy and dominates the Straits of Malacca, Sunda, and Lombok, through which approximately half of the world’s seaborne trade passes. It is also the largest Member State of ASEAN, whose Secretariat is located in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_09_06_Papal Visit to Indonesia
Pope Francis praises Indonesia’s “magnificent mosaic” of ethnic and religious harmony in historic visit to the world’s largest Muslim majority nation and democracy
“I am grateful to those who work with the conviction that we can live in harmony and peace, and are aware of the need for a more fraternal world. I hope that our communities may increasingly be open to interreligious dialogue and be symbols of the peaceful coexistence that characterizes Indonesia.”
~ His Holiness Pope Francis
JAKARTA, Indonesia — On 3 September 2024, His Holiness Pope Francis arrived in Jakarta for the first papal visit to Indonesia in over 34 years. As the New York Times reported:
Pope Francis began an 11-day tour of four island nations across Southeast Asia and Oceania last week, an ambitious trek to faraway corners of the Roman Catholic world.
His first stop was Indonesia, a country made up of thousands of islands with the largest Muslim population in the world, as well as millions of people following other religions. There, Pope Francis talked about interfaith dialogue and coexistence, praising Indonesia as nurturing harmony between its different ethnicities, languages and religions, which he compared to the country’s rich ecological biodiversity. (“Inside the Pope’s Visit Across Asia and Oceania,” New York Times, 4 September 2024). Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_09_04_Humanitarian Islam Movement Launches Arabic Website
New website introduces Humanitarian Islam to Arabic-speaking audiences across the Middle East and the Islamic world
“To restore the majesty of Islamic civilization, Muslims must renew religion itself by returning to the Prophet’s original message of rahmah (universal love and compassion)”
~ H.E. KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf
General Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board
Nahdlatul Ulama co-founder Kyai Haji Hasyim Asy’ari is pictured alongside the NU flag and point 15 of the International Summit of Moderate Islamic Leaders (ISOMIL) Nahdlatul Ulama Declaration, which reads:
“Nahdlatul Ulama calls upon people of goodwill of every faith and nation to join in building a global consensus not to politicize Islam, and to marginalize those who would exploit Islam in such a way as to harm others.”
The three linked blue buttons, from right to left, state: “Read the Declaration”; “International Summit”; and “Watch CNN’s Coverage.” Two of the three buttons in the above banner link to Arabic translations of the documents in question.
JAKARTA, Indonesia and ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — Leaders of the world’s largest Muslim organization have launched Bayt ar-Rahmah’s website in Arabic, signaling a new phase in the expansion of Nahdlatul Ulama operations in the Middle East. The launch reflects rising interest in the Humanitarian Islam movement across the region following the December 2021 election of the movement’s co-founder, H.E. KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf, to the Chairmanship of Nahdlatul Ulama’s Central Board: the most senior executive position in the 100-million-plus Indonesian mass movement.
The launch of Bayt ar-Rahmah’s Arabic website coincides with increasingly cordial and constructive relations between Nahdlatul Ulama and key Middle East power centers, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. On 5 February 2024, the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity — a joint initiative of the Holy See, Egypt’s al-Azhar University, and the Government of Abu Dhabi — presented the 2024 Zayed Award for Human Fraternity to Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah organizations for their “respective roles in the humanitarian field, as well as their peacebuilding efforts at the national, regional, and international levels.” For two years running, the world’s premier index of Muslim power and influence — The Muslim 500, headquartered in Amman, Jordan — has ranked Mr. Staquf among the 20 most influential Muslims on earth. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_08_22_Indonesia as “the Emerging Center of Global Islam”
University of Toronto expert on Islamic law urges scholars of the Muslim world to “pay close attention to Indonesia”
“I have returned [from Indonesia] convinced that we as North American scholars of Islamic Studies, particularly those of us interested in Islam in the modern world, must stop treating Southeast Asia as peripheral to Islamic Studies and instead give it pride of place as the emerging center of global Islam.”
~ Dr. Mohammad Fadel
Professor of Law, University of Toronto
and Senior Visiting Fellow, Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia
TORONTO, Canada and DEPOK, West Java — Canadian scholar and expert on Islamic law, Professor Mohammad Fadel, recently published an essay urging scholars of the Muslim world — as well as Western experts in the fields of religion, political science, and economics — to pay close attention to Indonesia, “the largest Muslim-majority state in the world…. [and] a political success story in a region that continues what appears to be an unstoppable ascent.”
Professor Fadel recently returned from a stint as a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Center of Islam and Global Challenges (IGC) at Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII) in Depok, West Java, where he noted “the intellectual ambition of UIII,” its excellent facilities, and “the large number of female students enrolled in graduate-level Islamic Studies.”
He goes on to observe: “The dearth of Muslim women in Islamic Studies, particularly Islamic law, has been commonly decried, but few positive solutions have been found. Indonesia, by contrast, seems to have succeeded in integrating women into Islamic Studies to a degree much greater than other regions of the Muslim world, something for which they are to be congratulated.” Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_08_15_A family of closely affiliated institutions
“The Last King of Java” and his legacy:
Humanitarian Islam, the Center for Shared Civilizational Values, and Nahdlatul Ulama’s mission to “foster the emergence of a more just and harmonious world order, founded upon respect for the equal rights and dignity of every human being”
“Even more important than his role as a politician, [Abdurrahman] Wahid was the spiritual leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia, and probably in the world. He was a product of Indonesia’s traditionally tolerant and humane practice of Islam, and he took that tradition to a higher level and shaped it in ways that will last long after his death.”
~ Wall Street Journal, “Wahid and the Voice of Moderate Islam”
C. Holland Taylor (H. Muhammad Kholil), Charles Bhagaskara Taylor, and KH. Nur Hidayat at President Wahid’s grave in Jombang, East Java on 2 August 2024
WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina — Established in 2003 by former Indonesian president H.E. KH. Abdurrahman Wahid and American C. Holland Taylor, LibForAll Foundation works with a family of closely affiliated institutions linked to Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). With over 100 million followers and 28,000 Islamic boarding schools, NU is the world’s largest Muslim organization. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_07_28_PBNU Plenary Meeting
Nahdlatul Ulama authorizes the establishment of a National Leadership Academy (AKN–NU) for high-level NU cadres
“Preparing NU leaders to transform Indonesian society and shape the emergence of a global civilization in the 21st century”
~ KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf
General Chairman, Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board
“Final moments of the 2024 PBNU Plenary Meeting: ‘Nurturing All of Creation, Developing Civilization.’” The Center for Shared Civilizational Values’ Deputy Chairman & CEO, C. Holland Taylor (H. Muhammad Kholil), is seated (r) with members of the NU Central Board.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — On 27 – 28 July 2024, senior Nahdlatul Ulama leaders gathered to approve a number of strategic initiatives that will promote the comprehensive and coherent organizational development of the world’s largest Muslim organization over the coming decades. One of these initiatives is the establishment of a National Leadership Academy of Nahdlatul Ulama (AKN–NU), whose curriculum will be developed in conjunction with the North Carolina-based Center for Shared Civilizational Values, which senior NU leaders established in 2021.
Participants in the Plenary Meeting included the entire leadership of the Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board (PBNU); theologians representing over 28,000 Islamic boarding schools throughout Indonesia (RMI-NU); and the heads of a wide range of other autonomous bodies affiliated with the mass, grassroots organization, which has well over 100 million followers. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_07_03_The Battle for the Soul of Islam
Geopolitical analyst Dr. James Dorsey identifies Humanitarian Islam as the only “truly inclusive and pluralistic” contender in a multi-front battle for the soul of Islam
“In the search for a non-autocratic vision of ‘moderate’ Islam, Nahdlatul Ulama is the only game in town that has the political, organisational, and religious clout to ensure that its voice cannot be ignored”
~ James M. Dorsey,
The Battle for the Soul of Islam: Defining the Muslim Faith in the 21st Century
LONDON, United Kingdom — On 3 July 2024, Palgrave Macmillan, a leading academic and trade publishing house, released a widely anticipated book by geopolitical analyst, scholar, and veteran journalist Dr. James M. Dorsey. An award-winning, two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, Dr. Dorsey spent decades in the Middle East reporting for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Christian Science Monitor. His newly published in-depth study — titled The Battle for the Soul of Islam: Defining the Muslim Faith in the 21st Century — identifies Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama as the only contender in a global competition for Islamic authority whose “understanding of the faith demonstrate[s] Islam’s compatibility with modernism, human rights, and principles of tolerance and pluralism.” Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_06_06_Jules Isaac
“The Historian Jules Isaac: From the Teaching of Contempt to the Teaching of Esteem”
“In 1963, both Pope John XXIII and Jules Isaac passed away. Unfortunately, the valiant historian and the Pope were not granted the opportunity to witness the fruition of their tenacious efforts… the adoption of Nostra aetate”
~ Carol Iancu and André Kaspi from the film, “The Historian Jules Isaac”
“Our [Masorti] movement is uniquely qualified to understand that both laws and concepts change in accord with differing times and conditions and that not everything said and taught in the name of Judaism need be defended. Indeed, it is our responsibility to define what is appropriate for us in our time basing it upon those teachings within the tradition that represent the highest ideals of Judaism.”
~ “The Status of Non-Jews in Jewish Law and Lore Today”
A teshuvah unanimously adopted by the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Law and Standards in 2016
From left to right: Cardinal Augustin Bea, primary drafter of Nostra aetate; Jules Isaac, the renowned historian and postwar advocate of Jewish-Christian reconciliation; and Pope John XXIII, who convened the Second Vatican Council in 1962
PARIS, France — A French production company, Beamlight Films, has released a documentary about the life, sorrows, and lasting achievements of the distinguished French-Jewish scholar Jules Isaac (1877 – 1963), author of the seminal work Jesus and Israel. The 53-minute film — titled The Historian Jules Isaac: From the Teaching of Contempt to the Teaching of Esteem — traces the career of one of the most influential European scholars of history, who was dismissed from his position as Director General of Public Education in France during the German occupation, and whose wife and daughter perished at Auschwitz.
After the Second World War, Jules Isaac played a central role in the 1947 Seelisberg Conference and in persuading Pope John XXIII to address antisemitic elements of Catholic theology at the Second Vatican Council. Ultimately, this led to the publication of Nostra aetate: Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, Proclaimed by His Holiness Pope Paul VI on October 28, 1965. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_05_15_KAICIID Global Dialogue Forum
An Islamic approach to “spiritual ecology”
“The principle of environmental stewardship, which lies at the heart of Islamic teachings, should not be abused to justify misguided policies that injure human beings”
~ H.E. KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf
General Chairman, Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board
His All Holiness Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, addressing the Opening Plenary of the KAICIID Forum in Lisbon
LISBON, Portugal — On 16 May 2024 Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman and Founder of the G20 Religion Forum (R20) KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf outlined key principles associated with the R20 Spiritual Ecology Movement before an audience of religious leaders, politicians, and environmental activists gathered for a three-day Global Dialogue Forum hosted by the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID).
KAICIID was established in 2012 by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Republic of Austria, and the Kingdom of Spain, acting upon the joint initiative of Pope Benedict XVI and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The Holy See is a founding observer.
Mr. Staquf shared an Islamic perspective on Spiritual Ecology, which inculcates respect for the environment among religious believers at a grassroots level by emphasizing humanity’s divine mandate to serve as stewards of God’s creation (khalifah fi-al-ardh). Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_04_13_CDI Marrakech
World’s largest political network highlights the need to foster human fraternity as an antidote to the intensifying clash of civilizations
“O people, your Lord is One, and your Father is One: all of you are from Adam, and Adam was from the earth. The noblest of you in God’s sight is he or she who is most fully conscious of God”
~ Muhammad bin Abdullah (saw.)
“Discrimination saying, ‘This one is a relative, that [other one] a stranger,’ is only for the small-minded. For the noble-minded, the whole world is a single family”
~ Maha Upanishad
MARRAKECH, Morocco, 13 April 2024 — Leaders of the world’s largest political network, Centrist Democrat International (CDI), have unanimously adopted a Resolution on the urgent need to foster universal human fraternity in order to address multiple crises facing humanity. The resolution cites “the re-emergence of religious conflict in the 1990s and post-9/11, as well as indications of an intensifying clash of civilizations, which threaten to unravel the rules-based international order established in the wake of the Second World War.”
The resolution was drafted by Indonesia’s largest Islamic political party, PKB, which was founded in 1998 by senior leaders of Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest Muslim organization. It notes that “in 2022, Nahdlatul Ulama established the G20 Religion Forum (R20), in conjunction with Indonesia’s Presidency of the G20, in order to ‘help ensure that religion functions as a genuine and dynamic source of solutions, rather than problems, in the 21st century.’” Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_02_19_Royal Anthropological Institute
Journal of the world’s oldest anthropological institute recognizes Humanitarian Islam’s global importance
“[Nahdlatul Ulama’s] ambition is high: not merely to counterbalance the dominance currently exercised by Saudi and Egyptian religious authorities, tied to autocratic regimes, but also to set an example for all other scriptural religions, to renounce their ‘hard texts,’ which can be cited to justify xenophobia and violence.”
~ Dr. Jonathan Benthall
Department of Anthropology, University College London
LONDON, United Kingdom, 19 February 2024 — The world’s oldest scholarly association dedicated to the furtherance of anthropology — Britain’s Royal Anthropological Institute (est. 1871) — has published an academic review of Humanitarian Islam: Reflecting on an Islamic Concept (Brill | Schöningh, 2023), an edited volume compiling analyses by some of the world’s leading experts on the global Humanitarian Islam movement.
The review — published in Volume 30, Issue 1 of Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute — is the latest in a series of analyses by world-leading experts in the fields of anthropology, international relations, geopolitics, religious studies, and global peace and security, who recognize that Humanitarian Islam merits serious academic research.
Dr. Jonathan Benthall — an Honorary Research Associate at University College London who served as Director of the Royal Anthropological Institute for a quarter-century and is founding editor of the academic journal Anthropology Today — wrote the review, which may be read in full below. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_02_05_Zayed Award for Human Fraternity
Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah organizations recognized for their contributions to humanity and to international peace and security
“The largest Islamic organization in the world, Nahdlatul Ulama, plays a major role in spearheading global peace and diplomatic efforts”
~ Zayed Award for Human Fraternity
KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf, General Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board (left) and Dr. Haedar Nashir, Chairman of the Muhammadiyah Central Board, at the Zayed Award ceremony in Abu Dhabi
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — On 5 February 2024, the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity — a joint initiative of the Holy See, Egypt’s al-Azhar University, and the Government of Abu Dhabi — presented the 2024 Zayed Award for Human Fraternity to Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah organizations for their “respective roles in the humanitarian field, as well as their peacebuilding efforts at the national, regional, and international levels.”
The humanitarian award is named after Shaykh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, founder of the United Arab Emirates, and the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together. His Holiness Pope Francis and His Eminence Shaykh Ahmed al-Tayyeb of al-Azhar signed the Document on Human Fraternity on 4 February 2019 in Abu Dhabi, during the first-ever Papal visit to the Gulf region.
Prior recipients of the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity include Pope Francis and Shaykh Tayyeb; UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres; King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan; and the Roman Catholic grassroots organization Sant’Egidio. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_01_31_MBZ College for Future Studies
Nahdlatul Ulama/UAE strategic engagement deepens: President Joko Widodo and Emirati leaders inaugurate MBZ College for Future Studies at NU University of Yogyakarta (UNU)
“UNU must be prepared to serve as a locomotive, inspiring and facilitating an extraordinary leap of progress within Nahdlatul Ulama’s institutions of higher learning throughout Indonesia”
~ H.E. Joko Widodo, President of the Republic of Indonesia
H.E. Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei, UAE Minister of Energy & Infrastructure, presents a 3D model of an Abu Dhabi-funded UNU campus building to H.E. KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — On 31 January 2024, Indonesian President H.E. Joko Widodo, Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman H.E. KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf, and United Arab Emirates Minister of Energy & Infrastructure H.E. Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei laid the foundation stone of a high-rise building that will house the Mohamed Bin Zayed College for Future Studies (CFS) on the campus of Nahdlatul Ulama University of Yogyakarta (UNU Yogyakarta).
Construction of the CFS facility represents a significant expansion of strategic collaboration between Nahdlatul Ulama, the Abu Dhabi-based Mohamed Bin Zayed University for Humanities, and the Governments of Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Under the leadership of UAE President H.H. Mohamed Bin Zayed, Abu Dhabi has pledged $100 million dollars for the development of UNU Yogyakarta and the College for Future Studies. A unique feature of CFS will be the integration of Islamic values such as rahmatan lil alamin, or universal love and compassion, into an educational curriculum focused on science, technology (including AI and robotics), and future studies, thereby contributing to the development of peaceful, inclusive, tolerant, prosperous, and sustainable societies. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_01_29_Nahdlatul Ulama’s Civilizational Strategy
NU National Congress highlights Nahdlatul Ulama’s civilizational strategy
“At a time when many secular-minded people in the West subscribe to a new cultural relativism that denies the reality and importance of shared civilizational values, it is NU and Indonesia who call upon all nations of the world to affirm a shared moral purpose….
“There are few spiritual messages more profound than this, and none more relevant for the troubled times in which humanity today lives.”
~ Robert Hefner
Professor of Anthropology and International Relations at Boston University and President of the American Institute for Indonesian Studies
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — On 29 January 2024, hundreds of Islamic scholars joined political leaders and experts in the fields of geopolitics, religious studies, and international peace and security to celebrate the 101st anniversary of Nahdlatul Ulama’s founding according to the Islamic hijri calendar. Held in conjunction with Nahdlatul Ulama’s National Congress (KONBES), which sets policy for the 100-million-member organization, the event opened with a discussion of Nahdlatul Ulama’s strategy to bring the world’s geopolitical and economic power structures into alignment with the highest moral and spiritual values.
The KONBES was held at the prestigious al-Munawwir Krapyak madrasah in Yogyakarta, one of Indonesia’s most storied and influential Islamic seminaries. Once run by the venerated scholar and Chairman of the NU Supreme Council, Kyai Haji Ali Maksum (1915 – 1989), many of Indonesia’s most prominent modern figures were educated within its halls, including its first democratically elected head of state, H.E. KH. Abdurrahman Wahid (“Gus Dur,” 1940 – 2009), the widely revered religious scholar, public intellectual, painter, and poet, KH. A. Mustofa Bisri (“Gus Mus,” 1944 – present), and current Nahdlatul Ulama General Chairman KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_01_28_“Gus Dur” at al-Azhar
Egypt’s al-Azhar University celebrates the life and legacy of KH. Abdurrahman Wahid
“Al-Azhar considers Nahdlatul Ulama to be its sister organization, for NU employs the same classical Sunni religious methodology taught at al-Azhar al-Sharif”
~ Dr. Osama al-Azhari
Advisor for Religious Affairs to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
CAIRO, Egypt, 28 January 2024 — In a sign of Nahdlatul Ulama’s burgeoning influence in the Middle East, al-Azhar University — one of the oldest and most influential seats of learning in Sunni Islam — held an official celebration of H.E. KH. Abdurrahman Wahid’s life and legacy. Popularly known as “Gus Dur,” the long-time Chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (1984 – 99) and first democratically elected president of Indonesia, attended al-Azhar University in the 1960s.
President Wahid (1940 – 2009) was renowned for his lifelong efforts to promote a pluralistic and tolerant understanding of Islam that enables Muslims to live at peace with the modern world and to embrace the values of democracy and universal human rights. Nahdlatul Ulama’s current initiatives — including the Humanitarian Islam movement, Islamic Jurisprudence for a Global Civilization (fiqh al-hadarah), and the Movement for Shared Civilizational Values — were directly inspired by President Wahid and are being executed by his close friends and disciples. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_01_02_The Muslim 500 — 2024
NU Chairman KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf among world’s 20 most influential Muslims
“We need to find a new, moral interpretation of religion that will guide people of different faiths to have more harmonious relations with one another”
~ KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf
The Muslim 500
AMMAN, Jordan, 2 January 2024 — For the second year running, the world’s premier index of Muslim power and influence, The Muslim 500, has ranked Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf among the 20 most influential Muslims on earth.
Mr. Staquf is at the forefront of a global movement working to reform obsolete and problematic tenets within religious orthodoxy, and thereby ensure that religion functions as a genuine and dynamic source of solutions, rather than problems, in the 21st century. He has co-authored numerous landmark theological treatises, declarations, statements, and proclamations that have been disseminated to millions, and which carry the unambiguous support and religious authority of the world’s largest Muslim organization.
The Muslim 500 is published by The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, a research entity affiliated with the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, headquartered in Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Continue reading full communiqué…
2024_01_01_National Post
Roman Catholic priest, professor, and columnist highlights Humanitarian Islam’s potential to transform the Muslim world
“‘Humanitarian Islam’ — a religious vision tolerant of pluralism and committed to interreligious harmony, human rights and democracy [has] the potential to change the thinking of hundreds of millions of Muslims in the next generation… It is a development very much worth watching and, at year’s end, a cause for hope”
~ Fr. Raymond J. de Souza
Senior Fellow at Cardus and the University of Toronto
TORONTO, Canada, 1 January 2024 — On the first day of the New Year, prominent Canadian Catholic priest, professor, and commentator Father Raymond J. de Souza dedicated his column in Canada’s National Post to an expansive analysis of the prospects for Middle East peace.
In his article, titled “A budding peace grows in the Islamic world, despite terrorist efforts,” Fr. de Souza praised Nahdlatul Ulama’s Humanitarian Islam movement for having a greater long-term potential impact than recent diplomatic breakthroughs in the region, such as the Abraham Accords or the Chinese-brokered détente between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Continue reading full communiqué…