2025_11_22_CDI São Paulo
World’s largest center-right political network endorses pioneering Middle East peace initiative led by Indonesia
“The CDI encourages Member Parties and their political foundations to cooperate with Nahdlatul Ulama and the G20 Religion Forum (R20) in their effort to foster compassion, reconciliation, forgiveness, and peace — rather than hatred, violence, and revenge — in the Middle East, through The Road Not Yet Taken Initiative.”
~ Centrist Democrat International
SÃO PAULO, Brazil, 22 November 2025 — Meeting in the industrial capital of Latin America’s most populous nation, the world’s largest network of political parties unanimously adopted a resolution recognizing the strategic value of The Road Not Yet Taken Initiative: A Multi-Religious Path Towards Middle East Peace. The resolution urged member parties of Centrist Democrat International (CDI) and their political foundations to cooperate in the execution of this peace initiative, which is led by Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama, the G20 Religion Forum (R20), and the Center for Shared Civilizational Values.
Later that same day, the CDI General Assembly re-elected Indonesian political leader H. Abdul Muhaimin Iskandar (photo below) to a second four-year term as CDI Vice President and member of its Executive Committee. Mr. Iskandar, who heads Indonesia’s largest Islamic political party — the Nahdlatul Ulama-affiliated PKB — currently serves as Coordinating Minister for Social Empowerment in President Prabowo Subianto’s Red and White Cabinet. Continue reading full communiqué…
2025_11_05_Providence Magazine
Eminent foreign policy strategist John Lenczowski on the geopolitical significance of Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama
“If there were ever a cost-free way our foreign policy could support those Islamic forces that oppose radical jihadism, it would be for the U.S. officially to recognize and host the Religion 20 Summit (R20) as part of America’s Presidency of the G20 next year.”
~ Dr. John Lenczowski
National Security Council Advisor to Ronald Reagan
and Founder of the Institute of World Politics
Dr. Lenczowski with senior leaders of Lembaga Ketahanan Nasional Republik Indonesia (Indonesia’s National Defense Institute), where he delivered a lecture to over 100 senior military officers regarding geopolitics and the current threat matrix facing Indonesia
WASHINGTON, D.C., and JAKARTA, Indonesia, 5 November 2025 — One of America’s leading experts on the practice of statecraft has authored a 2,700-word essay for Providence magazine titled “Indonesia and the War of Ideas against Radical Islamism.” Published by the Institute on Religion & Democracy, Providence examines global statecraft from the perspective of Christian realism.
Dr. John Lenczowski — former advisor to President Ronald Reagan and founder of the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C. — argues that:
Unfortunately, American knowledge of Indonesia is embarrassingly weak and that just contributes to our minimization of ideology as a strategic factor in global politics. Our nation and our foreign policy community ignore at our peril the fourth largest country in the world, the largest Islamic country in the world with the most politically moderate version of Islam, the third largest democracy in the world, and the most strategic country along the most trafficked commercial waterway in the world. It is a nation that should be much closer to the United States. We need to adjust our priorities accordingly.
During a week-long visit to Jakarta in August 2025, Dr. Lenczowski delivered a series of lectures on “International Relations, Statecraft, and Integrated Strategy,” totaling over 18 hours, to senior NU leaders participating in the Nahdlatul Ulama National Leadership Academy (AKN–NU). Launched in June 2025, the Academy is the brainchild of NU Chairman KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf, who tasked it with “preparing NU leaders to transform Indonesian society and shape the emergence of a global civilization in the 21st century.” Continue reading full communiqué…
2025_06_21_AKN–NU
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. Continue reading full communiqué…
2025_05_30_CDI General Assembly in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Centrist Democrat International urges recognition of the G20 Religion Forum (R20) as a G20 main event and permanent engagement group
“CDI Urges member parties and all G20 Member States, including the United States of America, to prioritize long-term cooperation with the world’s major religions through the existing mechanism of the G20 Religion Forum (R20), in order to foster international peace, security, and prosperity”
~ Centrist Democrat International
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — On Friday 30 May 2025 members of Centrist Democrat International (CDI) — the world’s largest coalition of political parties, which was formerly known as Christian Democrat International — unanimously endorsed a Resolution on fostering international peace, security, and prosperity through cooperation between the G20 Religion Forum (R20) and IDC-CDI.
The resolution was drafted by the world’s largest Muslim organization, Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), and submitted to CDI by an NU-affiliated political party, PKB, which has held a CDI Vice Presidency since October 2021. Continue reading full communiqué…
2025_03_07_Building Bridges
Muslim World League hosts “The Second Global Conference for Building Bridges Between Islamic Schools of Thought and Sects”
KH. Miftachul Achyar, Chairman of the NU Supreme Council, voices support for Muslim World League initiative
“The diversity of schools of thought, sects, and ideologies among Muslims is a manifestation of divine will, emphasizing the inevitability of diversity as a part of God’s laws”
~ The Charter of Building Bridges Between Islamic Schools of Thought and Sects
MECCA, Saudi Arabia, 6 – 7 March 2025 — Signaling a decisive break with the past, the Mecca-based Muslim World League (MWL) has convened senior religious scholars from throughout the Islamic world to strategize and implement The Charter of Building Bridges Between Islamic Schools of Thought and Sects. Held during the fasting month of Ramadan, the conference served to reinforce Saudi Arabia’s remarkable turn away from hardline Wahhabi ideology, under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). Continue reading full communiqué…
2025_02_22_Maha Kumbh Mela
Indonesian Muslim leader addresses international summit at the world’s largest gathering of religious pilgrims, the Maha Kumbh Mela
“The Islamic approach to Spiritual Ecology is both idealistic and pragmatic, seeking to bring human well-being and environmental protection into alignment rather than conflict, in order to nurture the environment and ensure human flourishing.”
~ KH. Ulil Abshar Abdalla
Vice Chairman, Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board
PRAYAGRAJ, Uttar Pradesh, India, 21 – 23 February 2025 — One of Indonesia’s leading Muslim scholars, KH. Ulil Abshar Abdalla, delivered an address describing the R20 Spiritual Ecology movement at a Global Summit on Development and Sustainability held amidst a gathering of approximately 400 million Hindus, as reported by The New York Times.
The scion of a long line of Javanese ulama (religious scholars), Kyai Ulil observed:
It is particularly significant and auspicious that you have invited me, a Muslim religious scholar, to address this august summit during the largest religious gathering on earth, the Maha Kumbh Mela. I understand that over the past 40 days, hundreds of millions of Hindu devotees have visited Prayagraj to bathe at the junction of the Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers. Continue reading full communiqué…
2025_02_05_Appointment of International Advisors
Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board Appoints Special Advisors for International Affairs
“Nahdlatul Ulama [is] a great organization, a magnificent home of religious scholars, of Islamic leaders who constantly strive to preserve a pluralistic, tolerant, and peaceful understanding of Islam, a humane Islam that fosters universal love and compassion”
~ H.E. Prabowo Subianto
President of the Republic of Indonesia
President Prabowo greets Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf at the celebration of Nahdlatul Ulama’s 102nd anniversary in the Islamic calendar
JAKARTA, Indonesia, 5 – 6 February 2025 — For the first time in its history, the world’s largest Muslim organization, Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama (est. 1926), has formally appointed three Special Advisors for International Affairs to assist in the continued expansion of its operations worldwide. The three advisors are H. Muhammad Kholil (C. Holland Taylor) of the United States; Shaykh Yahya Sergio Yahe Pallavicini of Italy; and Professor Greg Barton of Australia.
Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf introduced the newly appointed advisors at the opening session of a National Consultation of Nahdlatul Ulama Religious Scholars and Major Conference (Munas/Konbes), which was attended by senior NU leaders from throughout Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation and democracy. Continue reading full communiqué…
2025_02_02_Nahdlatul Ulama, R20, and the COUR Report
Leading public intellectual urges U.S. Secretary of State to “seize the opportunity… to highlight what is great in America” by partnering with Nahdlatul Ulama
“The [Unalienable Rights] Commission’s 2020 breakthrough with Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama… offers a model for orienting U.S. partnerships and friendships around a shared commitment to the basic rights and fundamental freedoms that give expression to the dignity of the individual”
~ Peter Berkowitz, Real Clear Politics
“Secretary Rubio Should Build on the Commission on Unalienable Rights”
WASHINGTON, DC — On 2 February 2022, former Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department, Dr. Peter Berkowitz, published an open letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging him to establish wide-ranging cooperation with Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and its G20 Religion Forum (R20).
A Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Dr. Berkowitz described NU as “an eminent Muslim organization — with a membership greater in number than the populations of most nation-states and from a country with the world’s largest Muslim population — that [is] keen to promote mutual understanding of peoples and nations grounded in respect for universal rights.” Continue reading full communiqué…
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. Continue reading full communiqué…
2025_01_05_KH. A. Mustofa Bisri
A Unique Approach to Middle East Peace
“Our starting point must be an honest search for the truth. Always speaking the truth and conducting ourselves in a manner that will touch the hearts of others. There are many whose voices are heard by only one side to a conflict. We strive to listen to, and be heard by, all.”
~ KH. A. Mustofa Bisri
Chairman, Center for Shared Civilizational Values
REMBANG, Indonesia, 5 January 2025 — In a meeting held at his home in Rembang, Central Java (above), the senior-most spiritual leader of the world’s largest Muslim organization — KH. A. Mustofa Bisri, who is affectionately known as “Gus Mus” — discussed, blessed, and helped shape a unique approach to Middle East peace: The Road Not Yet Taken Initiative.
Officially launched on 22 November 2024 at the Jakarta headquarters of the 100-million-member Nahdlatul Ulama, The Road Not Yet Taken Initiative is a joint undertaking by the NU Central Board and the Center for Shared Civilizational Values (CSCV). The Center is based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and serves as the Permanent Secretariat for the G20 Religion Forum (R20).
CSCV Deputy Chairman and CEO H. Muhammad Kholil (C. Holland Taylor) and his family were visiting Rembang to pay their respects to KH. A. Mustofa Bisri, and to attend the haul (“annual commemoration of the death”) of his elder brother, KH. Muhammad Cholil Bisri, whose eldest son, KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf, is the current General Chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama’s Central Board. Continue reading full communiqué…
2025_01_01_The Muslim 500 — 2025
Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman is among the world’s most influential Muslim leaders
“As the world’s largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama adheres to the traditions of Sunni Islam, and teaches that the primary message of Islam is universal love and compassion”
~ The Muslim 500
AMMAN, Jordan, 1 January 2025 — For the third 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.
At number 19, Mr. Staquf is judged to be more influential than Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who governs the Arab world’s most populous state (ranked number 20), and seven places behind Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. Continue reading full communiqué…