Well-being focus of Muslim meet

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 08/14/2008 10:36 AM  |  National

Leaders of Islamic nongovernmental organizations from across Southeast Asia met in Jakarta on Wednesday to discuss ways to promote the well-being of Muslims in the region through democracy.

The two-day meeting of the Southeast Asia Forum for Islam and Democracy (SEAFID) is drafting a charter that would give it a stronger footing in promoting its programs and causes.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla met with the delegates from Indonesia, Timor Leste, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

"Democracy is one of the means of achieving development," Kalla acknowledged in his keynote speech.

Muslims in the region face different challenges, particularly where they are the minority.

In Myanmar, for instance, they are regarded as non-citizens, said one participant; while Muslim minorities in southern Thailand and in the Philippines remain locked in conflict, at times violent, with their governments.

Where Muslims are the majority, as in the case of Indonesia and Malaysia, the greater challenge is to prevent the rise of Islamic radicalism.

Despite the gamut of challenges facing SEAFID members, they were united in renouncing the use of force and violence. Rather, they advocated democracy, and all the values it represented, as a means to help improve the lot of Muslims in the region.

SEAFID, founded in Manila last December, is an offshoot of a series of roundtable discussions held in 2005 and 2006 by activists from Muslim NGOs in the region, including the International Center for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP) in Jakarta, the Center for Contemporary Islamic Studies in Singapore, Jamaah Islah Malaysia, the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy, as well as individuals connected with these organizations and other prominent Islamic activists.

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