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Editorial: More than congresses of Islam
The nationâs largest Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, will soon hold their national congresses, with both slated to be opened by President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo
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T
he nation's largest Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, will soon hold their national congresses, with both slated to be opened by President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo. NU's 33rd congress on Aug. 1 to 3 will be in the East Java town of Jombang, the location of the Tebuireng pesantren (Islamic boarding school) founded by the late Hasyim Asyari, one of NU's founding fathers and grandfather of former president Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid.
Muhammadiyah's 47th congress from Aug. 3 to 8 will be hosted by the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, one of the most dynamic cities in eastern Indonesia, and also the home base of several prominent politicians. Muhammadiyah's women's affiliate, the Aisiyah, will also celebrate its centenary anniversary in Makassar.
The main theme of Muhammadiyah's congress is Islam Berkemajuan, loosely translated as progressive Islam. The theme of NU's gathering is Islam Nusantara, which its proponents say asserts the identity of Indonesia's Islam amid today's global extremist, violence-prone 'Islamic' influence.
Both themes reflect the organizations' response to the challenges faced by our Muslim-majority nation. Together they claim a total following of 100 million or near to half the country. This is not easy to verify but nearing every election season their strongholds are courted by all major political parties; a number of parties were established by leading activists of both organizations.
Therefore we find it unrealistic to join calls ahead of the congresses that both should refrain from politics and return to their original aims of empowering Muslim communities through education, economic improvement and better access to public services, as well as a better understanding and implementation of Islamic teachings. Instead, they could hopefully also contribute to a more peaceful and much less corrupt society, and a less vicious political culture, by instilling values of either 'progressive Islam' or 'Islam Nusantara'.
Islamic discourse has been free for more than a decade since the end of the authoritarian New Order. Thus Indonesians need both organizations, widely considered the global face of Indonesia's 'moderate Islam', to contribute much more and help protect them from today's strong appeal to violent jihad in the name of God. These 'moderates' tend to downplay the growth of homegrown terrorism, insisting they are minority. However, a few hundred recruits of the Islamic State (IS), found to be from Indonesia, are too many from a 'moderate' Muslim nation.
The country could benefit the most from the organizations if they intensify calls for tolerance across faiths, and also within Islam. We still have Ahmadiyah and Shiite minorities who have been expelled from their homes years ago because they follow teachings that differ from the nation's mainstream Islam.
So much for our famous tolerance and high-profile participation in global interfaith events. Some observed that the majority Muslims got a little taste of their own medicine in the recent Tolikara incident in Papua, when local Christians violently protested a mass prayer ceremony.
We join the great enthusiasm of the millions of followers of NU and Muhammadiyah in welcoming the congresses and their contribution under a new generation of leaders.
