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Diaspora must promote peaceful Islam
Indonesian Muslims in the Netherlands and in Europe in general do not get their fair share of playing an important role in creating a discourse on Islam in the European context.
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (center, right) attends the 73th anniversary celebration of Muslimat NU, the women’s wing of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), in Jakarta on Sunday, Jan. 27.
(Antara/Wahyu Putro A)
A
rifi Saiman from the Foreign Ministry wrote in this newspaper on Feb. 18 that Islam Nusantara (Islam of the Archipelago), the concept coined by the country’s largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), in its 2015 national congress, could become a valuable tool for citizen diplomacy to promote peace and to counter religious extremism and radicalism. Promoting Islam Nusantara abroad, Arifi argues, would elevate the role of Indonesia as the most populous Muslim-majority country to contribute to world peace and world order.
We agree: The NU diaspora, specifically the members actively involved in special chapters of the NU (PCINU), could become the agents to popularize Islam in their surroundings. With its core value of adaptability to local cultures and wisdom, Islam Nusantara may be well received by the non-Muslim world.
The rise of Islamophobia and right-wing politicians, such as Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, Jean Marie Le Pen in France and President Donald Trump of the United States, shows the urgent need for a more adaptive and more tolerant method to introduce Islam to the Western world, amid the expressions and actions of extremism in the name of Islam.
In essence, this is the trail the special branch of the NU for the Netherlands has been trying to blaze. In 2017, the NU branch held the first international conference on Islam Nusantara, supported by among others the School of Theology of Vrije University, Amsterdam.
The conference was attended by scholars from Europe, Asia and North Africa. In his keynote speech, Vrije University scholar Thijl Sunier stated that the role and influence of Indonesian Muslims in Europe were meager. This is because the size of the diaspora in Europe is insignificant, at least compared to the number of Turks, Moroccans or other Middle Eastern Muslims in Europe. Another reason is that the Indonesian Islam is not seen as the flag bearer of Islam or as a compelling Islam in Europe.
Thus, Indonesian Muslims in the Netherlands and in Europe in general do not get their fair share of playing an important role in creating a discourse on Islam in the European context. However, the tide can be reversed through moderate Islamic groups, such as through NU chapters overseas.
Apart from the above conference event, the NU’s Netherlands branch initiated the signing of the “Islam Nusantara Declaration of Peace, Justice and Brotherhood for Humanity” in The Hague (aka the “Den Haag charter”). The charter pointed out the importance of Islam Nusantara as a social-political asset to promote the teaching of peaceful Islam for all.
