ahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia with over 50 million members, began Sunday discussion sessions for the first International Congress on Islamic Jurisprudence of Civilization focusing on reviewing the United Nations Charter from Islamic laws in Surabaya, East Java.
The NU central executive board invited 79 ulama from 40 countries to participate in the congress.
NU chair Yahya Cholil Staquf said the congress was important because the UN Charter as a global principle had a huge implication to the development of a civilization.
“Hopefully the congress will serve as a trigger, because the Muslim people have never been involved directly in creating a new format of civilization, as designated in the UN Charter,” Yahya told reporters on Sunday in Surabaya.
The congress is held as part of the centennial celebrations of NU, which will have the main event on Tuesday at the Delta Sidoarjo Sports Hall attended by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Yahya said the congress is a follow up to the Religion of 20 (R20) engagement event, held as part of Indonesia’s Group of 20 presidency, in November.
“This is an internal forum for the Islam religion to discuss problems in Islam. Because obviously in Islam there are problems, in relation to connections with other groups,” Yahya said earlier in Jakarta.
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