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View all search resultsNU supreme leader tells Yahya to resign over pro-Israel speaker
An internal conflict has erupted in the country’s biggest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), with the group’s supreme council calling chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf to resign for inviting a US scholar known for his support of Israel during the war in Gaza to an internal event in August.
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Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf speaks to reporters on July 28, 2024, during a press briefing on the results of the organization's central board plenary meeting in Jakarta. (Antara/Aprillio Akbar)
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n internal conflict has erupted within the country’s biggest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), with the group’s supreme council calling chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf to resign for inviting a United States scholar known for his support of Israel during the war in Gaza to an internal event in August.
The demand was on display in minutes from a Thursday meeting of senior clerics and members of the NU’s supreme council, Syuriah, held at a hotel in Jakarta. The document, which has circulated among journalists and on social platforms, was signed by NU supreme leader, known as Rais Aam, Miftachul Akhyar.
According to the document, the meeting was attended by 37 of the 53 council members and concluded that Yahya must step down within three days after the decision or else the council would remove him from NU chairmanship.
The council’s concerns center on the appearance of Peter Berkowitz, a US scholar known for his support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza, as one of the speakers at NU’s leadership training program in Jakarta in August, an initiative under Yahya’s leadership designed to give NU members knowledge of global affairs and international issues.
The minutes from the Thursday meeting said that Yahya’s invitation to a speaker perceived as being connected to “international Zionism networks” contradicted NU’s religious values and its founding charter, especially at a time when Israel’s military campaign in Gaza drew global scrutiny.
The council said that Yahya met the criteria under Article 8 of a 2025 NU regulation, which permits dishonorable dismissals of NU officials whose actions are deemed to have “tarnished the organization’s reputation”.
The council also raised concerns over the financial management of NU executive board under Yahya, saying it might have violated Islamic values, national regulations and NU’s own bylaws and warning that such mismanagement could put the organization’s legal status at risk.
