[Kabar-indonesia] JP: Muslim moderates told to stand up, be counted [+Badawi: Education the key]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: JP: Education key to moderate Islam: Badawi;
and ST/Jakarta: Muslims urged to tackle global ills

The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Muslim moderates told to stand up and be counted 

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

photo: Conversation Piece: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (center) 
and Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan listen while Malaysian Prime 
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi talks prior to Tuesday's opening of the 
Second International Conference on Islamic Scholars. The conference will 
last until Thursday. (JP/Arief Suhardiman) 

Empowering moderates to speak up in the increasingly divided Islamic world is 
essential to promote peace and cultivate interfaith harmony, the chairman of 
Indonesia's largest Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama said Tuesday.

Hasyim Muzadi, addressing the opening of the second International Conference 
of Islam Scholars, said challenges in today's Islamic world required the 
strengthening of the voice of moderates in the modernization of the religion. 

"Moderates are not those without an opinion. Moderates are those with strong 
views based on a conviction about what is right and just. Moderates strike the 
balance between faith and tolerance for peace and social welfare, and 
maintain solidarity." 

Hasyim hoped the conference, organized by the NU and bringing together more 
than 300 scholars from 53 countries, would be able to serve such a need through 
"pooling intellectual resources and integrate endeavors to promote 
solidarity". 

He also said there should be concerted efforts to eliminate the use of 
symbols of religion to justify acts of violence and terror. 

"People need to share common ideas about peace, and this conference is 
seeking for us to promote modernization in Islam. There is such a discouraging 
phenomenon in the form of conflicts that continue to plague the Islamic world." 

In his remarks, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned about the rising 
global prejudice against Islam, and urged Muslims to demonstrate the religion's 
teachings were peaceful and encourage understanding of different faiths. 

"Islamophobia is an emerging issue for today's Muslims. It is pertinent for 
us to think about how Muslims should live in countries where Islam is not the 
religion of the majority. It's also pertinent for us to show, through exemplary 
deeds and persistent advocacy, that Muslims are peaceful." 

Yudhoyono, noting drawn-own conflicts in Muslim populated countries such as 
Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan, stressed the importance of enhancing the role of 
the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to reach a resolution. 

"It's important to ensure that we tell our non-Muslim fellows what we want 
them to understand as it is to ensure that we listen to what they want us to 
understand. We reach out as we take out." 

The head of hard-line organization Islam Defenders Front (FPI), Habib Rizieq, 
said that the world's governments should provide immediate answers to the 
problems of global-scale injustice, which he said was the cause of such 
radicalism. 

However, he declined to comment on whether hard-line organizations should 
bear religious symbols in striving for their cause. 

----------------------------------------------------

The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Education key to moderate Islam: Badawi 

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Islam is a religion of moderation which is against extremism, fanaticism and 
the use of violence and is neither inherently opposed to modernity nor 
antagonistic to the West, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi says.

Addressing the second International Conference of Islamic Scholars in Jakarta 
on Tuesday, Badawi said Muslim nations should develop educational curricula 
that firmly establishes the values of mutual understanding, tolerance, dialog 
and multilateralism in accordance with the tenets of Islam. 

"We Muslims must also take actions to heal the rifts within ummah (Muslim 
groups) so as to demonstrate, by words and deeds, that Islam is indeed a religion 
of moderation, which rejects bigotry, extremism and fanaticism, especially 
terrorism," said Badawi, who chairs the Organization of Islamic Conference. 

Some 300 Muslim scholars from 53 countries are attending the two-day forum 
that was opened Tuesday by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. 

Badawi said despite the different ways of championing the faith, which have 
frequently been a source of discord, Muslims must "reject those who 
deliberately kill non-combatants and the innocent; those who oppress and exploit others; 
those who are corrupt and greedy and those who are chauvinistic and communal". 

He said true Muslims were those upholding justice, fighting tyranny, seeking 
liberation from oppression and those who were honest, upright, universal and 
inclusive. 

Islam was neither opposed to modernity nor antagonistic toward the Christian 
or non-believing West, Badawi said. 

"Muslims can indeed be modern without being Western. They can modernize and 
do so without 'westernizing'." 

A truly modern Muslim was one able to harmonize the revelations of Islam and 
the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad on one hand, with human reasoning and 
science on the other, he said. 

Sharing Malaysia's experience in practicing a moderate form of Islam, the 
prime minister said Islam was no obstacle to progress and modernity, including 
democracy. 

Although Malaysia was a majority Muslim country with non-Muslims making up 33 
percent of its population, it was governed democratically in a power-sharing 
system with various ethnic groups of different religions and beliefs, Badawi 
said. 

"Religious harmony is maintained by the constitutional guarantee of freedom 
to worship, and every citizen is equal before the law." 

Badawi also stressed the importance of promoting fruitful interfaith dialog 
between the West and the Islamic world to build peace on earth. 

"To achieve this, it is imperative for the West to acknowledge first that 
Islam is not merely a religion but is also a civilization, a cultural entity and 
a way of life all at once. In dealing with Muslims, one must take into account 
their religious sensitivities," he said. 

He said any dialog would succeed should there be mutual respect, equality and 
reciprocity. 

Speaking at the same conference organized by Nahdlatul Ulama -- Indonesia's 
largest Muslim organization -- Mgr. Khaled Akasheh, a special emissary of Pope 
Benedict XVI, emphasized the importance of strengthening interreligious dialog 
with the Islamic world to achieve global peace. 

Akasheh said the Catholic Church under the Pope would continue pursuing 
dialog with other faiths, especially Islam, to enhance existing friendships. 

"In the strength of their faiths, Christians and Muslims, through dialog, can 
and must give witness and work together so that our societies can reopen once 
more to the transcendental," he said, referring to what he called "ethical 
relativism" and secularism in the dominant western culture. 

Quoting the Pope in a recent discussion with Muslim leaders in Cologne, 
Akasheh said dialog between Christians and Muslims should not be reduced to an 
optional extra. "It is, in fact, a vital necessity, on which in large measure our 
future depends." 

Prince Ghazi Bin Mohammed of Jordan, the personal envoy and special adviser 
to King Abdullah II, was also in attendance. 

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The Straits Times (Singapore)
Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Muslims urged to tackle global ills

Azhar Ghani, Indonesia Bureau Chief

Embrace progress, and solve problems instead of creating them, leaders say

JAKARTA - TWO Muslim leaders yesterday exhorted their community to
play a bigger role in helping to solve global problems.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who spoke at the
opening of the 2nd International Conference of Islamic Scholars
(ICIS), said: 'The Muslim society of today must help find answers to
global problems. We must be problem solvers, not problem creators.'

Among the problems he mentioned were terrorism, avian flu and natural 
disasters.

He said Muslims should be firm and united in the fight against such threats.

'The best way for the ummah (Muslim society) to deal with the
globalised world is by becoming an active part of it,' added Dr
Yudhoyono, whose country has the world's largest number of Muslims -
about 80 per cent of its 220 million people.

Staying with the theme of Muslims playing a useful role in world
affairs, he also called upon the Islamic world to embrace science,
technology and modernity to achieve social and economic progress.

'Our love for Islam should be coupled with a love for learning and
knowledge,' he said.

At the conference attended by more than 300 scholars from 53
countries, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi suggested that
education could be the key to combating deviant ideologies.

Datuk Seri Abdullah, who chairs the Organisation of Islamic
Conference, called for educational curricula that establish the values
of understanding, tolerance, dialogue and multilateralism in
accordance with the tenets of Islam.

'We must reject those who deliberately kill non-combatants and the
innocent, those who oppress and exploit others, those who are corrupt
and greedy, those who are chauvinistic and communal,' he said.

The conference, which will end tomorrow, is the brainchild of
Indonesia's largest Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). Among those
attending are special envoys from Iran, Jordan and the Vatican, as
well as ministers from Sudan and Pakistan.

NU, which preaches a moderate form of Islam, organised the first such
gathering in 2004.

Touted by its organisers as the most inclusive gathering of Islamic
scholars, the ICIS boasts participants from different Islamic sects
and schools of thought.

The 2004 meet established the ICIS's platform of Islam as rahmatan lil
alamin (Arabic for 'a blessing for all humankind and the universe') to
be the basis of future programmes to promote a more progressive form
of the religion.

This time, the organisers are hoping to translate the philosophical
guideline into action.

It signalled this intention by forming three groups which will discuss
specific issues.

The issues for discussion are conflict resolution, how to put the ICIS
platform into action and how to help Muslim societies achieve social
and economic progress.

NU head Hasyim Muzadi told The Straits Times: 'This will not be just a
talk shop. By the end of this meeting, we hope to present more
concrete proposals. With the gathering of such a diverse group of
Islamic scholars, it would be a real pity if we don't.'

sidebar: Quotes from conference

'We must reject those who deliberately kill non-combatants and the
innocent, those who oppress and exploit others, those who are corrupt
and greedy, those who are chauvinistic and communal.' -- MALAYSIAN 
PRIME MINISTER ABDULLAH BADAWI

'It is as important to ensure that we tell our non-Muslim fellows what
we want them to understand as it is to ensure we listen to what they
want us to understand.' -- INDONESIAN PRESIDENT SUSILO 
BAMBANG YUDHOYONO

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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