Leaders of the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and other moderate clerics gathered in Jakarta over the weekend to draw up a common strategy to counter growing Islamic radicalism.
The two-day forum at the Haj Dormitory in Pondok Gede, East Jakarta, brought together 150 NU preachers from the Greater Jakarta area; a group that the NU leadership hopes will disseminate a moderate message.
Besides fundamentalism, the clerics were also encouraged to counter Western-style "liberal" ideas seen as incompatible with Islamic values.
Head organizer Samsul Ma'arif said Indonesian Muslims were currently being bombarded by fundamentalist ideas from one side and secular/liberal ideas from the other.
NU is gravely concerned about the rising number of Muslims who are embracing fundamentalism or extreme liberalism and secularism, Samsul said. "There many Islamic organizations which strive to do good deeds but in the wrong way because of a wrong understanding of basic Islamic teachings," he said.
Groups like the Islam Defenders Front have used religious arguments to justify violent attacks on bars and night clubs and religious minorities. The division in Islam between the liberals, the moderates and the radicals has also caused much dissension in religious circles.
In January, a preacher, Josnary Nosra, caused a large commotion in his audience when he attacked former president and NU leader Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid in a sermon at the Jakarta City Council. Josnary reportedly said Muslims should not make Gus Dur their role model because many of his views and acts were not Islamic. Gus Dur is known as an advocate of religious tolerance and pluralism.
Preachers at the weekend meeting were provided with standard NU preaching guidelines. "Radicalism, liberalism and secularism ideas confuse the lay people, which account for majority of Muslims in Indonesia," Samsul said as quoted by Antara.
"We in NU take the middle way, and uphold tawasuth (moderation), i'tidal (consistency), tasamuh (tolerance) and tawazun (balance)," he said. He said the gathering had featured communication experts to train the preachers on how to get their message out through the media.
"We have a lot of preachers, but none have the skill to preach through the media. None of them can appear on TV to voice the moderation that NU very much treasures," he said.