SHIPS, spices, sufis and silk played an important role in the spread of Islam in Indonesia. Luckily, swords remained in the scabbards due to which there was hardly any bloodshed. In Indonesia, Islam spread peacefully unlike in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, where it came under its sway as a result of Arab conquests. Islam in ancient Indonesia had a unique model of humanity, respect of minorities and concepts of mercy, forgiveness and tolerance. The purse, composition, struggle and societal role of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) has numerous lessons for Pakistan religious scholars, policy makers and society to move forward in a positive, productive and participatory manner.
It seems that despite being the largest Muslim country, its state, system and society alike did not try to install and institutionalize Islam as the religion of the “State” and preferred to be a secular country. Nevertheless, exploitation through Islam somehow remained one of the easiest tools of political manoeuvring in Pakistan unfortunately. The discourse regarding Islamic moderation in Indonesia started to spread among Muslim groups after the 1998 reformation and became increasingly popular after the Bali Bombings in 2002. The discourse encouraged Indonesian people to be dynamic and active in promoting rationality, developing open mindedness, and prioritizing common interests over the interest of a certain group in which role of the NU remained paramount.
The role of the NU proved effective with the spirits of convergence and compromise between Islamism, nationalism, and modernism. Even though Islam is the major religion of Indonesia, many Islamic figures who were also involved in the fight for independence support the idea of democracy instead of Islamic State. It seems that the Indonesian state always takes the middle path and avoids formal religious expression in both domestic and foreign policies, because the state maintains the non-theocratic identity and therefore is obliged to reject exclusive.
Interestingly, moderation and tolerance are among the distinguishing characteristics of the practices of Islam Nusantara, as coined by the country’s largest Islamic organization, NU. The NU and Muhammadiyah, two of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organizations/parties have been doing great work for marinating social harmony and ethnic coexistence. While the NU campaigns for Islam Nusantara, Muhammadiyah has been promoting the concept of Al-Wasatiyyah in Islam, which also emphasizes moderation and tolerance. More recently, Muhammadiyah has come up with the concept of progressive Islam.
Thus, well planned and executed formation of these two Islamic organizations/parties proved effective emotional therapy in which theory of cognitive dissonance was implemented to achieve the goal of alternative reality to make masses more sensible, sensitive and submissive to teachings of pure Islam instead of provocations of revenge, hatred, discrimination. Both organizations succeeded to shun the worship of distorted teachings and blind submission to wandering souls. The NU gradually but surely strived hard to institutionalize spirits of moderation, logic, wisdom, rationality, intelligence, knowledge, openness, welfare, harmony, good deeds, accommodation, true passion and compassion of service, submission and sacrifice in the spheres of socio-economy, governance, engagement, dialogue and last but not least, conflict resolution in Indonesia.
Nahdlatul Ulama (Awakening of Religious Scholars) is going to complete its 100 years very soon. It was formed in reaction to the growth of Indonesian Wahhabi Reformist outlook and execution. It successfully shaped Indonesian society, culture in terms of golden traits of human survival, mainly peace, co-existence, tolerance, interfaith harmony, social justice and formed a modern vision of Islam. It has an ideal combination of modern, conservative and progressive Islam providing befitting propositions to Indonesian state, system and society alike.
The support of 95 million followers vividly reflects universal recognition and cross-cultural acceptability. Initially it was formed as a group of businessmen promoting a culture of good governance, community development through socio-economic prosperity and persuasion of tangible attributes of development and modernization through education, skills and nurturing of human capital in the country. Conceptually it is a traditionalist Islamic group having firm belief in Islamic Ideology and Sharia however; because of its universal message and orientation of brotherhood, peace, tolerance, anti-discrimination and hatred it played an important role in forming and institutionalizing National Motto of “Unity in Diversity” securing ethnic diversity, protecting minorities, weaker factions of the society and the system.
It definitely played a vital role in moving from procedural democracy to substantial democracy, enabling the pursuit of common public goods and sectarian integrity in Indonesia’s struggle towards grand social harmony, ethno-societal transformation, and last but not least inter-religious harmony. Thus the NU remained a strategic partner of social cohesion in the country removing all kinds of psychological, philosophical, geographical, social and religious barriers to form a stable and decent country, Indonesia. It remained a frontline force to defiance President Suharto’s authoritarian regime so called New Order and instrumental for further politicization and democratization in the society.
It has a vast network of schools (6900), universities (44) and agricultural lands catering basic needs of its students and organizations. NU translates the secret of human survival through spirits of economic self-reliance, political awareness, social participation and having firm belief in dialogue, diplomacy and development. It humanly and systematically diminished elements of violence, indecency and hatred of other groups in Indonesia society which must be replicated on Pakistan’s religious/Islamic parties and organizations.
In summary, introduction, rise, transition and institutionalization of numerous actors and agencies of Islam in Indonesia transformed the role of Nahdlatul Ulama. The splendid role of the NU has many lessons for Pakistani policy makers, religious clergy, and the state itself. The NU successfully translated the messages of absolute rationality rather than blind regression and naked aggression, peace, prosperity and co-existence instead of peripheries of unrest, chaos, inertia and above all destructive notions of ethnic divide, and sectarianism. It promoted spirits of economic self-reliance instead of falling in the deep darkness of financial dependencies on others, propelling it towards borrowed wisdoms, missions and conflicting ideologies and Pakistan had to confront these dangerous tendencies during the so-called holy war of Afghanistan.
The NU never indulged in land mafia’s activities and grabbed resources under the distorted notions of religion. It did not carry the jagirs tagging to make common people and follower’s self-salvation, spread of Pirs and Holy Peers to enclave their psychological, social, and philosophical growth and abilities. Resultantly, Pakistan produced a barren society and Indonesia a moderated social fabric and stayed away from all fatalities and contradictions. The Indonesian state did not allow any religious group or party to plough seeds of hatred, bigotry, discrimination and ethnic cleansing thus lessons for Pakistan are harmony, tolerance, transformation of Islamic Madaris, extremism, fanaticism and terrorism from the ranks of Islamic organizations and parties in the country.
—The writer is President, Pak-China Corridor of Knowledge, Executive Director, CSAIS, regional expert: China, CPEC & BRI.
