Muslims told to rethink NU's ideas of Islam Nusantara

Malang, NU Online
Member of the Advisory Board of Nahdlatul Ulama KH M Tholhah Hasan said that NU would keep voicing the importance of Muslims within and outside the country to rethink the concept of Islam Nusantara as propagated by the Indonesia's largest muslim organization. 

"It is such a historical consciousness that could be seen clearly from the roles played by NU as a religious social organization in materializing the teachings of Ahlussunnah wal jamaah (Aswaja),"he told NU Online here on Monday (5/9).

In this capacity, the former Minister of Religious Affairs said, NU had been capable of brilliantly articulated religious teachings that are at least based on three aspects, namely the normative doctrinal, historical and cultural.

According to Kiai Tholhah, the success of NU in propagating the concept of Islam Nusantara is due to the role of its prominent clerics and Muslim scholars (ulema) for skilfully being able to sow the seeds of Islamic teachings in a peaceful and courteous means in the face of different cultures, traditions and customs inherited and developed by the so-called Walisongo.

"On this stand, NU is committed to doing its best services for the country and even taking part in internationalizing its moderate and tolerant teachings of Islam to other countries."

The discourse of so-called Islam Nusantara or “Islam of the Archipelago” has been widely discussed, especially when the term became an interesting theme in the NU 33rd Conference in Jombang, East Java, on August 1 - 5, 2015.

The theme seems to be a big leap for  the Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization in materializing the values of Islam Nusantara that are normatively in line with the doctrinal teachings of so-called Islam Ahlussunnah wal jamaah (Aswaja). (Masdar)