Al-Azhar Mosque holds the Islamic political proselytizing

Cairo, NU Online
One of leaders of Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI), Cholil Ridwan with a number of public figures are seeking to revive mosque function as a basic of political study of Islamic community. It is because the declining of political awareness of Muslims in Indonesia.<>

"As the result, Muslims lost their political struggles. The Islamic political proselytizing in this mosque is an effort to provide understanding of Islamic politics to people," Ridwan said recently.

Islamic political study in Jakarta is now centered at Al-Azhar Mosque, South Jakarta every Sunday. The establishment of Islamic political study in 2012 was driven by disappointment of Muslim political struggle, so that all political leaders wanted to give the rightness based on Quran and hadith.

Islamic political proselytizing is not to direct people or groups to choose one specific political party. However, they want to give political understanding about the importance of Muslim participation to choose the right leaders as directed by Allah (God) in Quran and hadith.

"We did not make any differences of schools, groups, political parties or organizations, but we want to unite Muslim political consciousness," Ridwan added.

Ridwan plans to expand Islamic political proselytizing to various mosques in Indonesia in near future, such as in Bandung, West java. He hopes this proselytizing also reactivating the function of mosque as a vehicle for political education.

Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq