Ansor: We are facing a huge threat to humanity and civilization

Manado, NU Online
The Ansor Youth Movement should take part in dealing with any threat posed by those willing undermine the Unitary State of Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), including North Sulawesi.

Chairman of Ansor, Yaqut Cholil Qoumas made the remarks on the  sidelines of his visit to North Sulawesi to attend a meeting to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of Ansor on 21-22 May 2016, in Manado.

Yaqut said, at the age of 82, Ansor had increasingly had greater responsibility for having to dealing with the problems that could be capable of threatening Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and undermining the integrity of NKRI.

"But we are facing a huge threat to humanity and civilization," the man popularly known as Gus Tutut said, adding that every day people were paraded with human tragedy, among others, endless wars in the Middle East and the killing of innocent people in different parts of the world, and the impact has been to the country. This fact has caused a backlash, expressions of hatred towards Islam.

Gus Tutut accompanied by the Secretary General of Ansor Adung Abdul Rohman and Vice Chairman of Ansor Benny Rhamdani reiterated about the omission of the security forces against the widespread violence-based understanding that could threaten the nation's unity.

"For that reason, we've ordered all 'forces' to be actively involved in efforts to keep the Homeland from possible threats of radicalism and terrorism. No matter how small our contribution to Indonesia is, it is already proving our stance to the nation and the country!" he stressed.

As reported by NU Online, the Nahdliyin-based organization is committed to fighting against terrorism and radicalim as state by the member of the Advisory Board of Nahdlatul Ulama Jusuf Kalla who is also the vice president of Indonesia.

Kalla called for the importance of NU to always ptomote moderate Islamic values and pressed for unity in diversity among countries in the fight against radicalism.

He added that youth who do not have deep faith are susceptible to radicalism not for wealth or political fame, but rather as a "shortcut to heaven".

That is why Islamic leaders need to do more to resolve issues of radicalism, especially with the world in constant fear of "radicalism in action", which comes in the form of terrorism, wars and conflicts.

Kalla was speaking at the opening of the International Summit of the Moderate Islamic Leaders (Isomil) in Jakarta, organized by the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).

The two-day conference is being attended by Islamic leaders from about 30 countries around the world.

A key focus of the event is for these leaders to discuss and find new ways to promote a moderate form of Islam as an antidote to extremist ideologies.

"I appreciate the important ideas, but those ideas will be more useful if we practice them together among the countries here," Kalla was quoted by straitstimes.com as saying. (Masdar)