President thanks NU clerics for maintaining harmony

Jakarta, NU Online
On the sidelines of a meeting in Jakarta recently, President Jokowi thanked Muslim clerics for doing their job in maintaining harmony in their respective regions and urged them to keep up the good work in order to safeguard the unity of Muslims across the country.

“We rely on Muslim scholars (ulema) to maintain calmness and to cool down the situation in cities and regencies of the country so that we always maintain a peaceful state of affairs,” Jokowi was quoted by The Jakarta Post as saying.

There were some 20 clerics invited to the Palace included Irfan Wahid, who heads the Tebuireng Pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Jombang, East Java, cleric Sanusi Baco, who is an adviser to the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in South Sulawesi, Syukron Makmun, the head of Pesantren Darurohman in Jakarta as well as cleric Aris Ni’matullah, the head of Pesantren Buntet in Cirebon, West Java.

Speaking as the spokesman of the group after the meeting, Syukron said the clerics agreed with Jokowi’s calls for the religious leaders to maintain the harmony of Muslims in their respective regions by stepping up campaigns to promote religious tolerance.

Syukron said the clerics also called on Jokowi to solve any legal cases in the country through legal process without political interference, as that could become a problem. “As we live in a pluralistic country, we want real peace, not fake peace,” he said. (Masdar)