Scholars challenged to elucidate concept of Indonesian Islam

Surabaya, NU Online
Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin has challenged Sunan Ampel Islamic State University (UINSA) in Surabaya and other Islamic scholars throughout the nation to formulate a concept of Islam Nusantara or Indonesian Islam.
<>
“We have 55 State Islamic universities and 415 professors, but Indonesianist Martin van Bruinessen has questioned if Indonesia has any great works concerning Indonesian Islam,” Lukman said recently at the UINSA campus in Surabaya as quoted by Antara news agency.

The minister said that Bruinessen had claimed that Indonesia could be the world’s model of an Islam that was moderate, peaceful, able to accept democracy and accommodating of human rights.

Regrettably, however, according to Bruinessen, the concept of Islam Nusantara had yet to be fully elucidated. Lukman called on professors, including those at UINSA, to conduct research in order to produce a great work on Islam Nusantara for the world.

According to Lukman, religion in Indonesia has a special status and therefore the world recognizes Indonesia as a religious nation.  He said that the existence of the Religious Affairs Ministry was a testament to the fact that the government had to pay close attention to religious issues in the nation.

He stressed the ministry’s role was to support religious practices and the development of religious knowledge as well as maintain harmony between different religions. He expressed his hopes that UINSA would help the government in these tasks.

UINSA Rector Prof. Dr. Abdul Ala said that the university was currently in the process of improving its facilities to reach the standards of other world-class universities. “However, we realize that the improvement of human resources is no less important,” said Abdul. (masdar)