NU has responsibility of realizing harmony and peace

Jakarta, NU Online
The prominent figure of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) KH As'ad Said Ali said that as a religious social organization, NU has the responsibility of realizing harmony and peace, not only national harmony but also world peace.

Kiai As'ad made the remarks in his brief introduction in a scholarly book written by KH Abdul Muním DZ, Deputy Secretary Geeneral of NU titled Second Track Diplomacy: The Role of Nahdlatul Ulama in Peace in Afghanistan.

According to Kiai Asád, lately there have been many extreme groups (muthathorrifun), especially (Western) liberal extremism not in line with the teachings of Islam that are littered fully with moderate views of Islam.

"What happening in Indonesia has also happened in other countries, including Afghanistan. Even today Afghanistan has been used as a place for world ideological battles," he said, adding that resolving the conflict in Afghanistan was an effort to resolve the world conflict because of its strategic position and role both politically and geographically.

He expressed his gratitude and appreciation to the book co-written by Adam D Damasky for brilliantly documenting and keeping up with the peace process having been going on for more than ten years in addition to enriching with the latest information from interviews with various parties involved in the process from both Indonesian and Afghan figures.

"This book is certainly very useful not only for the Indonesian NU and Afghan NU, but also for Indonesia and the whole world in general, because what carried out by NU in Afghanistan could be a lesson to build peace. And true peace could be built by firstly managing its cultural base," he said.

"Of course it will take a long time. All this should be conducted through informal meetings to deal with possible internationalization that is aimed at growing mutual trust before holding negotiations related to sensitive conflict areas," he added. (Masdar)