NU told to always counter extremist and hardline groups

Surabaya, NU Online
Member of the Nahdlatul Ulama Scholars Association, Abdul Kadir Riyadi greatly appreciated NU for its commitment to deal with extremist and militant groups being capable of threatening the Unitary State of Republic of Indonesia.<>

"I do appreciate NU for everthing it has so far done especially in countering extremist and hardline groups which have always struggle for an Islamic khilafa in the country," he told NU Online here recently.

At this point, the lecturer at Surabaya's State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) expected NU to at least continue deploying two approaches to help counter the hardline groups.

"Firstly, the organization must campaign against the radical ideology in implementing the Islamic teachings, and secondly it must continue fighting against poverty to narrow the widening socio-economic gap either at home and in the world," he said.

He was of the opinion that the campaign for moderation could be conducted through religious thought and propagation, the acceptance of the Indonesian unitary state, Pancasila state ideology and the continued promotion of pluralism among elite groups and at grass-root levels.

Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq