Jamhari: Let’s Promote Religious Moderation to the World

PPIM.UINJKT.AC.ID –  Convey Indonesia Team Leader, Jamhari Makruf, called on all Indonesian diplomats to promote the ideas of ​​religious moderation abroad. As part of the 2020-2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), the implementation of religious moderation was supposed to be the main issue and become a measurement of the success of Indonesian development in global context.

“We can’t run the democracy without moderation in attitudes and religions,” Jamhari said on Friday (4/9) in a virtual seminar series of #ModerasiBeragama (Religious Moderation) themed “Religious Moderation and Cultural Diplomacy”, which was organized by the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta through Convey Indonesia program.

According to Jamhari, Indonesia had become the country with the largest Muslim population that could successfully practice democracy. It was proven from the composition of its population – plural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious. Jamhari said that, therefore, “neutral attitudes”, or moderate, was importantly needed. And it was right to practice religious moderation, so that we could respect each other and accept all differences.

The Professor of Anthropology at UIN Jakarta cited how Indonesian Islam was represented as “friendly” and “easy to smile” by Time Magazine on its “The Smiling Islam” edition. At that time, the world could see that Indonesia was very tolerant and friendly, and adopted Islam rahmatan lil ‘alamin (blessings for all universe).

“Recently, we’ve seen a number of movements that promote violence and extremism, which claimed as acting on behalf of Islam. That ‘Smiling Islam’ has been hijacked. Therefore, we need to continue to develop and promote a friendly, smiling Islam,” said the senior researcher of PPIM.

Jamhari went on to say that the Religious Affairs Ministry had issued a guideline about religious moderation, the content of which defined it as a religious practice in the “middle position”, neither extremely left nor extremely right, not radical or extremist. The purpose was to make people able to accept differences and respect social situation in the environments where they practiced religions.

“So, religious moderation is about the way we practice religions,” Jamhari said

The virtual seminar on Religious Moderation is held every Friday via “Convey Indonesia” and “PPIM UIN Jakarta” official Youtube channels. The discussion also presented other speakers, including Abdurrahman M. Fachir (Vice Minister of Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry 2014-2019) and a number of Educational and Cultural Attaches from the Embassies of the Republic of Indonesia – Prof. Mustari (Indonesian Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand), Dr. Din Wahid (Indonesian Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands), and Dr. Lili Nurlaili (Indonesian Embassy in Manila, Philippines).

Writer: Tati Rohayati
Editor: M. Nida Fadlan