Komnas Perempuan: To Think Moderate, Learn from Ulema

Jakarta, PPIM – It was important for people to learn from ulema to foster moderate thinking in religious life, commissioner of the National Commission on the Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), Maria Ulfah Anshor, said on Friday (22/1).

Maria, who is also a member of Indonesian Women’s Ulama Congress (KUPI), said that ulema had played significant roles in spreading Islamic teaching, particularly through cultural acculturation. She gave an example of Wali Songo – nine revered Muslim leaders in Java – who spread Islamic teaching through wayang (shadow puppets) performance.

“That was an amazing method for dakwah [Islamic preaching]. They could spread Islamic teaching whilst maintained local values,” Maria said in the 18^th virtual seminar series entitled #ModerasiBeragama (Religious Moderation). 

The seminar, themed “Mass Organizations, Ulema, and Religious Moderation”, 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.

Maria went on to say that ulema had ability to transform Islamic doctrine through adoption of local practices with various persuasive approaches.

“Another point we should learn from the ulema is that they learn and understand both textual and contextual meanings [of Islamic readings], so they can come up with moderate thinking and show that Islam is a peaceful religion. In addition, we should convey religious messages in good and proper ways, with no violence, and promote the principles of pluralism as our social and political assets for the unity of Indonesia,” said the lecturer from the University of Nahdlatul Ulama Indonesia.

In the discussion, Maria encouraged all people from all groups at all levels to adopt and strengthen the implementation of religious moderation.

“We need to systematically strengthen religious moderation mindset. We can start from ourselves, our family and then our environment, by promoting wasathiyah values,” Maria said, referring to the middle path that Islam teaches. “At the macro level, wasathiyah has been included on the country’s 2020-2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan [RPJMN].”

The virtual seminar on Religious Moderation is held every Friday via “Convey Indonesia” official Youtube channel. The discussion, moderated by Convey Indonesian Team Leader Jamhari Makruf, also presented other speakers, such as Alimatul Qibtiyah from Komnas Perempuan and Najib Kailani, a lecturer and researcher of Research Center for the Study of Islamic Democracy and Peace (Puspidep) of Sunan Kalijaga State University.

Writer: Andita Putri Ghassani
Editor: Abdallah