By Carey Wedler at theantimedia.org
Though over one billion people in the world subscribe to the faith of Islam, every time a Muslim individual commits a violent and highly-publicized attack in the West, Americans demand unequivocal apologies and condemnations from all adherents to the religion. They cannot be bothered, of course, with the exact, same terroristic slaughter of non-whites in far-off lands.
Over and over, Islamic groups around the world condemn terrorist attacks and reiterate that violent radicals do not truly adhere to the religion. Even so, this never seems to be enough for the Fox News-inclined, who often falsely claim Muslims remain silent because they are uncivilized, violent savages. They insist ‘good’ Muslims must do more to combat extremism.
Such rhetoric, however, is increasingly, conspicuously false. One of the biggest blows to this mentality comes from Indonesia, where the largest independent Islamic organization in the world not only condemns acts of radical Islam, but has launched a massive, worldwide initiative to counter the ideology that breeds it.
Nahdlatul Ulama, or NU, was founded in 1926, and boasts 50 million members. As Huffington Post explained, it is “part Sunni religious body, part political party and part charity.” NU says its goal is “to spread messages about a tolerant Islam in their respective countries to curb radicalism, extremism and terrorism,” which the organization argues “often spring from a misinterpretation of Islamic teachings.” To do so, the group launched a global anti-extremism campaign last year.
In December of 2014, NU began building a center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to serve as its headquarters for the international project. NU is also planning “an international conference and cultural event in Washington, D.C.,” scheduled for Spring 2016, according to NU General Secretary, Yahya Cholil Staquf.
Further, NU has collaborated with the University of Vienna to create the Vienna Observatory for Applied Research on Radicalism and Extremism (VORTEX). Staquf says the aim of this project is to “produce counter-narratives against radical ideas and propagate them globally.” NU is also working on initiatives with the Swedish and British governments.
NU condemned last month’s attacks in Paris, and only weeks afterward, participated in the International Conference of Islamic Scholars’ annual forum on the “importance of promoting a peaceful Islam to combat radicalism worldwide.”
The group also believes its efforts should apply “equally to local radicals” in Indonesia.
Indonesia is home to one of the most liberal Muslim populations in the world, and its constitution provides for freedom of religion. Though the government recognizes only six religions — Islam, Protestantism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Catholicism, and Buddhism — religious minorities live in general harmony.
Even so, 88% of Indonesia’s population is Muslim — and sectarian conflicts persist.
Terrorist attacks in Indonesia have increased in recent years, and multiple groups have moved to tackle the problem. The country’s leading clerical body, the Indonesian Ulema Council, which includes groups like NU, recently launched an initiative to “mobilize 50,000 preachers to spread moderate, or ‘Wasathiyah,’ Islam within Indonesia.” It has also launched a training center in the country to teach Arabic-speaking students how to counter extremist rhetoric and ideology.
Domestically and globally, NU is taking a proactive approach to curbing the proliferation of Islamic extremism. What is most relevant about its goals, however, is its condemnation of Wahhabism, a sect of Islam with roots in Saudi Arabia. Like NU, Wahhabism is derived from the Sunni sect of Islam, but their approaches could not be more different. As Huffington Post summarized:
“Wahhabism is the ultra-conservative reform movement based in Saudi Arabia that advocates for puritanical laws from the time of Islam’s origins. It rejects the modern notion of ‘religion as a purely private activity’ and the separation of church and state. The Islamic State is highly committed to Wahhabi principles, using its religious textbooks and embracing its hardline tradition of killing unbelievers.”
Because of Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia has been directly linked to the Islamic State, though the United States has failed to highlight this relationship, much less acknowledge the many human rights abuses its monarchical ally commits. In fact, NU was aware of the dangers of Wahhabism when the organization launched, inspired by a direct intention to counter the Saudi-linked ideology.
In light of these facts, the Western response to radical Islam seems woefully insufficient. While NU evidently seeks to strike at the root of the world’s most radical Islamic beliefs, the United States and its Western allies align themselves with the very purveyor of, and inspiration for, ISIS. High-level officials have argued that the U.S. military directly contributed to the rise of the terror group — but all the while, Western populations condemn Muslims for ‘not doing enough’ to counter this ideology.
NU’s actions run in direct conflict with this repeatedly disproved notion. The organization’s spiritual leader, A. Mustofa Bisri, has said,
“The spread of a shallow understanding of Islam renders this situation critical, as highly vocal elements within the Muslim population at large — extremist groups — justify their harsh and often savage behavior by claiming to act in accord with God’s commands, although they are grievously mistaken.”
“According to the Sunni view of Islam,” he added, “every aspect and expression of religion should be imbued with love and compassion, and foster the perfection of human nature.”
This article (The World’s Largest Muslim Group Has Been Opposing Radical Islam for 90 Years) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Carey Wedler andtheAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, email[email protected].
ISLAM is PEACE
ISLAM is not ISIS
Liar, all muslims are terrorists and follow taqiyya
Taqiya is a shiaa islam thing not Sunni
Yo Monys dont puts shia in this in daesh they are all fake muslim but sunni
You are either an extremist or you don’t have the ability to form an opinion of your own.Sorry your world is so full of fear and hate, I hope it improves very soon.
Really sheeple 😀
Taqiyya? Wtf is that?
U don’t know shit ’bout Islam -_-
its not different what people think about Jews and about Talmud even its lies, Anonymous and Muslim go against Jews.
in Israel i saw many Muslim friend of Jews too, only Palestine and Israel has conflict.
Taqiyya?? Never heard of this in my life being Muslim
ISLAM is PEACE
ISLAM is not ISIS
Those of us that can read, and have read the Koran and hadiths using the Law of abrogation, know exactly what Islam means.
Yep 138 verses of violence towards non muslims
yep, Out of context
Yeah, verse 106954.647373 says “Any thou shall slaughter anyone who opposes you in the comments section”
You have know the history before to that verse…Quran is both a life guide and history book from past life…everyone of verse of those verse has prior history to that…
Keep spreading the message, that’s all you can do.
Ha anyone organized a protest in the US yet, to kick Turkey out of NATO?? If so, please let us know when and where.
If not, I am asking for your help to please do so. We can not let our governement make this huge mistake. Many of my fellow countrymen share this same sentiment….Turkey is ISIS. We are so ashamed our governement has taken the wrong side. I am not particularly fond of Russia with their annexing of Crimea, however, in this case (Turkey), the russians are 100% right. We need to let our governement know loud and clear, we do NOT stand behind them in their decision to defend Turkey/ISIS. The governement does NOT speak for us in taking that position. The American people know the truth. We know Turkey is ISIS. I implore any and all citizens of NATO countries to please protest your governements to kick Turkey/ISIS out of NATO. If we stand united, we can succeed. The American people need to put a stop to our government doing as they please, this is NOT what the American citizens want, we will NOT defend Turkey/ISIS. We need to work together with the russians and accomplish one common goal…..rid the world of ISIS/Turkey.
It is about time anyway, that armenia and Greece have their land returned back to them!!!!
Jeannette, could I ask what proof you have that Turkey is ISIS? They are a rather secular country. This is the first time I am hearing this. I know that folks looking to join ISIS often travel to Turkey & cross the border, but traffic also flows the other way from those escaping persecution.
Unfortunately Turkey is changing. It’s leaders are heading backwards from the secularisation of Attaturk to more strict Islamic control. They have also applied to be part of the E.U. but after the refugee/migrant crisis I think Europe is waking up to these changes.
Let’s take this a step or two further, shall we? While we ae in the process of kicking Turkey out of Nato shouldn’t we also quit defending and being an ally of Saudi Arabia, who practice the most radical form of Islam? And after that we could demand that all of the members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who are no longer considered terrorists simply because President Obama took them off of the terrorist list, be expelled from any and all government positions within our Country. Maybe we could also insist that the FBI do its job and remove the over 22 known enclaves within the United States that are training jihadists. After that we could demand that the current textbooks which are being written by organizations that are affiliated with radical Islam and forced upon our children by Common Core in order that the school districts receive federal funding be removed from our children’s curriculum. Then the various Islamic Studies groups within our universities which are further indoctrinating our children to believe that Muslims are only violent in reaction to American oppression should be removed from our institutions of higher learning. Maybe if we did all of these things we might begin to make a slight dent in the infiltration of our Country by the forces behind radical Islam.
They are all practicing Dahwah whether they are Sunni or Shiite. They all lie in order to convert and gain control.
Lori — Dahwah is simply teaching others about your religion. Same thing Christians do. And lying is not allowed in order to convert others.
Of course, because we believe that our religion is the truth, how can we believe our religion if we don’t believe it is the truth? But, some sick people want to make islam name dirty by dahwah in a wrong way.
NU not liberalistic moslem group. it is moderate moderate moslem grup. spread love peace tolerance to all. —> if you have no more reason to love other people, love them as god`s creatures.
salam damai dari indonesia.
normal, cette image inspire le respect!!!!
I don’t think that there is Wahhabism. It is only a name invented by those who opposed the way of Muhammad Bin Abdulwahhab. In fact if that so called Wahhabism exist, there would be thousands death every day in Saudi Arabia alone because there are millions of non Muslim population living and working in that country. Furthermore, Gulf States have a significant non-Muslim population enjoy better living conditions than in their own countries. In fact there are more abuses inflicted on Muslim minorities living in a non-Muslim majority countries like Philippines,Thailand, Burma, India, China etc. In addition to that information, there are more Muslim countries bombed by a non-Muslim countries by this time. You may think about it.
I will say smth by the way, i am musilm in faith, and Islam does not support iSiS or whoever, Shiaa is not an musilm they are shia they are same as Catholic, and i can commend more often that i know lot’s of Mason’s who read the Quran, and had a deep conversation with them, and in italy i worked as social-worker, and i was helping jew’s, chirstian, catholic, orthodox, budhist’s, hindi etc societys, so if you all look into you’re finger’s you will see that not even one is same, and Group’s and Society’s like isis or whoever else is not an muslim religion, in islam is forbiden to kill woman’s and children’s, is forbiden suicede, is one of 7 biggest forbiden thing’s in islam, islam does not let you get involed with problems, my religion learned me to see all people like one, not to make deference, in quran is writen that people are puted on deferent nationality’s and diferent country’s to be knowen one by other as people not as religion’s, no one is forced to be what other want’s GOD gived to people selfunderstanding, and self decision so they can decide what they want to be, human is a freelance mind, i have been voluntering in Fondation Abbe Pierre for long in Marseille, France, i have voluntering in Padre Guido, Ancona, Italy, i have vluntering in San Benedetto del Tronto,Italy in catholic organizations for helping poor people, there is no decision in life who want you to be, there is decision in youre heart, if you feel like good human you will server to the right if you not you will be ignorant forever and that cant no one change from youre heart, you can say Muslim’s are terrorist’s ok, we accept it, than what are the Israelis they kill children in everycorner in israel, and no CNN or BBC or whoelse is there, there were killed 800.000 ppl for 24h in bosnia and herzegovina, there were no news telling about that, 38.000 albanian killed by Serbian army since 1982 till 2002, i was only 11 years old when macedonian solider shoted me in my leg, there ware no one recording that and tell to world look those poor muslims, who are killed by Christians or Orthodox, as Greek army did from 1911-1938! So no one has right to tell all muslims are Terrorist’s there are all over the world terrorist’s and that are organizations, RADICAL’MUSLIMS and they are not called Muslims by the Holy Quran, They are called ignorant’s, and i will have respect to not be deleted my comment. I am supporting Anonymous for long time, and i want not to be everything black, there are black and white, so if you belive what is told you will lie youreself, but if you go to study youre hisotry as human not as Albanian or American, or German what else i respect all, and i help to poor people cz i was once in dificult position. And i want only to explain smth that alot here not even heard about Balkan’s in 90′ what happend.
Thank you for this comment!
Thank you.
Thank you very much for your informative heartfelt comment.
Isis is just a project that has nothing to do with Islam or any religion. Can anybody here believe a God or Allah who says killing someone who believes something different or believes in a different way, will make you go to heaven. There is no any saying that supports killing in Quran.
About the Isis its the last step of a long going project. The pawn Isis first comes to an area kills everyone or make them escape and then so called Kurdish freedom fighters which is an internationally recognized terrorist organization, comes and claims this territory. This is a project of changing population of a territory. All the Syrian friends here in Turkey we help lost their land registries for example.
And the government that we are struggling in Turkey is a long financed and supported Government by the most of the EU countries and USA. Since Turkey is a member of Nato, all the governments that we had is corrupted. You can see this in the news archives. When Turkish government does what ever big brother tells, it’s good government. Now power corrupts and its out of control. Nowadays you are reading everywhere Turks are killing Kurds. I have neighbours, friends we are not killing them. In Turkey races are just labels. It has no value. No body cares what label you have.
Go and do a research how so called freedom fighters killed innocent people in Turkey. Google “4 civilians killed, 15 reported missing in massive PKK bombing in Diyarbakır village” news for example. This freedom fighters kills their own people.
We’are dealing with terrorism for 30 years
Denominations in Islam see each other as enemies. As long as this continues, one example is Turkey, Islam will never be stable and will continue to fight with each others. lack of tolerance to other religions and non-believers will fuel violence. For a more peaceful future, we should eliminate differences among people. John Lennon’s song “Imagine” says it all.