R20, NU and Global Change
Ahead of the Group of 20 Summit in Bali on 15-16 November; there will be a meeting of religious and faith leaders from all the G20 member countries on 2-3 November.
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The forum of world religious leaders who are part of the G20, known as R20 was initiated by KH Yahya Cholil Staquf, as soon as he was elected as chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Executive Board (PBNU).
In organizing this R20, the PBNU has collaborated with Rabithah Alam Islami, which is based in Saudi Arabia. However, R20 invites not only religious and faith leaders from G20 member countries, but also leaders from other countries who have the potential to be part of the ongoing R20 movement. R20 itself has now become an official engagement of the G20.
More than 100 religious and faith leaders from around the world and 200 from Indonesia will be involved in a forum designed differently from other forums or forms of world-class seminars and conferences.
...seek answers together about what these religions can do to solve human problems around the world.
This forum provides an opportunity for religious and faith leaders -- who have millions or tens of millions of followers behind them -- to reflect on their advantages and disadvantages as well as negative or positive traditions, and then seek answers together about what these religions can do to solve human problems around the world.
Most of the participants, especially from abroad, are already participants in the global dialogue network, which includes KH Yahya Cholil Staquf.
With the tagline "Revealing and developing religion as a source of solutions, an international movement for shared moral and spiritual values", the R20 forum will be held on 2-3 November 2022 in Bali.
also read:
> The Trajectory of Nahdlatul Ulama Awakening
> Freedom and Religious Maturity
The activity will then be continued in Yogyakarta, on 4-6 November, within the framework of formulating the next steps for the core members of the network.
Why R20
In this forum, religion does not legitimize what has been designed outside, but departs from the situation within religion itself.
I would like to describe this R20 forum as providing a runway for the success of the G20 presidency in 2022 in Indonesia with the tagline “recover together, recover stronger”. The reason is that the problems of humanity, tension, violence and war in this world stem partly from the presuppositions in religious doctrines of “the other”.
KH Yahya Cholil Staquf saw that the world situation and humanity, such as environmental damage and climate change, poverty and inequality, efforts to get out of the trauma and problems of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the Russia-Ukraine war which is now triggering a global energy and food crisis, require the direct involvement of religion.
...in the modern world system, or secular system, religion is transferred from the public sphere to the private sphere...
This is not because religion has the answers to these issues, but rather there is a big problem within the religions themselves, which they have been trying to avoid, discuss or find solutions for. This is because the leaders and clergy are not willing and dare not openly express problems within religion itself.
On the other hand, in the modern world system, or secular system, religion is transferred from the public sphere to the private sphere so as not to interfere with the scenario of salvation by secularism. Religion is only used to justify the salvation scenario as far as it is supportive; otherwise it will be removed.
As a result, religion continues to be a potential and latent problem for humanity. This refers to the “doctrine” that is at the root of hostility, hatred and excessive political identity, justification for discriminating and, even, violence and murder against others.
The basics of knowledge (fiqh in the context of Islam) and awareness of religions are based on such a doctrine. Whenever there is tension, violence or war, the doctrine almost always appears and mobilizes the consciousness of religious adherents, at least in part, to feed the hostility, hatred and violence.
The religious leaders in the R20 forum will openly discuss these doctrinal problems.
Not ‘mainstream’
This step, which was initiated by KH Yahya Cholil Staquf, is not mainstream. Therefore, this move has the potential to cause controversy even though a number of academic analyses internationally have discussed quite a lot about the insistence that religion enter the public sphere -- including post-secular phenomena -- to participate in solving human problems; local, national and global.
However, it has not really become mainstream in the academic world yet. There are still many who are skeptical, fearing that if religion enters the public sphere, it seems certain that it will repeat the situation in medieval Europe when religion strengthened power holders for the oppression of humanity.
However, to allow a situation where religion remains a latent danger to humanity is akin to not providing an optimistic future. There will be many challenges to making this happen.
First, from those who firmly hold religion as an exclusive solution so that it will be difficult to achieve a breakthrough with the doctrine of absolute and universal equality for all human beings and then make religion a “demolisher” of this exclusivist barrier.
Second, those who hold secular doctrine as an absolute choice will oppose religion entering the public sphere because of their long past trauma.
NU Experience
KH Yahya Cholil Staquf's idea above actually cannot be separated from NU's own experience. Namely, since facing changes in world civilization from the community social system paguyuban (gemeinschaft) to patembayan (gesellschaft), i.e. the nation state system that transformed almost all basic structures and consciousness causing confusion between elements of society and religion.
Two radical changes to the system are that the power of a state is limited by geographical boundaries by international agreements controlled by the United Nations. Second, equality of people and citizens is standardized by universal human rights.
The religious doctrine that is built up in the consciousness of the people and the paguyuban social system of an established community require a paradigm shift from within religion itself. Some groups force the religious doctrine of the community into the new system, for example adopting religious exclusivism in the nation-state system. Or those who surrender to the system scripted by secularism and stay in the private sphere.
With its own scientific base and methodology, Ahlusunnah wal Jamaah an-Nahdliyyah, NU has been trying to get out of this problem since the initial process of dealing with changes in civilization regarding power.
From its acceptance of the form of a nation state that does not have an exclusive religious ideology -- but the diversity of Pancasila and Bhinneka Tunggal Ika -- to the prohibition of labelling non-Muslims as kafir (infidels) but rather as human beings (al-insan) and citizens (al-muwathin) as was decided during the National Conference in Banjar, West Java, in 2019. Both, for NU, are part of the practice of sharia itself, not just a political gimmick.
From here, NU in the hands of KH Yahya Cholil Staquf has tried to become one of the actors who change civilization.
Ahmad Suaedy,
Ahmad Suaedy
Chairman of the Organizing Committee R20
This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswo.
