Nahdlatul Ulama

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Logo of the Nahdatul Ulama

Nahdlatul Ulama (from Arabic نهضة العلماء, DMG nahḍat al-ʿulamāʾ, 'Reawakening of  the Scholars'), abbreviated NU, is an Islamic organization in Indonesia , which was founded in 1926 by Hasyim Asy'ari as an association of traditionalist Muslim scholars . With an estimated membership of 40 million people, it is the largest Islamic non-governmental organization on earth.

Religious orientation

The NU was founded in January 1926 in response to the Wahhabi occupation of Mecca with the aim of warding off their influence on their own religious culture. She sees herself as a defender of Sunnis , although she only regards those Muslims as Sunnis who assign themselves to one of the Sunni madhhabs . According to the NU, a pious Muslim is only one who 1. adheres to the principles laid down by the four Madhhab founders in jurisprudence , 2. in the theology of the teaching of Abū l-Hasan al-Ash -arī and Abu Mansur al -Maturidi follows and 3. in the Sufik realizes the principles of Abū l-Qāsim al-Junaid and al-Ghazālī . These principles from 1926 were reaffirmed at the 27th NU Summit Conference in 1984.

With this orientation, the NU is ideologically in opposition, especially to the Salafīya , the Wahhabis and the Atharīya . In their view, the "holy scriptures" of Islam neither require the establishment of a caliphate nor the introduction of Islamic jurisprudence ( Fiqh ) as a basic legal system. For NU, Sharia law is a matter of personal belief alone.

organization structure

At the national level, the NU is headed by the " General Management " ( Pengurus Besar Nahdlatul Ulama - PBNU ), which consists of three bodies: 1. The Religious Consultative Council ( Syuriah ), which mainly consists of Muslim scholars and is headed by a General President ( Rais Am ) , 2. The Executive Committee ( tanfidziyah ), which is chaired by the "General Chairman of the Executive Committee" ( ketua umum tanfidziyah ) and 3. The Advisory Board ( Mustasyar ). While the Consultative Council initially played the most important role, real power has been with the Executive Committee since the 1970s. The following people have headed this body so far:

Political role

After Indonesia's declaration of independence in August 1945, the NU and other Islamic organizations founded the Masyumi party in November 1945 . Since she saw herself underrepresented within the party and in the distribution of government offices in the following years, she separated from the Masyumi in 1952 and founded her own party. After the number of parties in Indonesia was limited to three ( Golkar ) as part of the policy of the " New Order " in the early 1970s , the United Development Party (Partai Persatuan Pembangunan - PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia - PDI) closed The NU joined the PPP, but was unable to enforce its ideas there.

From the mid-1970s onwards, young NU intellectuals of the so-called "third generation" criticized the NU leadership for having lost sight of the organization's original religious and social goals through involvement in politics and cooperation with the state called for a return to the "1926 plan" ( Khittah 1926 ). After the Indonesian government declared in 1982 that from now on all political and social organizations in the country would have to make the Pancasila their ideological foundation, these young activists prevailed with their demands. A return to the 1926 plan was officially announced at a NU conference in 1984. The NU then dissolved its relationship with the PPP, withdrew completely from politics and redefined itself as a religious, educational and social organization. From the mid-1990s, the idea of ​​developing civil society played an important role in the self-image of NU activists.

After the fall of Suharto in the spring of 1998, the NU changed course under pressure from the grassroots and returned to politics. A committee of five PBNU members, including Executive Committee Chairman Abdurrahman Wahid, formed its own party in July 1998, the Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB). This won a total of 12.6 percent of the vote and 51 parliamentary seats in the general elections of June 1999. Although this result was a great disappointment for the organization, a coalition of various modernist-Islamic parties, the so-called "Central Axis" ( Poros Tengah ), which Abdurrahman Wahid nominated as its own presidential candidate , was formed in the months after the election . This was a big surprise because the PKB had joined another party alliance and proposed Megawati Sukarnoputri as a presidential candidate. Only because the PKB parliamentary group switched to Abdurrahman Wahid shortly before the election, he was elected fourth President of Indonesia on October 20, 1999.

literature

  • Greg Barton and Greg Fealy (eds.): Nahdlatul Ulama, Traditional Islam and Modernity in Indonesia. Monash Asia Institute, Clayton, Australia, 1996.
  • Robin Bush: Nahdlatul Ulama and the Struggle for Power within Islam and Politics in Indonesia . Singapore 2009.
  • Mitsuo Nakamura, Shalahudin Kafrawi: Art. "Nahdatul Ulama" in John L. Esposito (ed.): The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. 6 Vols. Oxford 2009. Vol. IV, pp. 206a-212a.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cf. Luthfi Assyaukanie: Political Secularization in Indonesia in Ranjan Ghosh (ed.): Making Sense of the Secular: Critical Perspectives from Europe to Asia. Routledge, New York-London, 2013. pp. 195-208. Here p. 202.
  2. ↑ Cf. Fauzan Saleh: Modern Trends in Islamic Theological Discourse in 20th Century Indonesia . Leiden 2001. p. 74.
  3. ↑ See Andrew C. McCarthy: "Islam or Islamist?" ( Memento of December 2, 2011 on the Internet Archive ), National Review Online, Oct. 29, 2011
  4. ↑ See Bush 14.
  5. ↑ See Busch 69–78.
  6. ↑ See Bush 87-100.
  7. ↑ See Bush 118-123.
  8. ↑ See Bush 128-135.

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