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‫ﺍﻟﻤﻌﻬﺪ ﺍﻟﺪﻭﻟﻰ ﻟﻠﺪﺭﺍﺳﺎﺕ ﺍﻟﻘﺮﺁﻧﻴﺔ‬
Al-Ma‘had al-Dawali
lil-Dirasaat al-Qur’aniyya
The International Institute of Qur’anic Studies
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The Unity Amid Diversity Movement
LibForAll and its International Institute of Qur’anic Studies (IIQS) were recently awarded a $1.3 million
grant by the John Templeton Foundation, to implement key elements of the IIQS strategic plan.
This project represents a unique opportunity to help build a theological and cultural foundation
for freedom of conscience in the Muslim world—working with deep-rooted local power structures
controlled by highly principled actors who have the theological legitimacy, cultural influence and
mass following required to produce significant and lasting results.
The interdisciplinary nature of this project will leverage established relationships with a wide range
of opinion leaders and create “interlocking fields of fire,” whereby the various project components
strengthen and support each other. Specifically, the project will:
a) help mobilize the world’s largest Muslim organization—the Nahdlatul Ulama, with
approximately 50 million followers and 14,000 madrasahs—to defend Indonesia’s
traditions of religious diversity and tolerance, and to project sustained, long-term
influence to other key regions of the Muslim world and the West;
b) encourage the systematic cultivation of ethical behavior and a noble character (akhlakul
karimah), including key virtues that lie at the heart of Islamic teaching: e.g., love, actively
expressed in the form of compassion (mahabbah/rahman); humility (tawadlu’); respectful
communication with others (silaturrahim); and beneficial purpose (azam);
c) systematically propagate use of “the law of compassion” to reinterpret Islamic
jurisprudence and thereby liberate religious norms from the “burden of history,”
including antagonism towards those who embrace a different faith; and
d) leverage the enormous success of a prior LibForAll project, The Illusion of an Islamic
State, to build a network of opinion leaders in the fields of religion, education, pop
culture, government, business and the mass media, and through this network establish
a grassroots movement to revitalize the cultural and political institutions responsible for
Indonesia’s traditions of religious liberty, which predate the Virginia Statue for Religious
Freedom and First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by hundreds of years.
Jakarta  Cairo  Winston-Salem  Leiden  Magelang
Project outputs (publications, social media, websites, films, music videos, mass gatherings and
media events) are designed to re-enliven the view that true religion is a source of universal love and
compassion (rahman), so that this narrative may once again become the dominant understanding of
Islam within Indonesia—embraced by the nation’s religious, cultural and political leadership, and an
integral part of the worldview held by society at large.
By integrating this project with parallel activities conducted by the IIQS public policy division
(the Center for Contemporary Islam) in Cairo, Egypt, this ambitious program will help to lay an
epistemological, theological and cultural foundation for freedom of conscience in the Muslim world.
“T
he greatest acts of devotion are those motivated by intense gratitude
to God, for all His grace. And also motivated by intense love for God
and His servants (humanity), and for all His creatures.”
~ Kyai Haji Muhammad Zuhri Zaini
Head of PP. (Madrasah) Nurul Jadid in Probolinggo, Indonesia
“I
do not long for a return to Muslim domination of the world, or the
establishment an Islamic state or kingdom. No. The “triumph of islam”
that I dream of, is one in which Muslim intellectuals and scholars spread
the true values of islam: the values of mutual love, nurturing and respect. That is the
form of Islamic power, the triumph of islam, of which I dream.”
~ Kyai Haji Muhammad Yusuf Chudlori
Head of PP. (Madrasah) Asrama Perguruan Tinggi in Tegalrejo, Indonesia
“A
lthough at present (our movement is) not nearly as powerful as that
of extremists, who spread the ideology of violence, the awareness that
their ideology should be opposed is already widespread. It only remains
to set people in motion, so that we can all oppose (the ideology of hatred) together.
Because hatred and violence are enemies of mankind, and incompatible with the
noble characteristics of humanity created by God—Pure and Exalted is He!”
~ LibForAll/IIQS Senior Advisor Kyai Haji A. Mustofa Bisri
Deputy Chairman, Nahdlatul Ulama Supreme Council
Examples of the closely-integrated theological, cultural and multi-media approach
that will be employed in executing this project:
“Without Rules”
A Javanese mystical poem sung by
LibForAll/IIQS co-founder KH. Abdurrahman
Wahid, which has become massively popular
since his death. It rejects a superficial
understanding of shari‘a—“In the end,
this will lead to nothing but misery”—
and urges Muslims not to imitate those
“who memorize the Qur’an and hadith
[but] love to condemn others as infidels,
while ignoring their own infidelity to God.”
LibForAll/IIQS film presents an intellectual,
historical and theological argument for freedom of
conscience, featuring prominent Indonesian, Arab
and European religious leaders.
“Gus Dur: Champion of the People”
“That’s Just How It Is, No Problem”
Two of the many popular tributes to President Wahid
that emerged spontaneously in the years following
his death in December of 2009. The first song’s
moving refrain—“Kelingan welingmu sing prasojo:
agomo nyayomi jagad royo!” (“We remember
your wise advice: religion nourishes all
of creation!”)— reinforces the essential teaching
of President Wahid and the Nahdlatul Ulama:
that true religion is a source of universal love
and compassion.
The massively popular book, which mobilized
Indonesian public opinion against Islamist
movements in 2009 and laid the foundation
for the Unity Amid Diversity Movement.
See appendices 4 – 6 for
documentation of this impact.