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SITUS BAHASA INDONESIA
SITUS BAHASA INDONESIA

Linking Hands to Build The Nation

IL News 006/2016
National Seminar and Dialogue: “Building Interfaith Collaboration to Overcome Religious Radicalization”

Makassar, South Sulawesi. February 20, 2016

 

Religious plurality has existed in the midst of Indonesians since thousands of years ago. Unfortunately, this cultural asset is being slowly erased by the influence of foreign religious radicalization. The culture of tolerance and interfaith collaboration needs to be deepened and strengthened as a part of our nation’s characteristics. Based on this spirit, Leimena Institute organized the Dialogue and Seminar “Builiding Interfaith Collaboration to Overcome Religious Radicalization”, in collaboration with the Toraja Church Synod and Forum of Interfaith Harmony (FKUB) South Sulawesi (included in it: Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) in South Sulawesi, Regional Indonesian Council of Churches (PGIW), the Hindu Association of Indonesia (PDHI), Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI), Representatives of Indonesian Buddhists (Walubi) and the Supreme Council for Confucian Religion in Indonesia (Matakin)). The event was held in the Training Center of State Islamic University Alauddin Makassar, on February 20th, 2016 from 9 am to 4.30 pm.

The seminar and dialogue was moderated by Rev. Paul Patanduk, from the Toraja Church, and presented several speakers, i.e. Dr. Paul Marshall, Senior Fellow of Leimena Institute and Hudson Institute Washington DC, delivered knowledge regarding “The Challenges of Religious Radicalization in The World”, while Drs. Jakob Tobing, MPA, President of Leimena Institute, talked about “Understanding and Developing Local and National Ability to Overcome Religious Radicalization”. It was then responded by three speakers, Prof. Dr. H. Abdul Rahim Yunus (Chairman of Forum of Interfaith Harmony-FKUB South Sulawesi and Vice Chairmain of Indonesian Ulama Council in South Sulawesi), Dr. Andreas A. Yewangoe (Senior Fellow of Leimena Institute and Head of the PGI Consultative Assembly 2014-2019), and Prof. Hamdan Juhannis MA, PhD (Vice Rector IV of Collaboration in State Islamic University Alauddin Makassar).

The seminar and dialogue was attended by around 65 participant with various backgrounds, i.e. from education (State Christian Religion Academy-STAKN Toraja, State Islamic University Alauddin, Hasanuddin University), governmental institutions (Ministry of Religious Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs), NGOs (Indonesian Fellowship of Evangelical Students-Perkantas, Makassar International Peace Generation, Forum for Religious Care for the Family Welfare and Population (FABSEDU)) and also representatives from various religious institutions under the South Sulawesi FKUB  such as Buddhism, Christian, Islam, Hinduism, Catholicism, and Confucianism. The participants were clearly enthusiastic, considering that many of them gave comments and questions as response to the speakers. This is very encouraging because it shows that religious pluralism in Indonesia is still there, and can be developed further into a friendly, tolerant and harmonious interfaith relations.