IL News 003/2021
Medan, 19 February 2021
Prof. Alwi Shihab, Senior Fellow of the Leimena Institute, was one the speakers at Religious Moderation Seminar and Book Launching titled “Building Religious Moderation, Building World Civilization” on February 19th, 2021. It was held online and offline by Islamic State University of North Sumatera (UIN Sumut).
Religious moderation in North Sumatera is well nurtured overall. But if we look deeper, conflict potential and religion exclusivity is still a challenge. Some people are still involved in various intolerance incidents, such as the suspected blasphemy that lead to violent conflict in Tanjung Balai, Asahan, on 2016. In the same year, there’s a priest and church assault at St. Joseph church by 18 years old teenager during Sunday mass using pipe bomb.
Prof. Alwi explained the essence of religious moderation, which is the spirit and willingness to make religion a blessing to the universe. He encourages all human beings to accept and understand differences as an inevitability and strength for better livelihood.