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IL News 018/2019
After almost 40 years, Dr. Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum in the United States and a famous scholar on this field, finally made it to Indonesia. The Leimena Institute and the Humanitas Global were pleased to host a roundtable discussion with him in Jakarta on August 23, 2019. The discussion revolved around his most recent analysis that Islamism or political Islam in the Middle East was in decline due to sectarianism and violent groups such as ISIS.
The meeting was chaired by Leimena’s president, Ambassador Jakob Tobing, and attended by leading Islamic scholars such as Prof. Dr. Amin Abdullah (distinguished professor of the “Sunan Kalijaga” State Islamic University), Prof. Dr. Azyumardi Azra (distinguished professor of the “Syarif Hidayatullah” State Islamic University), Prof. Dr. Nasaruddin Umar (Chief Imam of the Grand Mosque Istiqlal), and Dr. Siti Ruhaini Dzuhayatin (Indonesian President’s special staff for international religious affairs). Leimena’s trustee Edwin Soeryadjaya and executive director Matius Ho were also present.
At the end of the discussion, Dr. Pipes emphasized that this is the time for Indonesia with its peaceful and tolerant Islam to make an impact in the world, including in the Middle East.