Nahdlatul Ulama

Nahdlatul Ulama ( نهضة of Arab العلماء, DMG nahḍat al - ʿ ulama ʾ, reawakening of scholars '), abbreviated as NU, is an Islamic organization in Indonesia, which was founded in 1926 by Hasyim Asy'ari as a merger of traditionalist Muslim scholars. With an estimated membership of over 30 million people, it is the largest Islamic non-governmental organization on earth.

Religious Affiliation

The NU was founded in January 1926 in response to the occupation of Mecca by the Wahhabis, with the aim to ward off its influence on one's own religious culture. She sees herself as the defender of Sunnism, which it considers to be Sunnis, only those Muslims who assign themselves to one of the Sunni madhhabs. A devout Muslim, according to the NU only one who first holds in the jurisprudence of the principles that have defined the four madhhab - founder, 2nd in the theology of the doctrine of Abū l -Hasan al - Ash ʿ arī and Abu Mansur al follow - Maturidi and 3 embodying the principles of Abū l - al - Junayd Qāsim and al -Ghazali in the Sufism. These principles in 1926 were reaffirmed at the 27th Summit of NU in 1984.

With this orientation, the NU is ideologically opposed in particular to Salafiya to the Wahhabis and Atharīya. In their view, require the " scriptures " of Islam, neither the establishment of a caliphate nor the introduction of Islamic jurisprudence ( fiqh ) as a basic legal system. For NU Sharia law is solely a matter of personal faith effort.

Organizational structure

At the top of the NU stands at the national level, the " Hauptgeschäfsführung " ( Pengurus Besar Nahdlatul Ulama - PBNU ), which consists of three bodies: the first religious Consultative Council ( Syuriah ), the mainly Muslim scholars belonging and a General President ( Rais Am) protrudes, 2nd to the Executive Committee ( tanfidziyah ) that of the "General Chairman of the Executive Committee " ( ketua umum tanfidziyah ) and at the third council ( Mustasyar ). While at the beginning of the Consultative Council played the most important role, is the real power since the 1970s, when the Executive Committee. The following persons have been led this body:

• Hasan Gipo (1926-1952)
• Idham Khalid (1952-1984)
• Abdurrahman Wahid (1984-1999)
• Hasyim Muzadi (1999-2010)
• Said Aqil Siradj (since 2010)

Political role

After the declaration of independence of Indonesia in August 1945, the NU founded in November 1945 along with other Islamic organizations Masyumi party. As she looked in the subsequent period within the party and in the distribution of government posts underrepresented, she separated in 1952 by the Masyumi and founded his own party. After the early 1970s, the number of parties was limited in Indonesia on three as part of the policy of the " New Order " ( Golkar ), United Development Party ( Partai Persatuan Pembangunan - PPP ) and Indonesian Democratic Party ( Partai Demokrasi Indonesia - PDI), concluded the NU of the PPP on its ideas but could not prevail there.

Young NU- intellectuals of the so-called "third generation " criticized from the mid- 1970s, the NU leadership that they have lost due to the involvement in the policy and cooperation with the State of the original religious and social goals of the organization from the eye, and demanded a return to the "Plan 1926 " ( Khittah 1926). After the Indonesian government had declared in 1982 that henceforth all political and social organizations of the country would have to make the Pancasila to its ideological basis, these young activists sat through with their demands. On a NU- conference in 1984 to return to the plan from 1926 was officially announced. The NU then broke their relationship with the PPP, withdrew from politics completely back and defined itself as a new religious, educational and social organization. From the mid- 1990s, the idea of ​​the development of civil society plays an important role in the self-understanding of NU activists.

After the fall of Suharto in the spring of 1998, the NU changed under pressure from the base course and returned to the policy. A committee of five PBNU members, including the executive committee chairman Abdurrahman Wahid, founded in July 1998, his own party, the Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa ( PKB). This won a total of 12.6 percent of the vote and 51 parliamentary seats in the general election of June 1999. Although this result was a big disappointment for the organization, but formed in the months after the election, a coalition of modernist Islamic parties, the so-called "central axis" ( Poros Tengah ), the nominated Abdurrahman Wahid as its own presidential candidate. This was therefore a big surprise, because the PKB had even connected to another party alliance and Megawati Sukarnoputri proposed as a presidential candidate. Only the fact that the PKB faction umschwenkte on Abdurrahman Wahid shortly before the election, this could be elected on 20 October 1999 for the fourth President of Indonesia.