National

Building moderate nation needs intelligence

Jum, 17 Mei 2019 | 13:47 WIB

Jakarta, NU Online
The Qur'an did not mention the phrases Muslims or Arabs. The scripture revealed to Prophet Muhammad SAW only mentioned moderate devotees, ummatan wasatha.

The General Chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) KH Said Aqil Siroj made the remarks at a book launch titled Ironi Democrasi written by Abdul Ghopur at the 8th floor of the NU headquarters, Jln Kramat Raya 164, Jakarta, Thursday (5/16).

But it is not easy to form a moderate nation. According to him, it is in need of intelligence. "Building ummatan wasatha needs intelligence," said the leader of Al-Tsaqafah Islamic Boarding School, Ciganjur, South Jakarta.

In line with Kiai Said, the Chairman of the Central Board of Muhammadiyah Kiai Kusen Al-Cepu also said that smart communities were an absolute requirement to build a safe country. "So the absolute conditions that people could not bargain, they must be smart," he said.

The book written by Abdul Ghopur, according to him, is part of an effort to educate the people. This is in accordance with the concentration of NU and Muhammadiyah in maintaining the Unitary State of Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).

Because, for him, injuring the Republic of Indonesia by rejecting it and not accepting the Pancasila resulted in a failure against the perpetrators.

He said that both NU and Muhammadiyah were impossible to be opposed to NKRI, Pancasila "because the NKRI (and) Pancasila were made by our ancestors," said the philosophy lecturer at the UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.

Therefore, jihad should not be understood as physical war (qital).

"Indonesia is unlikely to achieve a just and prosperous country, Indonesia's democracy will not be great if the people are stupid," he said.

The event was also attended by religious leader Franz Magnis Suseno, Lecturer at the University of Moestopo Beragama Paul Januar, and CEO of Maspion Group Alim Markus.

Also present at the occasion were the Secretary General of the Bhinneka Tunggal Ika Mariya Mubarika, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Taplai Alumni Association RI-INTI National Defense Force Ali Husein, and Chairman of the Indonesian-Chinese Youth Generation Center (GEMA INTI) Krista Wijaya. (Syakir NF/Masdar)