Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Muslim world needs to end its internal conflicts and focus on economic development for the more than 600 million Muslims trying to escape poverty, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Wednesday.
In his opening remarks at an international Islamic conference on peace and conflict prevention here, the President said many conflicts in the world today pit Muslims against each other despite the fact that Islam teaches love, compassion and tolerance.
Yudhoyono told the audience that conflict had prevented many Muslims from attaining economic empowerment.
"Almost 40 percent of the
ummah (Muslim community) lives below the poverty line. Untold millions of Muslims live on less than US$1 a day. We can no longer tolerate a situation in which the vast majority of Muslims languish in poverty," Yudhoyono told some 300 Muslim scholars from across the world.
Muslims account for more than 20 percent of the world's population, some 1.5 billion people supplying 70 percent of the world's energy and 40 percent of the raw materials used by global industries for consumer products.
"If we unite, these numbers can translate into greater capacity for doing good, for promoting trade and investment and for fostering peace among ourselves and with the rest of the world," said Yudhoyono, the president of a predominantly Muslim country struggling with poverty.
The three-day event, organized by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Islamic organization, as well as by Indonesia's Foreign Ministry, is themed "Upholding Islam as
Rahmatan Lil Alamin (a Blessing for the Universe): Peace Building and Conflict Prevention in the Muslim World". The conference aims to find solutions to internecine Muslim conflicts.
NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi spoke on the underdevelopment faced by the Muslim world, highlighting the fact that almost all major conflicts in the world occurred in Muslim states such as Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan.
Hasyim asked Muslims to identify their key internal problems and to cooperate in solving them by practicing what they preached.
"Preaching about
zakat (voluntary alms) and
infaq (mandatory alms), for instance, must be followed by real actions. Those that are blessed with financial and economic resources can and must play a role in alleviating the poverty faced by our brothers and sisters," Hasyim said.
Yudhoyono and Hasyim said sect and nationality should not prevent ulema and scholars from playing a role in ending conflict and promoting peace.
"Bring the message of peace beyond the limits of your own communities, beyond the edges of your nations to a world that thirsts for the cessation of conflict and in so doing become
Ulama sans frontieres (ulema without frontiers)," Yudhoyono told the forum.
In a speech read by his representative Zahidul Haque, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon underscored the key role of religious leaders in helping the UN resolve and prevent conflict.
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