REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla ended the High-Level Consultation of World Muslim Scholars Summit on Wasathiyah Islam, or Moderate Islam, by inviting Muslim high priests of Islamic countries for a luncheon at the Vice Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Thursday. He thanked all participants for their contributions and thoughts that have been given during the three-day Wasathiyah meeting.
"Of course, we hope that we can reconcile with one another, including by solving the problems in Afghanistan, as the ulemas are more audible than the government officials," he stated while delivering a speech at the palace.
He hoped the summit could provide a solution to stop violence in the name of Islam in a number of Islamic countries and states with the majority of Muslim population, such as Indonesia.
The forum was also expected to generate joint efforts to stop radical Islamic teachings from causing destruction in Islamic countries.
"Therefore, we hope the meeting could also discuss the efforts to stop the teachings that cause problems in Islamic countries. Every night, we see destruction in some Islamic states, as reported by the media, and it is very unfortunate," he remarked.
The summit was held from May 1 to 3 in Bogor, West Java province. As many as 50 Indonesian Muslim scholars and intellectuals as well as 50 clerics from foreign countries, such as Egypt, Australia, China, England, Canada, and South Korea, participated in the summit.
Previously, President Joko Widodo, during the opening of the summit on Tuesday, stated that the axis of Wasathiyah Islam can become the mainstream teaching if Muslim scholars unite to convey the teachings of moderate Islam to the world.
"If all clerics unite based on a single stance to spread moderate Islam globally, I am optimistic that the axis of the global Wasathiyah Islam will become mainstream and give hope for the birth of a peaceful, safe, prosperous, and fair world and will also give rise to an Islamic movement to realize social justice," he pointed out at the Bogor Presidential Palace.
The draft of Bogor Message highlighted the global scale of uncertainty and disturbance in the midst of modern civilization.
Therefore, as a religion of peace, love, justice, and civilization, Islam underscored that the Islamic Wasathiyah paradigm, as the center of Islamic teaching, has been practiced in the long history of Islamic civilization from the period of leadership of Prophet Muhammad SAW (God be upon him) to the modern era.
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