REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Indonesian government is ready to develop an Islamic Center in Kabul, Afghanistan, to disseminate the values of Islam as 'rahmatan lil alamin' (blessing for the universe), Vice President Jusuf Kalla said.

"We have built a mosque there (Afghanistan)," Kalla stated after a meeting with Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani at the Presidential Suit of Shangri-La Hotel here on Thursday.

The Indonesian government has built the Assalaam Grand Mosque in the vicinity of the Indonesia Islamic Center (IIC). The mosque has been in service since Aug 2016 to promote a moderate and tolerant Islam in Afghanistan.

Kalla, who is also chief of the Indonesian Mosque Council (DMI), noted that although the council has no direct relations with the Afghan government, it will help facilitate the exchange of ulemas between the two countries.

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Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, who accompanied the vice president during the meeting, noted that the Indonesian government will equip the IIC with health and education facilities in keeping with President Joko Widodo's directives.

"The president said yesterday that we will build health facilities including a small hospital in the (IIC) compounds and education facilities later," she remarked.

In addition, Indonesia will also team up with Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Islamic organization, which has branches in 21 out of 34 provinces in Afghanistan, to disseminate the values of moderate and tolerant Islam, she asserted.

Besides discussing cooperation among Muslim countries, Kalla and Ghani discussed peace and reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan by learning from Indonesia's experience. 

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