ISCA Chairman meets President Abdurrahman Wahid in Indonesia

On October 14, 2000, Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani, World Leader of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order, sent his calipha (representative) to meet with the President of Indonesia. Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, Chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, met with His Excellency Abdurrahman Wahid at the President’s palace in Jakarta to discuss a number of religious and political issues. Shaykh Kabbani was accompanied by Mrs. Amanda S., Chairwoman of MADYA, an organization appointed by President Wahid for interfaith dialogue, Dr. Achmad Mubarok, a current Member of the Indonesian Parliament, Mr. Firdaus Wadji and Shaykh Mustafa al-Haqqani, a government cleric.

In the course of their two and a half hour meeting, the two men discussed a number of issues, the focus of which included the fluctuating peace process in the Middle East. The President discussed the contents of two letters he had received, one from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and another from Israeli president Ehud Barak.

The following were also key topics of discussion:

• Noting the Islamic Supreme Council’s success in working with the US government on issues of importance to Muslims, Shaykh Kabbani raised the possibility of expanding a current caucus within the US Congress to address issues affecting Southeast Asia in particular.
  
  
• The meeting also touched on the issue of religious radicalism, in particular the effect of radical movements on the image of Islam, and how the media has focused on this aspect of Muslim behavior despite how radicalism contradicts Islamic principles.
  
  
• The two men then explored the ways in which the Islamic Supreme Council of America could establish a working relationship with the Nahdat al-`ulama, Indonesia’s highest Islamic religious council of scholars. The importance for Muslims, both in Indonesia and in America, to return to the spiritual ideals and practices of our forebears, whose faith was stronger and whose understanding of Islam was based on love, compassion, tolerance, forbearance and peace, was made altogether clear.
  
  
• Finally, Shaykh Kabbani and His Excellency discussed the Tariqat al-Motabara, Indonesia’s official government organization for Islamic spiritual orders (tariqats) and how the teachings of these spiritual orders, particularly the Naqshbandiyya-Qadiriyya order, of which His Excellency the President is a member, can be used to improve the relationships between different religions and their adherents in ensuring the twenty-first century is one of peace and reconciliation.