enforcing religious freedom in indonesia 117
The head office of the Nahdlatul Ulama in Jakarta
(Advisory Council) and current member of the Dewan Mustasyar
(Supreme (Advisory) Council), he also has serious nu credentials.
After the nu’s leadership congress in 2010, Martin van Bruinessen, a
longtime observer of the organisation, wrote:
[w]ith this new board, nu is poised to seek a new balance between
the conservatism and politicisation of the past period and the search
for a new religious discourse of the 1990s. ... The slide towards
fundamentalist and anti-liberal religious views is unlikely to continue
under the new board and it may even be reversed.³⁹In this light, it is a case in point that the nu sent kh. Masdar Farid Masʾudi
as its representative to a meeting with Commission viii on 17 February
2011. Masdar is one of the most liberal thinkers at the top of the nu. He
is considered one of the seniors of liberal Islam in Indonesia⁴⁰ and is
currently chairman (rais) of the Dewan Syuriah.
Martin van Bruinessen, ‘New leadership, new policies?’,Inside Indonesia 100
(April–June 2009), http://www.insideindonesia.org/weekly-articles- 100 - apr-june-2010/
new-leadership-new-policies-16061866 (accessed 16 March 2012).
Budi Handrianto,50 tokoh Islam Liberal Indonesia. Pengusung ide sekularisme,
pluralisme, dan liberalisme agama(Jakarta: Hujjah Press, 2007), 145–146.