Vice President Ma’ruf Amin has expressed hope that Indonesian International Islamic University (UIII) will become a center of excellence for global Islamic civilization in accordance with the main objective of developing the university.
“I think it needs to be clarified to be able to return to the khittah (original pledge) of the initiative for the development of UIII in accordance with the President’s directives during the onset of UIII development, that is to become a center of excellence for global Islamic civilization . So it does not merely adopt the pattern of UIN (State Islamic University) with international campus status,” he said.
The vice president made the remarks while leading a coordination meeting to assess progress in the development of UIII at the Vice Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The government has made preparations for the development of UIII since 2016. The development of the university is part of the government’s effort to make Indonesia as a global Islamic civilization center.
However, based on the assessment of its system conducted in the past three years, the system is still standard as it adopts that of institute of Islamic studies such as State Islamic University (UIN).
He said the implementation of moderate Islamic teachings in Indonesia has so far served as a reference for various countries including the Middle Eastern countries.
He spoke of the Indonesian visit of the secretary general of Hukama Al-Muslimin Council, an international Muslim intellectuals organization based in Abu Dhabi. The secretary general was looking forward to learning the successful application of moderate Islam or wasathiyah Islam from Indonesia.
“The Secretary General of Hukama Al-Muslimin Council and his delegation visited (Indonesia) not to give directives or teaching but to learn from Indonesia about tolerant Islam which currently becomes a global model,” he said.
“We have served as a model for Hukama Al-Muslimin Council to develop moderate Islam at a global level. Hence, since the beginning the initiative for developing UIII is aimed at serving as a center of global reference for the implementation of Islam wasathiyah,” he said.
To this end, he expressed the hope that UIII can give an answer to expand and strengthen the global trend of Islam wasathiyah so that it can be applied to the rest of the world,” he said.
Source: Antara News