BMNU told to drop seminar

BMNU told to drop seminar

JAKARTA: Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) has called on organizers of a
seminar that has invited Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres as
a speaker to drop the plan.

NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi said that the country's largest
Muslim organization objected not only to the plan to bring in the
Israeli figure, but to the fact that the organizers, the NU Youth
Movement (BMNU), had affiliated themselves with the NU.

"We feel the appearance of Shimon Peres will hurt the hearts
of Indonesians. We have also never recognized BMNU as part of our
organization's structure," Hasyim said, adding that, on several
occasions, he had suggested the dissolution of the youth
organization.

The seminar has been postponed until April 22 from its
original scheduled date of March 31, due to security concerns.

BMNU was founded by Maksum Zuber during the NU congress in
Lirboyo, Kediri, East Java in 1999, as an effort to accommodate
the aspirations of young NU followers who do not feel comfortable
at the NU's major youth body like Ansor. -- JP