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