Facing Israel, Gus Ulil Urges the Ummah Not to Be Divided by Sunni-Shia Debates

Chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulana Executive Board, Ulil Abshar Abdalla, has reminded the Muslim ummah not to be divided by Sunni-Shia debates amid the intensifying conflict between the United States (US)–Israel and Iran.

According to him, issues of sectarian differences have the potential to be exploited by certain parties to weaken the overall strength of the Islamic world. “We do not want the Muslim community to be divided because of the Sunni-Shia issue,” said the man familiarly known as Gus Ulil when met at the PBNU building in Jakarta on Tuesday (7/4/2026).

He emphasised that all Muslim countries joined in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) essentially share the same interests, regardless of differences in religious approaches or ideologies.

Therefore, according to him, what is more important at this time is to build unity to confront what he calls Israel’s authoritarianism towards Iran. “All are fellow Islamic countries and we need to unite to fight the authoritarianism of the Zionist state, namely Israel,” he said.

Gus Ulil assessed that the current conflict escalation cannot be separated from Israel’s strategic efforts to divide Muslim countries. He even mentioned that signs of this division are starting to appear in the Middle East region.

“It seems that the main goal that Israel wants to achieve with this attack is actually to cause division among fellow Muslim countries themselves, and that is already happening now,” said Gus Ulil.