NU plays down Gus Dur's threat

JAKARTA: Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chairman Hasyim Muzadi has played down an internal division within the country's largest Muslim organization, saying any move to establish a breakaway institution would not win popular support.

He made the statement after a meeting on Saturday in Jakarta with several clerics from Buntet pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Cirebon, West Java, who supported his reelection as NU chairman.

The clerics denied that the head of Buntet, Abdullah Abbas, backed former NU chairman and president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid's plan to set up a splinter NU group in protest against Hasyim's second five-year term.

"Kyai Abbas is too old to get involved in any kind of dispute. His concern now is merely to educate his students and to maintain the integrity of the organization," said his nephew, Adib Rofiudin Izza.

Abbas is one of the most senior NU ulema with Gus Dur's camp opposed to the leadership of Hasyim, whom they accused of dragging the NU into politics. --JP