Workshop to discuss Islamic movements

The Ridep Institute, a research organization in Jakarta, and Friedrich Eibert-Stiftung, a German-based non-governmental organization, are organizing a two-day regional workshop on contemporary Islamic movements in South and Southeast Asia at the Imperial Aryaduta Hotel in Lippo Karawaci, Tangerang, starting on Monday.

The workshop will discuss Islamic fundamentalism, tracing it from its possible root in education systems, using Indonesia, South Asia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Afghanistan as examples.

It will also discuss government responses to Islamic fundamentalist movements, the dynamics of international politics that helped shape such movements in particular countries and fundamentalist networks, with a focus on educational institutions in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and theological teaching in Egypt.

Finally, the workshop is expected to issue policy recommendations to the governments in the region, according to S. Yunanto, Ridep Institute's executive director, in a media statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The workshop has invited local and international researchers, professionals and scholars, including Makmur Keliat of the Ridep Institute; Achmad Mihdan, a lawyer from the Muslim legal defense team; Prof. Abdurrahman Mas'ud of the Walisongo State Islamic Institute in Semarang, Central Java; Prof. Ganganath Jha of Jawaharlal Nehru University in India; Prof. A.H. Nayyer from Qaid-e-Azam University in Pakistan; Carmen A. Abubakar of the University of the Philippines; and Don Pathan, an editor at The Nation newspaper in Thailand. -- JP