Workshop to discuss Islamic movements

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