God Needs No Defense

People of good will of every faith and nation should join hands and work in close cooperation, to help ensure that Islamic teachings are universally understood and applied in accord with its primary message of rahmah, and thus serve as a conduit through which God's infinite love and compassion may flow to all sentient beings. Given the current dynamics in the Muslim world -- and the institutional paralysis of the West, in the face of Muslim extremism -- this is admittedly an ambitious or even daunting endeavor. Yet for that very reason, it is a task worthy of anyone who feels the stirring of God's love in their breast, and the whispering of a conscience that refuses to yield all that is most precious in life to the forces of hatred, intimidation and violence. Former Indonesian president and Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman KH. Abdurrahman Wahid, Rahmah (Universal Love and Compassion) I regard the work of Humanitarian Islam and the Movement for Shared Civilizational Values as one of the most pathbreaking and important developments in world politics and cross-civilizational ethics in our generation. No event that I know of is more timely, urgent, or well conceived. Robert Hefner, Professor of Anthropology & International Relations at Boston University and President, American Institute for Indonesian Studies