Professor Driessen Presents Research at International Conference on Humanitarian Islam in Indonesia

Professor Michael Driessen, Director of the MA program in International Affairs at John Cabot University, recently travelled to Indonesia to give an address at an international conference of political scientists and scholars of Islam and democracy titled “Nahdlatul Ulama and Humanitarian Islam.”

With about 100 million followers in Indonesia, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) is the largest Muslim association in the world, and for the past ten years the NU leadership has dedicated itself to developing social and political reforms in favor of democracy and inclusive citizenship. In 2019, NU applied for membership in the Centrist Democratic International (formally the Christian Democratic International) – the primary political group that represents and promotes Christian democracy in the world – and has claimed a philosophical kinship with the tradition of Christian Humanism.

Professor Driessen was invited to share his comparative research on democracy, citizenship and dialogue across Muslim and Christian contexts, and presented a paper titled “Humanitarian Islam, Christian Humanism and Democracy.”

The opening ceremony of the conference was held at the University of Indonesia, in Jakarta with over 2000 attendees between Muslim scholars, government ministers, and diplomats from across Indonesia and other Muslim majority countries. Following the conference, scholars travelled around the island of Java to meet with religious leaders and Indonesian scholars at various religious and cultural sites.