India to host top Indonesian minister for interfaith peace & harmony event on NSA's invite

On the invitation of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Prof. Dr. Mohammad Mahfud M.D., Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs of Indonesia, will be visiting India between November 28 and December 1. During his three-day visit, Mahfud M.D. will be attending an event organised by the India Islamic Cultural Centre titled 'The Role of Ulema in Fostering a Culture of Interfaith Peace and Social Harmony in India and Indonesia' at the India Islamic Cultural Centre on November 29. 

"Ulema play a very important role In Islamic society and the objective of such discussion is to bring together Indian and Indonesian Ulema and scholars who can take forward the cooperation to promote tolerance, harmony and peaceful co-existence and counter violent extremism and radicalization," a statement released on the event read. 

Indonesia, like India, is a secular democratic country. While it has a Muslim-majority population, the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, people of other faiths there like Christians, Buddhists, Hindus or Animists have rarely faced discrimination, much less religious violence. The same cannot be said about countries like Pakistan & Afghanistan. Numerous symbols in Indonesia are Hindu, for instance, such as its national airline, 'Garuda', named after the vaahan of Lord Vishnu. Till 2008, Lord Ganesha was also inscribed on the 20,000 rupiah note of Indonesia.

Ajit Doval and Prof. Dr. Mohammad Mahfud will be Chief Guests and deliver the Opening Address and the Keynote address as well as the Closing remarks. The event in total will have three sessions. The first session will be on 'Islam: Continuity and Change' while the second and third sessions will be on 'Harmonising Interfaith Society: Practices and Experience' and 'Countering Radicalisation and Extremism in India and Indonesia', respectively. There will also be an interaction between the Indonesian Ulema delegation and leaders from other faiths. 

It is pertinent to mention here that NSA had visited Indonesia for the Second India-Indonesia Security Dialogue at the NSA level on 17 March 2022. During the visit, NSA had invited Minister Mahfud to visit India who agreed to visit along with a high-level delegation of Indonesian Ulema later in the year.