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In Memoriam: Abdurrahman Wahid
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Jakarta, Indonesia - H.E. Abdurrahman Wahid, president of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001, passed away on December 30 at the age of 69. He was a member of UPF's Global Peace Council.
A Muslim cleric, he was elected president in the first democratic transfer of power in Indonesia’s history. Leading the world’s fourth-most populous nation at a time when it was trying to emerge from its deepest recession in a generation, President Wahid was widely respected as a moderate figure, and people hoped he could bring together disparate elements in Indonesia’s political landscape. A staunch defender of moderate Islam and secular politics, he was head Nahdlatul Ulama, a Muslim group with some 40 million members.
The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudoyono, was at his side at the hospital and led about 10,000 people in a memorial before the burial in Wahid's East Java hometown of Jombang.
Former President Wahid welcomed the Universal Peace Federation's inaugural Global Peace Tour to Jakarta on November 26, 2005. "All religions insist on peace," he said. "From this we might think that the religious struggle for peace is simple … but it is not. The deep problem is that people use religion wrongly in pursuit of victory and triumph. This sad fact then leads to conflict with people who have different beliefs. For this reason Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s call for peace though religion is something of great nuance and profundity."
For a report about the meeting in Jakarta, click here. See also President Wahid's essay in the book Islamic Perspectives on Peace, published by UPF, and a tribute held at the United Nations headquarters to his legacy of peace.