Source: The Indian Catholic

http://www.theindiancatholic.com/newsread.asp?nid=7093

JAKARTA, Indonesia (UCAN): Religious believers in Indonesian need an inclusive spirituality that will foster mutual acceptance and dialogue in their pluralistic society, maintains a priest who is an expert on Islam.

In such a society, "all people, especially religious leaders, should experience a new spirituality of interfaith, perennial and universal religiosity," Father Philipus Tule said recently during a discussion on the book Islamku, Islam Anda, Islam Kita (my Islam, your Islam, our Islam). He called for a spirituality that would unite people of different religions.

Former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid wrote the book, which Wahid Institute, a group set up to promote religious tolerance, published in August 2006. Wahid is also former chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (awakening of Islamic scholars), the country's largest Muslim socio-religious organization. It claims 40 million members.

Father Tule, a Divine Word priest, holds a degree from Cairo-based Al-Azhar University, one of the world's premier Islamic seats of learning. He was one of two speakers who addressed 200 clergy, Religious, seminarians, and lay Catholics and Muslims on March 26 at the St. Joseph Church hall in Matraman, East Jakarta.

Wahid Institute and the Advocacy Service for Justice and Peace in Indonesia (Padma, Indonesian acronym) organized the discussion. The Society of the Divine Word established Padma.