Hefner Gives Keynote Addresses at Indonesian Conference on Humanitarian Islam
Professor Robert Hefner of Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies delivered keynote addresses at a major international conference of Muslim scholars in Jakarta, Indonesia during the first week of November 2024. The conference, focused on “Nahdlatul Ulama and Humanitarian Islam,” brought together 500 Muslim scholars and activists from Indonesia and other Muslim countries.
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the world’s largest Muslim educational and welfare organization with approximately 90-100 million followers in Indonesia, invited Hefner to serve as the academic organizer for the international conference in late 2023. In this role, he prepared the conference rationale and coordinated the participation of 24 speakers.
Hefner delivered two keynote addresses at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in central Jakarta. His opening address, “Humanitarian Islam: An Indonesian Movement for Global Ethical Reform,” set the stage for the conference proceedings. He concluded the event on November 6 with a closing keynote titled “Moral Leadership at a Critical Juncture: Nahdlatul Ulama, Democracy, and the Quest for a New Islamic Jurisprudence.”
Robert Hefner has directed 19 research projects and organized 18 international conferences, and authored or edited nineteen books. He is the former president of the Association for Asian Studies. At CURA, he directed the program on Islam and civil society since 1991; coordinated interdisciplinary research and public policy programs on religion, pluralism, and world affairs; and is currently involved in two research projects: “The New Western Plurality and Civic Coexistence: Muslims, Catholics, and Secularists in North America and Western Europe”; and “Sharia Transitions: Islamic Law and Ethical Plurality in the Contemporary World.” Read more about Professor Hefner on his faculty profile.