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Selected Tributes to LibForAll
Co-founder
Kyai Haji
Abdurrahman Wahid (1940 – 2009)
Although, in his own words, he has now “vanished from the face of the
earth,” his enormous influence remains – a testament to God’s infinite
love, mercy and compassion, and the noble heights to which the human
spirit may attain.
~ C. Holland Taylor, Chairman and CEO, LibForAll Foundation
Wall Street Journal,
“Wahid and the Voice of Moderate Islam,”
by Paul Wolfowitz, former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia and assistant secretary of state for East Asia. “Even more important than his role as a politician, Wahid was the spiritual leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia, and probably in the world, with 40 million members. He was a product of Indonesia’s traditionally tolerant and humane practice of Islam, and he took that tradition to a higher level and shaped it in ways that will last long after his death.”
The Melbourne Age,
“Gentle friendly face of Indonesia and Islam,”
by Greg Barton. “Wahid is remembered today largely for his role as a reformist president, but history is likely to also remember him as one of the 20th century's leading Islamic intellectuals and as someone who demonstrated how a traditional Islamic scholar can also be modern, democratic and humanitarian.”
Wall Street Journal Asia:
“A President for All People”
The Jakarta Post:
“The voice in the wilderness”
The Jakarta Post:
“The blind man with 20/20 vision: A tribute to Abdurrahman Wahid”
The Australian:
“A legacy of democracy”
The Australian:
“Australia owes a debt of gratitude to Indonesia's accidental president”
Heritage Foundation:
“Passing of an Indonesian Giant”
Bangkok Post:
“Fine example for the region”
Democracy
Digest:
“Democratic reformer and advocate of civil Islam dies”
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Kyai Haji
Abdurrahman Wahid
(1940 – 2009)
During his lifetime, he served as LibForAll's sesepuh (Javanese, for the elder statesmen of a nation, clan or family).
In death, he has become our pepunden (Javanese, for a deceased ancestor whose spirit continues to guide and protect his offspring).
In continuance of his legacy, Her Excellency Ibu Hajjah Sinta Nuriyah – President Wahid's
widow – will serve as LibForAll's patron and senior advisor, as we work to fulfill her husband's vision for the future.
"Light upon light,
God guides to His Light
whom He will."
~ al-Quran, 24:35
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وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِّلْعَالَمِينَ
“Muslims themselves can and must
propagate an understanding of the ‘right’ Islam, and thereby discredit
extremist ideology. Yet to accomplish this task requires the
understanding and support of like-minded individuals, organizations and
governments throughout the world. Our goal must be to illuminate the
hearts and minds of humanity, and offer a compelling alternate vision of
Islam, one that banishes the fanatical ideology of hatred to the
darkness from which it emerged.” ~ LibForAll co-founder, patron and
board member, H.E. Kyai Haji Abdurrahman Wahid, writing in the
Wall Street Journal
Bret Stephens of the Wall
Street Journal editorial board calls Abdurrahman Wahid
“the single most influential
religious leader in the Muslim world” and “easily the most important
ally the West has in the ideological struggle against Islamic
radicalism.” LibForAll co-founder C. Holland Taylor is linking moderate Muslim
leaders “in a network of lighthouses within the Islamic world that will
promote tolerance and freedom of thought and worship.”
~
Associated Press
“LibForAll Foundation... aims to present the moderate and tolerant face
of Islam, and explain the importance of [Muslims] returning to the
essence of Islamic teachings which, until now, have been poorly
understood by many groups [both in Islam and the West].”
~ al-Ahram
(Egypt) “LibForAll
itself is a model of what a competent public diplomacy effort in the Muslim world
should look like.”
~ Wall
Street Journal
Highlights of LibForAll's global media
coverage |
“Pathbreaking”
Exposé Helps
Derail
Extremist
Agenda!
“A Muslim Solution to
Terror” Watch video now!
LibForAll hosts an
historic
religious summit
in Bali, whose participants affirm religious tolerance as a
"blessing for all creation."
The Grand Shaykh
of al-Azhar blesses and supports LibForAll's mission to promote
a pluralistic and tolerant understanding of Islam, at peace with itself
and the modern world.
Support
LibForAll's Rahmatan lil 'Alamin (Blessing for All Creation) Network and help magnify its
powerful results.
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LibForAll plans and executes its programs
in cooperation with like-minded Muslim leaders in the fields of
religion, education, popular culture, government, business and the
media, and is systematically building a global counter-extremism network
that unites top Muslim opinion leaders in each of these fields. This, in
turn, enables LibForAll to extend its reach to a grassroots level, and
helps eliminate the underlying causes of terrorism ~
by reconciling and integrating traditional Muslim societies with the
contemporary world.LibForAll's
world-class achievements and leadership role have been widely
praised by international policy experts, government leaders and
blue-chip media outlets, who regard LibForAll as the pioneer in
developing and operationalizing an effective
counter-radicalization strategy worldwide. A window of opportunity
exists to deepen and expand these remarkably successful programs, and to
launch new initiatives, country-by-country, throughout the Muslim world.
Your support can help make this possible. Leading Democrat and Republican
senators unite in praising LibForAll's pioneering work. “We
will not win the war on terrorism without Muslim allies like [LibForAll
co-founder and board member Abdurrahman]
Wahid.”
~ Boston Globe
“The world's most populous Muslim nation
has, for an entire day, become a showplace for a hitherto unique
religious conference: the gathering on the holiday island of Bali
concerned itself entirely with religious tolerance and recognizing Nazi
persecution of Jews as an historical reality. Indonesia thereby
consciously seeks to distance itself from fundamentalist and radical
spirits.”
~
Die Welt (Germany) |
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See how pop culture is helping to
rescue an entire generation of young Muslims from extremists who seek to
turn them into "holy warriors" and suicide bombers, and listen to a
"musical
fatwa" against religious hatred & terrorism that became the #1
hit in the country with the world's largest Muslim population.
The unique effectiveness of LibForAll’s "Musical Jihad"
program has been validated by renowned security experts and
international organizations, including the United Nations and
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and has been featured in
numerous blue-chip international media outlets including
CNN,
the
Wall Street Journal,
Rolling Stone,
Time, the
Washington Post, the
Sydney Morning Herald and
Serviam
magazine.
“This Muslim Rocker Preaches Tolerance to a Strong Drumbeat.” LibForAll
board member Ahmad Dhani is “creating his own jihad – for moderate
Islam.” ~ Wall Street Journal
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Listen to a
"musical fatwa" against religious hatred and terrorism that soared
to #1 on Indonesian radio and MTV Asia!
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“Education that teaches tolerance, the dignity and value
of each individual, and respect for different beliefs is a key element
in any global strategy to eliminate Islamist terrorism.”
~ The 9/11
Commission Report
Working with top educators, religious clerics, celebrities and
other opinion leaders, LibForAll provides education on pluralism and
tolerance to tens of millions of Muslim youth in both traditional
and non-traditional settings, through a variety of media including
books, articles, music, video/television and the internet. |
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 LibForAll Foundation works closely with many who embody the Islamic
tradition of mysticism
and tolerance, as well as their counterparts
from other
faiths.
LibForAll's
highly-innovative programs tap into an enormous reservoir of Muslim
spiritual and cultural authority that can help dampen, and
ultimately extinguish, the fires of religious extremism
that now rage throughout the Islamic world.
As
LibForAll Advisor K.H. Mustofa Bisri
has observed: “You can’t extinguish fire with fire. It
takes water.” You can't extinguish hated with hatred. It
takes love (agape), born of a profoundly spiritual view of life. |
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Our strategy is inspired by the example of ancient
Javanese culture, which triumphed over radical Islamist attempts to
annihilate it 500 years ago. In doing so, it produced the most
liberal and tolerant variant of Islam found anywhere on earth, and a
paradigm for defeating the ideology of hatred that underlies and
animates terrorism.
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Federally-recognized Nonprofit Organization
The LibForAll Foundation is a federally-recognized
501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the culture
of liberty and tolerance worldwide. It was incorporated in North
Carolina and operates under its bylaws and board of directors.
Contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by
law.
Success Depends on Your
Support
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