World-Class Achievements

   

"The development of extremism in Indonesia has been successfully stemmed by cultural factors (pancasila) and a strategically coordinated initiative, primarily promoted by LibForAll, including goal-oriented activities on tactical and strategic levels. The main achievement has involved mobilizing counterforces to extremism by creating a robust defence of the principle of separation of state and religion in Indonesia....

"LibForAll’s publication of The Illusion of an Islamic State: The Expansion of Transnational Islamist Movements to Indonesia had a considerable impact on domestic policy. It primarily contributed to neutralizing one candidate’s bid for vice president in the 2009 national election campaign, who had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. It also helped drive a wedge between President Susilo Yudhoyono, who was running for re-election, and the PKS party’s candidate, which had been his coalition partner for the previous five years. PKS has played a double role – it has supported the government the past five years on the one hand and continued to promote radicalization on the other. Yudhoyono nominated a strong nationalist candidate as vice president instead."

~ "Preventing Violent Radicalization and Terrorism: The Case of Indonesia," by Magnus Ranstorp of the Centre for Asymmetric Threat Studies, at the Swedish National Defense College

   

Developing a Unique
Counter-extremism Film Series

LibForAll has developed the first part of a pioneering 26-episode counter-extremism film series (Ocean of Revelations: Understanding Islam as a Blessing for all Creation), in close cooperation with top Muslim leaders from Southeast Asia and the Middle East.  Painstakingly designed and produced to the highest theological and commercial television standards, this ground-breaking film series/video curriculum promises to discredit the ideology of religious hatred that underlies and animates terrorism. The series will be shown on television and distributed to thousands of boarding schools within Indonesia, as well as translated and subtitled for dissemination in South Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Award Presentation
   
Launching a Pioneering International Institute of Qur'anic Studies (IIQS)

Launching a Pioneering International Institute of Qur'anic Studies (IIQS)

LibForAll launched its International Institute of Qur'anic Studies (IIQS) in March of 2008, in order to help lay the foundation for a renaissance of Islamic pluralism, tolerance and critical thinking, and to foster the necessary conditions for the development of stable democracies and the protection of universal human rights throughout the Muslim world.

   

Expansion of Counter-Extremism
Programs to the Middle East

In May of 2008, LibForAll Foundation expanded its operations to Egypt, home to al-Azhar—the world's oldest university—and one of the key centers of Sunni Islam. A LibForAll delegation traveled under the auspices of the Egyptian and Indonesian foreign ministries, for the purpose of interviewing key religious leaders for LibForAll's Lautan Wahyu (Ocean of Revelations) film series, and to expand LibForAll's network in the Arab heartland.

The Grand Shaykh of al-Azhar University and Grand Imam of al-Azhar Mosque—Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi (on the right, with LibForAll CEO Holland Taylor)—blessed LibForAll's activities, and its mission to promote a pluralistic and tolerant understanding of Islam, at peace with itself and the modern world.

   

Historic Summit in Bali

 Historic Religious Summit in Bali

On June 12th, 2007, LibForAll hosted an historic religious summit in Bali, whose participants rejected the evils of Holocaust denial and affirmed religious tolerance as "a blessing for all creation." Held in response to the December 2006 Holocaust denial conference in Tehran, the summit showcased Indonesia's ability to play a unique role in promoting tolerance between religions, and discrediting the ideology of hatred.

 

   

 "Musical Jihad" Against
Religious Hatred and Terrorism

Successes to date include generating years of saturation media coverage for counter-extremism messages with two best-selling albums, including a "Musical Fatwa" against religious hatred and terrorism—whose lyrics are based on verses from the Qur'an and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad—which soared to the top of the charts in Indonesia and MTV Asia in 2006.  Project hailed by Washington Post editors as "...one of the most effective programs to reduce religious extremism since 9/11," inspiring millions of young Muslims to declare: "No to the Warriors of Jihad!  Yes to the Warriors of Love!"

Musical Jihad

   
To view highlights of LibForAll's Achievements, see the Newsletters on this page.