Hasyim Muzadi

Achmad Hasyim Muzadi (8 August 1944 – 16 March 2017) was an Indonesian Islamic scholar and cleric who served as chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama, from 1999 to 2010.

The founder and director of the Al-Hikam Islamic boarding school, he was a proponent of moderate Islam, which he defined as being neither radical nor liberal, and criticized both Islamic fundamentalism and Islamic liberalism.

Hasyim was born on 8 August 1944 in Tuban, East Java, then occupied by Japan.

His father's name was Muzadi and his mother's Rumyati.

He attended various Islamic schools, including a pesantren, an Islamic boarding school, in Gontor, Ponorogo Regency.

Hasyim was active in Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia, from the 1960s onwards.

He obtained a college degree in tarbiyah (Islamic education) from the State Islamic Institute of Malang in 1969.

In 1986, he was elected a member of East Java's Regional People's Representative Council (DPRD), a provincial-level parliament.

He founded the Al-Hikam Islamic boarding school (pesantren) in Lowokwaru, Malang, East Java, in March 1992.

The pesantren provided a college-level mix of general and Islamic education.

From 1992 to 1999 he was the chairman of NU's regional chapter in East Java.

In 1996, Hasyim was inducted as a khalifa (deputy) of the Qadiri-Naqshbandi Sufi order.

In 1999, he was elected the Chairman of NU, replacing Abdurrahman Wahid who became the fourth President of Indonesia.

The school was small, with 125 students by 2000, but according to Islamic scholar and anthropologist Ronald A. Lukens-Bull it seemed "an innovative and forward-thinking approach" to shaping the future of Indonesia.

According to Hasyim, who was also Al-Hikam's director, the school was aimed at Muslims with non-religious majors whose knowledge and practice of Islam was lacking.

Hasyim saw this group as susceptible to fundamentalism, which viewed tradition and modernity to be antagonistic, and he founded Al-Hikam to curb its growth among college students.

During the War in Afghanistan (2001–present), he rejected calls to recruit NU members to fight a jihad against the United States-led coalition.

Hasyim started his political career as a member of the city-level parliament of Malang for the United Development Party (PPP, an Islamist party that had begun as a coalition of four parties in opposition to the Suharto government).

Initially, Gus Dur's good relationship with Hasyim became strained after at the PKB National Working Meeting in 2003, Hasyim's name was also mentioned as one of the party's presidential candidates.

Gus Dur rolled out the issue of the NU Extraordinary Congress.

The kiai, according to Gus Dur, said they were disappointed and dissatisfied with the performance of the NU Executive Board led by Hasyim.

He tried to suppress the news of the feud with Gus Dur.

Hasyim is also not sure that PKB intends to seriously support him as a presidential candidate.

"If there is an impression that I am hostile, that is just an impression. What is clear is that my position is different from his. I lead the NU mass organization, and Gus Dur leads the party."

Hasyim was the vice presidential running mate of President Megawati Sukarnoputri in the 2004 Indonesian presidential election, though the ticket was defeated in a runoff.

In 2004, he co-founded the International Conference of Islamic Scholars with Hassan Wirajuda, an Indonesian diplomat and former foreign minister.

This conference held interfaith dialogues and meetings, and was intended to improve relations between Islamic and Western communities after the September 11 attacks.

As the 2004 presidential election approached, the common ground between Wahid and Hasyim became clearer.PKB ran with Wahid as the candidate for President of the Republic of Indonesia, but Wahid failed to contest the 2004 presidential election due to health reasons.

Hasyim was then proposed by Megawati Sukarnoputri to become his companion through the PDI Perjuangan.

Hasyim will run without Gus Dur's blessing and without the PKB.

In 2004, he was the running mate of the incumbent president Megawati Sukarnoputri in Indonesia's first direct presidential election.

The ticket won 26.2% of the votes in the first round of elections, which was a second-place finish, and forced a runoff election, but Hasyim and the incumbent president lost to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla in the runoff.

Hasyim held the Chairman position for two terms, until 2010 when he could not run again because of term limit.

When Gus Dur was about to be removed from his position as President, the NU masses in East Java threatened that if Gus Dur were removed, they would attack Jakarta.

A number of Golkar offices in East Java were burned down.

The trees were felled and placed across the main road along Pasuruan towards Banyuwangi.

“If Gus Dur is constitutionally removed, I don't think there will be any resistance from the grassroots, but the NU kiai feel that Gus Dur was forced to step down in unfair ways.

This, the kiai think they have to defend the President," said Kiai Hasyim, chairman of PBNU at the time,

In the 2014 presidential election, he joined the campaign team of Joko Widodo who was later elected president.

He subsequently served in the Presidential Advisory Council from 2015 until his death.