Sunni-Shia dialogue: What’s feasible
Muhamad Ali, California | Opinion | Fri, August 21 2015, 6:50 AM One of the strategic issues raised at the recent 47th congress (muktamar)of the nation’s largest modernist Islamic organization, Muhammadiyah, was the enhancement of Sunni-Shia dialogue. The Sunni-Shia crisis is almost as old as Islam itself, occurring right after the death of Prophet Muhammad. The conflict continues to resurface in parts of the Middle East and even in Sampang, Madura in East Java from 2011 onward, albeit on a much smaller and local scale. These tensions, both abroad and at home, have led Muhammadiyah leaders, scholars and activists to address the issue by advocating “internal” dialogues. According to scholars on Islam such as Robin Bush and Budhy-Munawar Rachman, the official positions of Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama(NU) toward the Sunni-Shia tension are generally “conservative”. But the same findings also reveal diverse opinions within the leadership and membership of these two largest Islamic organ...