Though  located  far away from the center of  the Islamic world, the huge Muslim population of Indonesia has shown for centuries strong affiliation to the Sunni Middle East. It was largely established on substantial transmission of Islamic knowledge and ideas from the Middle East to the Islamic “periphery” of Indonesia; very rarely, if at all, have such ideas and knowledge flowed in the opposite direction. 
The talk will aim to address the diverse aspects of how the Indonesian government has been promoting the concept of Islam Nusantara (Islam of the Indonesian Archipelago) to fight extremism. The talk will also consider the current political climate that is heating up while many eyes are turned to the presidential and parliamentary
elections on April 17, 2019.

Dr. Giora Eliraz is Affiliate Instructor at the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, Seattle; Associate Fellow, the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Research Associate at the Forum for Regional Thinking (FORTH).

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