“I regard the work of Humanitarian Islam and the Movement for Shared Civilizational Values as one of the most pathbreaking and important developments in world politics and cross-civilizational ethics in our generation. No event that I know of is more timely, urgent, or well conceived.”

~ Robert Hefner, Professor of Anthropology and International Relations at Boston University and President of the American Institute for Indonesian Studies

On 20 May 2022, the Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board appointed the Center for Shared Civilizational Values (CSCV) to serve as the Permanent Secretariat of the G20 Religion Forum (R20). As such, CSCV is responsible for the ongoing implementation and management of the work of the R20.

What is the Center for Shared Civilizational Values?

The Center for Shared Civilizational Values was established by leaders of the world’s largest Islamic organization, Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), to preserve and strengthen a rules-based international order founded upon universal ethics and humanitarian values.

The Center works with a group of closely affiliated organizations including Nahdlatul Ulama; Gerakan Pemuda Ansor, the NU’s 8-million-member young adults movement; Bayt ar-Rahmah, which helps coordinate the global expansion of NU operations; LibForAll Foundation; and the Institute for Humanitarian Islam.

These organizations seek to restore rahmah (universal love and compassion) to its rightful place as the primary message of Islam by addressing obsolete and problematic elements within Islamic orthodoxy that lend themselves to tyranny, while positioning these efforts within a much broader initiative to reject any and all forms of tyranny, and foster the emergence of a global civilization endowed with noble character. Their efforts have been extensively cited by sponsors of an international campaign to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Nahdlatul Ulama.

Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons