A cleric from Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization, has won the 2017 Yap Thiam Hien Award for his efforts in upholding human rights and promoting diversity through writing. Ahmad Mustofa Bisri, known as Gus Mus, is the first Muslim cleric to receive the award, which was established by the Jakarta-based Human Rights Study Center Foundation in 1992 to honor the late Yap Thiam Hien (1913-89), a noted lawyer and human rights defender in Indonesia.
Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister, Susi Pudjiastuti presented the award to the 73-year-old leader of an Islamic Boarding School in Rembang, Central Java. Foundation director, Todung Mulya Lubis said Gus Mus had worked for human rights in terms of religious issues and for diversity and social harmony. Gus Mus had shared with people his ideas through poems and never took part in any protests, he said. Father Antonius Benny Susetyo, secretary of the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace’s national council, acknowledged that Gus Mus deserved the award.”He is a figure who can become a bridge of peace,” he said.
(Extracted from www.ucanews.com)
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