The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints welcomed the leader of the world’s largest Islamic organization to Utah on December 10 and 11, 2023.
KH Yahya Cholil Staquf, general chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board, and a delegation of six others visited the house of the Lord in Orem, Utah, on Sunday, December 10, 2023. Elder Adilson de Paula Parrella and Elder William K. Jackson of the Seventy led Pak Yahya’s group on a tour of this new temple, which will be dedicated in January 2024.
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| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
On Monday, the group met with President Dallin H. Oaks of the First Presidency, Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Elders Matthew S. Holland, Anthony D. Perkins and David P. Homer of the Seventy.
Church leaders’ association with Pak Yahya began one year ago. Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles met him at the G20 Religion Forum in Bali, Indonesia, in 2022. Among other things, the two discussed the pamphlet “Muslims and Latter-day Saints: Beliefs, Values, and Lifestyles,” which introduces Muslims and Latter-day Saints to each other.
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Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shares the pamphlet “Muslims and Latter-day Saints: Beliefs, Values, and Lifestyles,” with KH Yahya Cholil Staquf, general chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama Central Board, at the G20 Religion Forum in Bali, Indonesia, on Wednesday, November 2, 2022.2022 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.“When citizens learn to live together with respect and unity despite religious differences, we have the foundational stones to true peace,” Elder Stevenson said at the time. “The gospel of Jesus Christ calls on us to love people of all faiths, cultures, races and nations for the common good — all are alike unto God.”
In November 2023, Elder Perkins met Pak Yahya briefly at the pre-COP 28 Faith Leaders Summit in Abu Dhabi.
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) was founded in 1926 and is based in Jakarta, Indonesia. The organization has a membership of more than 100 million people. In addition to promoting tolerant Islamic teachings, NU has a network of some 7,000 boarding schools and 44 universities, is involved in economic and social studies and provides social services, mostly in Indonesia.
In the past five years, the Church and NU have worked together on several humanitarian projects. These include a prosthetic leg distribution in Cianjur (2023) and aid for earthquake victims in Pandeglang (2020), Donggala, Lombok and Palu (2018).
