THE JAKARTA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF MUSLIM INTELECTUALS (JICMI)

THE JAKARTA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF MUSLIM INTELECTUALS (JICMI)

Hizb ut Tahrir – Indonesia

14-15 December 2013

In the last decade, the global politics and economy have been in turbulence. The housing mortgage crisis in U.S had been protracting and becoming a global financial crisis that topples the world giant corporations. Likewise, debt crisis hit Europe. Many efforts have been done to restore the economic condition but they did not work. These indicate that global capitalism is going to collapse. At the same time, Muslim countries in the Middle East are experiencing massive political changes. The Arab Spring has successfully uprooted the dictators of the countries in waves, which began from Tunisia to Yemen, Libya, Egypt and Syria. It is a good start to kindle people’s hope in those countries. But up to now the direction of changes is still unclear.

Meanwhile as the biggest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia is still facing economic problems. Although, this country is growing 6.3% per year and becoming a country with great GDP in the South-East Asia but the gap in prosperity distribution is continuously rising. This had repercussions on increasing social problems such as crime and conflict.

As an entity of thought that is responsible for Dawah, Hizb ut Tahrir – Indonesia (HTI) tries to elaborate urgent and strategic solutions for the problems mentioned above. Therefore, HTI initiated to hold an international conference that involved Muslim Intellectuals both inside and outside of the country to discuss and formulate rule and responsibility of them to recreate an Islamic Civilization.

This conference was held for two days, 14-15 of December 2013 in Jakarta under the theme: “The End of Capitalism and The Prospect of Islamic Civilization under Khilafah”. The first day of the conference was held in Wisma Makara, the University of Indonesia and the second day of the conference took place in SMESCO Convention Hall in Jakarta. The conference committee had received hundreds of Papers from academics, practitioners and professionals. They came from various institutions both inside and outside the country (Malaysia, Australia, Japan, Lebanon, Britain and the United State of America). The papers were grouped into seven main topics, namely (1) The Global Political Changes and Its Impact to Muslim Countries, (2) The Challenges for Good Governance, (3) Economic Challenges Today, (4) Health and Food Security, (5) Energy and Natural Resources Management, (6) Women and Families, (7) Education and Technology.

Based on the discussing of results during the first day, it can be concluded that all problems that happen throughout the fields of life are not just technique problems rather they are related to one another and are rooted in the separation of religion from politics, social and economic matters. The participants believed that the Islamic Shariah is the best solution to the problem is systemic. The discussion pointed to the implementation of Islamic Shariah integrated in all aspects of life under Khilafah Islamiyah.

The first day of the conference was attended by 200 participants (Professors, Doctors and Masters) to extensively discuss the problems in detail. The second day conference was attended by 2000 participants to showcase the discussion results from the first day and build joint movement for the changes. The speakers on the first day included Prof. Dr. Fahmi Amhar from the Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) and Rokhmat S. Labib Msi, the Central Board of HTI.

The speakers on the second day included Jamal Harwood from Wales University, UK, Osman Bakhash from The Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir, Dr. Rahmat Kurnia from The Agriculture Institute of Bogor and Dwi Contri Triono, PhD from The Government Islamic University of Sunan Kalijaga. The speakers talked about the global political and economic change, and momentum of revival for Muslim countries to unite under Khilafah Islamiyah. The participants were highly enthusiastic about the ideas presented in the conference and they initiated a joint movement called “Intellectual Awakening for Khilafah”.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir – Indonesia