One of the world’s largest Muslim groups has admitted that extremism and the groups associated with it — such as the Taliban, ISIS and al-Quaeda — are rooted in Islamic teaching.

Earlier this month, Indonesian Muslim cleric Yahya Staquf was speaking on behalf of Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Muslim group in the world, to an international Muslim conference being held in Jakharta, Indonesia.

In his address, Staquf said:

“We keep on denying the source of the problem, name some ailments within Islam itself.

To be able to combat the global jihadi movement, world leaders and the general public must recognize the fact that extremism originates from Islamic teachings.”

He further stated that extremists use Islamic teaching to justify their acts of violence. Staquf believes the only way to stop Muslim terror is to reform Islam itself. Islam needs to change.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems in Islam is that extremist elements consider any criticism of Islam as blasphemy and punishable by death.

They use intimidation to quell any dissent and because of this few Muslims are willing take on extremism.

In an interview with CNN, Swedish terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp applauded Staquf’s statements adding that he has not seen any European Muslims standing up to Islam’s extremists.

Indonesia has one of the largest Muslim populations in the world. With an estimated 258 million people, 87% are considered Muslim and 10% Christian. Though many of the iconic photos of Indonesia incorporate Hindu and Buddhist temples, they only make up 1.7% and .9% of the population respectively.

Sources:

• Largest Muslim group admits wrong in Islamic teachings; Calls for revision to counter religious extremism: Gospel Herald
• Muslim group on extremism: ‘We keep denying the source of the Problem: CBN
• Indonesian Muslims denounce extremism: CNN