In the run-up to the Nahdlatul Ulama chairmanship election in 2021, Yahya Staquf wanted the Indonesian Muslim organization to continue helping raise the living standard of its community. At the same time, he wished for the organization to promote humanitarian Islam. Humanitarian Islam broadly refers to NU's efforts to promote peaceful coexistence among people of different faiths in the world, with a focus on rahmah (universal love and compassion). The main vehicles for promoting this vision on the global stage are North Carolina-registered non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Bayt ar-Rahmah and the Center for Shared Civilizational Values. These NGOs serve as “international hubs” with vast networks which facilitate the establishment of international social partnerships.

While the concept of Humanitarian Islam was officially launched in 2017, Yahya Staquf pursued this vision more actively only after he was elected NU chairman in 2021. Among others, the vision of Humanitarian Islam materialized through the Religion Twenty (R20) meeting. NU was the backbone for organizing this meeting on the sidelines of the G20 meeting held in Bali in 2022. At the meeting, religious leaders from both G20 member and non-member countries gathered in Bali to discuss how religion could be used to promote peace in the world. Nahdlatul Ulama has also been establishing partnerships with various Muslim and non-Muslim religious organizations as part of the Humanitarian Islam vision, including with the US-based African American Imam Warith Deen Muhammad (IWDM) community and the World Evangelical Alliance. NU continues to promote peace in Afghanistan.

While there has been some media coverage on Humanitarian Islam, scholarly works that address the topic of Humanitarian Islam have only just started to emerge. These include the edited volume by Rüdiger Lohlker and Katharina Ivanyi, Humanitarian Islam: Reflecting on an Islamic Concept, and a descriptive article by Murat Kaçer, both published in 2023. Our article on the prospects and challenges of promoting Humanitarian Islam fills a gap in the existing literature. On one level, it extends arguments put forth by Lohlker on pribumisasi Islam (indigenization of Islam) within Indonesia by showing how the vocabulary of indigeneity employed by NU finds synergy with organizations like the IWDM community in the US, which similarly positions itself as “indigenous” and “native”. Through drawing on original interview data with NU and IWDM leaders, this article sheds light on the type of partnerships that have and can occur as part of the Humanitarian Islam campaign. On another level, through analysing primary data—interviews, documents, and ethnographic work—our article demonstrates that the challenges NU faces are not just ideological as suggested by Kaçer but also practical.