On November 4, 2008, CRCS-UGM and ICRS-Yogya were invited by Britain’s Prince Charles to discuss interreligious dialogue in Indonesia. The meeting took place in the Yogyakarta Palace. CRCS’s delegation consisted of executive director of CRCS, Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir, and three students from CRCS, Gregory Lee (American, CRCS class of 2008), Novita, (Indonesian, CRCS class of 2007), and Willis (Indonesian, CRCS alumni). In addition, the ICRS delegation consisted of Prof. Bernard Adeney Risakotta, executive director of ICRS and three students. The ICRS students were Ahmed Saber Awad (Egyptian, class of 2008) Fransiska Widyawati (Indonesian, class of 2008) and Inayah Rohmaniyah (Indonesian,class of 2007).
According to Dr. Zainal, Prince Charles wanted to know how interreligious dialogue is conducted in Indonesia and how CRCS and ICRS have experienced it. Prince Charles valued Indonesia’s approach, because even though there are many problems and obstacles in conducting interreligious dialogue in Indonesia, Indonesia has been successful because Indonesia has a long history in managing interreligious dialogue compared with other countries. Furthermore, Dr. Zainal explained that Prince Charles had two agendas when visiting Indonesia. First, he wanted to know about the environmental crisis in Indonesia and its relation to interreligious dialogue. In that respect, he noted two things. According to him, religions have the resources to help overcome the environmental crisis.
For instance, NU and Muhammadiyah as organizations have many followers in Indonesia, and they have a strong potential to influence in the environmental movement. These organizations can issue written guidance about how to engage in environmental conservation. This activity has wider effects for the followers of the organizations. On this occasion, Prince Charles admired the development of interreligious dialogue in Indonesia. Furthermore he hoped that CRCS and ICRS can cooperate with the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, where Prince Charles serves as patron, to develop interreligious dialogue in the world. Besides talking about religion and the environmental crisis, Prince Charles also discussed the matter of interpretation in religions, in which almost all religions can give interpretations which tend towards violence. This is not only the case in Islam, but also in other religions, such as Christian fundamentalism in America. Besides interpretations that tend toward violence, there is also the interpretation which underscores peace. Prince Charles stated that one of our duties is to develop better religious interpretation in a peaceful context and build good relationships among religious followers.
On this occasion, Dr. Zainal explained that CRCS and ICRS had the opportunity to discuss these issues with Prince Charles because Sultan Hamungkubuwono recommended CRCS and ICRS to the British embassy. CRCS and ICRS were chosen because these two programs have a strong focus on interreligious dialogue. Dr. Zainal stated that currently CRCS and ICRS are developing religious studies in Indonesia, with support from many governments, such as the British, New Zealand and Australia. Further, CRCS is also engaged in international religious studies. According to the GMU executive secretary Djoko Moerdiyanto, Gadjah Mada University is very pleased to have received special attention from Prince Charles for the work of the Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies and the Indonesia Consortium for Religious Studies. GMU is committed to further developing religious studies in Indonesia.