Agus Salim
AGUS SALIM Hadji Agus Salim , (born Oct. 8, 1884, Kota Gedang, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies [now Indonesia]—died Nov. 4, 1954, Yogyakarta , Indon.), Indonesian nationalist and religious leader from an upper class Minangkabau family, who played a key role during the 1920s in moderating the messianic and communist element in the Muslim nationalist movement in the Dutch East Indies. Agus Salim received a Dutch education through secondary school, after which he dealt with Dutch consular affairs in Jiddah , Arabia, where he became interested in reformist and modernist movements in Islām. In 1915 Salim joined the Sarekat Islam (Islamic Association) and soon became a leading influence in that Indonesian nationalist group. His opposition to the messianic cult that had grown up around the group’s central figure, Omar Said Tjokroaminoto , led to a de-emphasis of mystical elements in the organization. Salim, an evolutionary socialist, played an important role in the political conflic