According to the Iranian Cultural Center in Jakarta, he was appointed the head of the movement on Saturday.
The center in a message congratulated the scholar on the appointment.
Born in 1953, Miftachul Akhyar previously headed a religious school in Surabaya, a port city on the Indonesian island of Java.
He also served as the head of Nahdlatul Ulama’s branch in Java and vice-president of the movement from 2015 to 2020.
Nahdlatul Ulama (literally translated to Revival of the Ulama) is a traditionalist Sunni Islam movement in Indonesia following the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence. It was established on January 31, 1926 in Surabaya as a response to the rise of Wahabism in Saudi Arabia.