Hence, these religious tensions in fact caused the next wave of Islamization in Indonesia. Ahok was later trialed for blasphemy, resulting in a very controversial two-year prison sentence for him possibly even the judges were intimidated by the religious tensions. Meanwhile, Ahok also lost his bid for re-election being defeated by Anies Baswedan. This was a big victory for the hardliners. Perhaps for the first time these hardliners felt they had influence on Indonesian politics.
The chaos and religious tensions related to Jakarta's gubernatorial election were likely to extend into Indonesia's presidential and legislative elections. After all, incumbent President Widodo was seen as an ally of Ahok. Hence, hardliners were also after Widodo. Moreover, controversial presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto reached out to the hardliners as this would boost his chances in the presidential race.
Widodo, however, managed to fend off 'attacks' from the hardline groups by selecting renowned conservative Muslim cleric Ma'ruf Amin as his vice-presidential candidate in the presidential election. While these fatwas are not legally binding, they have been used to legitimize increasingly hateful rhetoric by Indonesian government officials against the country's LGBT people and in some cases even fueled fatal violence by Islamists against some religious minorities.
Although religious tensions in Indonesia rapidly vanished after Amin sat next to Widodo and they also managed to win the presidential election , the election can also be regarded a victory for conservative Islam as there is now a conservative Muslim cleric on a high political position with certain political powers.
This might set a precedent for future elections. And, interestingly enough, this would not have happened if Ahok's term as Governor of Jakarta had not ended so badly. Thus, while initially - in - many people including human rights advocates applauded the fact that a Christian could become the governor of Jakarta, in the end it would trigger a new wave of Islamization across Indonesia, while strengthening the influence of hardline Muslim groups on Indonesian politics.
Since the s, Islam has become more visible on the streets in Indonesia and has begun to play a more important role in the daily lives of the Muslims. For example, the number of Indonesian women who wear the headscarf jilbab or kerudung has increased significantly, and it has become more common to visit the mosque. However, it is important to underline that this development of Islamization should not be mistaken for Islamic radicalism or Islamism. By far most Indonesian Muslims are tolerant towards other religions or other streams within the Islam.
Only a small fraction of Indonesian society can be labeled 'radical' or 'hard-line'. And a very small percentage of Indonesian Muslims participate in - or agree with - terrorist activities although there is concern that this group is growing.
Incidences which involved Islamic radicalism have been witnessed before, such as the Darul Islam rebellions in the s, regional rebellions in the late s, the massacres of communists in , an airplane hijacking in , multiple attacks on Christian churches and Buddhist monuments, as well as multiple actions against brothels, bars and casino's in recent decades.
For more detailed information regarding this topic please visit our Radical Islam page. English Bahasa Indonesia. Sign in Subscribe Newsletter. Home Culture Religion Islam. Indonesian islands with a Muslim majority population: 1. North Moluccas The populous western part of Indonesia contains a relatively much larger Muslim community than the eastern part.
Arrival of Islam to Indonesia Although it is difficult to reconstruct the exact development of early Islamization in the archipelago due to a lack of sources , it seems certain that international trade played a crucial factor. Along with trade, they propagated Islam among the Indonesian people, particularly along the coastal areas of Java, like Demak. At a later stage they even influenced and converted Hindu kings to Islam, the first being the Sultan of Demak.
This Muslim Sultan Raden Fatah later spread Islam westwards to the cities of Cirebon and Banten, and eastward along the northern coast of Java to the kingdom of Gresik. However, Majapahit's forces were driven back. From the 15th and 16th centuries, Indonesian rulers made Islam the state religion.
It was, however, superimposed on the prevailing mix of Hinduism and animism to produce the hybrid religion that is followed in much of Indonesia today. By the 15th century, the trading kingdom of Melaka on the Malay Peninsula was reaching the height of its power and had embraced Islam. Its influence strengthened the spread of Islam through the archipelago. By the time of the collapse of the Majapahit kingdom in the early s, many of its satellite kingdoms had already declared themselves independent Islamic states.
Much of their wealth came from being transhipment points for the spice trade, and Islam followed the trade routes across the archipelago. During the 14th and 15th century. Muslim traders and sultanates expanded from west to east through Sumatra and Java, driving out Buddhist rulers and forcing Hindu leader to move to Bali, and then on to other islands.
Islam remains strongest on the western side of Indonesia. Not surprisingly, Christianity later was able to make the greatest inroads in the east because Islam was not as firmly planted there.
Melaka rose as a trading port around the same time it embraced Islam, paving the way for the religion to be spread throughout the archipelago. By the time th Majapahit Empire collapsed in the 16th century, there were a number of largely independent Muslim sultanates that had grown powerful and rich as transhipment points and from the growing spice trade and trade between India and China.
There were also a number of Islamic schools, especially in northern Java and the east coast of Sumatra. For along time Muslims were the minority so they had little choice but to respect existing religions. Many Buddhist monasteries became Muslim centers. There are still some Buddhist left. Buddhist beliefs pervade every day life and some Buddhist festivals are still celebrated.
As the number of Muslims grew Indonesia was divided into small kingdoms ruled by sultans. Numerous Muslim cities and states started on the coast and expanded towards the interior. Among the Muslim kings that emerged on Java in the 15th and 16th centuries were Dema, Cinebon and Bantem. Chief was Malacca states on Malay peninsula By the end 16th century, Islam was the state religion in many places.
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If you are the copyright owner and would like this content removed from factsanddetails. Arrival of Islam in Asia and Indonesia The Indian Ocean continued to serve as both a commercial and a cultural link between Indonesia and the countries to the west.
By the 14 th century, when Islam had spread throughout Java and Sumatra, this belief in the legitimacy of rule by kinship with the Prophet was widely accepted by the Malay people. Consequently, the newly converted rulers sought marriage ties with the Sayyids and Sheriffs, who were Arab immigrants from Mecca and Madina. The progeny of these marriages could rightfully claim their lineage both from the ruling dynasties of the islands and the family of the Prophet.
The kingdom of Majapahit was no exception to this longing for legitimacy. As more and more Javanese accepted Islam, the rulers of Majapahit had to bow to the will of the people, accept Islam and fulfill the requirements of legitimacy as accepted by the general population. His disciple Syed Abu Bakr carried on his work. In , Sharif Muhammed Kabungsuan, moved from Malacca to Mindanao, where he worked tirelessly to introduce the faith.
Further north, in the areas around the modern city of Manila, Sufi shaykhs carried on dawah invitation to the faith work. The Spanish forcibly converted these areas to Christianity when they conquered the Philippines The southern region of Sumatra was Islamized in the latter part of the 15 th century.
The islands of the Celebes and the western regions of New Guinea also embraced Islam around through the work of Shaykh Putah. Islam spread like a beacon, carried from island to island, for almost four hundred years.
Each time the inhabitants of an island accepted Islam, they themselves became the standard bearers of the new faith and worked hard to convert others. By the time the Portuguese and the Spanish arrived on the scene in the 16 th century onwards , the entire Archipelago was either under the sway of Islam or on its way to becoming Muslim. Islam is not just a dogma and a collection of rituals. It is a total worldview that embraces the intellect as well as the spirit. It is a paradigm shift that transforms individuals, societies and civilizations, reshaping their horizons and remolding them in a global framework.
And so it was in the archipelago. The introduction of tasawwuf into the Archipelago sparked intense intellectual activity among the Malays, much as it had done earlier in Central Asia, Persia, India, Egypt and North Africa.
Debates and discussions on the spiritual aspects of tasawwuf produced some of the most sublime literature in the Malay language. Shaykh Hamza al Fansuri, who lived in Acheh northern Sumatra during the reign of Riyat Shah , is the best known of the Sufi poets of the era. The Malays were as intensely involved with discussions about Wahdat al Wajud Unity of Existence as was the rest of the Islamic world at that time.
The greatest exponent of this school of tasawwuf in the Malay language was Nuruddin al Raniri d. It is also noteworthy that Acheh northern Sumatra produced a succession of four Muslim queens starting with Sultana Tajul Alam Safiyyatuddin Shah These women monarchs ruled with distinction over most of the islands of Sumatra and parts of Java and brought pride and honor to the womanhood of Islam.
During the second phase of Islamic penetration, immigration from India to the Archipelago increased. These migrations were helped by the growth of trade in the Indian Ocean and the pivoted role of Malabar, Gujrat and Bengal in this trade. After , thanks to the vagaries of Emperor Muhammed bin Tughlaq, India split up into regional powers. Among the more powerful were the kingdoms of Gujrat , Bengal and the Deccan Sultanates — Merchants, Sufi shaykhs and ulema from Gujrat, Bengal, the Makran coast of Baluchistan and the Deccan made up the ranks of immigrants to the Archipelago.
In the 19 th and the 20 th centuries, when Great Britain controlled both India and Malaya, more Indians traveled to Malaya as soldiers and policemen. Despite these migrations, the Indian Muslims remained a small minority in both Malaya and Indonesia although many Muslim Indo-Pakistanis intermarried with the Malays and became a part of the Islamic amalgam. In the third phase to the consolidation of Islam that had started in the second phase continued.
Major strides were made not just in the conversion of people, but also in the evolution of culture and literature. The influence of Islam on the Malay language was profound. In India and Pakistan, the cultural impact of the Turks had resulted in the birth of a new language, Urdu.
In Indonesia and Malaysia, the religious impact of the Sufis and the ulema transformed the Malay language. Arabic and Farsi words enriched the language, expanding its reach to include philosophy, theology, polemics, exposition and the rational sciences, which facilitated the integration of the Malay peoples into the international brotherhood of Islam.
The transcendence of Tawhid replaced the old worldview based on man-made deities. Language itself went through a transformation to accommodate the concepts of Being and the universal community of man.
By the 16 th century, the Malay language had become the common medium of expression of all the Malay peoples in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, displacing the ancient Javanese language. It also became the medium for the propagation of the new faith throughout the islands. The third phase is also marked by the appearance of the Europeans. The Portuguese arrived first, capturing by force of arms the commercially important straits of Malacca in The fall of Malacca forced the migration of local scholars to the other islands, in turn facilitating the further spread of Islam.
The experience of the Archipelago with regard to its initial contacts with the Europeans was the same as that of all the other littoral states in the Indian Ocean. Once the Portuguese had circumnavigated the coast of Africa and had established themselves in Goa India , they embarked on a systematic campaign to destroy the important trading centers of East Africa, the Persian Gulf, western India and the Archipelago.
However, it was soon obvious that Portugal had neither the manpower nor the resources to dominate the Indian Ocean. The powerful Ottoman Turks, who had by now assumed the Caliphate and were duty-bound to assist the Muslims around the globe, resisted the Portuguese aggression. Turkish naval forces engaged the Portuguese navy off the shores of East Africa and contained the advance of Portuguese power After , a balance of power prevailed between Portugal and the land powers of Asia.
The spirit of resistance to the European Christian invasions provided further impetus and drive to the spread of Islam in the Archipelago. The next on the scene were the Spanish who were just as ruthless as the Portuguese and were far more powerful.
After expelling the Jews and the Muslims from Spain and destroying the ancient civilizations of the Aztecs, the Mayans and the Incas in the Americas to , the Spanish made their appearance in East Asia. Magellan arrived in , just about the time that the Sultan of Manila had accepted Islam and the new faith was establishing roots in the northern islands. In , the Philippines fell to the Spanish who promptly introduced the Inquisition into the Archipelago and started a process of forced conversion.
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