Mr Angel's confused history of the Spread of Islam in Indonesia

Submitted by Khaled Dahak (Australia), Oct 9, 2012 at 02:50

Ive done some reading and come to the conclusion the you Mr Angel and your army of 4 thumbs up, should do some reading.

The following is a small history lesson for readers with references taken from wiki.

"There is evidence of Arab Muslim traders entering Indonesia as early as the 8th century. Indonesia's historical inhabitants were animists, Hindus and Buddhists.However it was not until the end of the 13th century that the spread of Islam began.

The spread, although at first introduced through Arab Muslim traders, continued to saturate through the Indonesian people as local rulers and royalty began to adopt the religion, subsequently their subjects would mirror their conversion. The spread of Islam continued as Muslim traders married the local women, with some of the wealthier traders marrying into the families of the ruling elite.

The spread of Islam was, therefore, driven by increasing trade links outside of the archipelago; in general, traders and the royalty of major kingdoms were the first to adopt the new religion. Dominant kingdoms included Mataram in Central Java, and the sultanates of Ternate and Tidore in the Maluku Islands to the east. By the end of the thirteenth century, Islam had been established in North Sumatra; by the fourteenth in northeast Malaya, Brunei, the southwestern Philippines and among some courtiers of East Java; and the fifteenth in Malacca and other areas of the Malay Peninsula. Through assimilation Islam had supplanted Hinduism and Buddhism as the dominant religion of Java and Sumatra by the end of the 16th century. Bali retained a Hindu majority and the eastern islands remained largely animist until adopting Islam and Christianity in the 17th and 18th centuries.

During this process "cultural influences from the Hindu-Buddhist era were mostly tolerated or incorporated into Islamic rituals".

Rhoads Murphey (1992). A history of Asia. HarperCollins

Martin, Richard C. (2004). Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World Vol. 2 M-Z. Macmillan.

• Hikayat Raja-raja Pasai ("The Story of the kings of Pasai") - an Old Malay text that tells how Islam came to "Samudra" (Pasai, northern Sumatra) where the first Indonesian Islamic state was founded.
• Sejarah Melayu ("Malay History") - an Old Malay text, which like Hikayat Raja-raja Pasai tells the story of the conversion of Samudra, but also tells of the conversion of the King of Malacca.
• Babad Tanah Jawi ("History of the land of Java") - a generic name for a large number of manuscripts, in which the first Javanese conversions are attributed to the Wali Sanga ("nine saints").
• Sejarah Banten ("History of Banten") - A Javanese text containing stories of conversion."

.Lets not forget the Paregret civil war that caused Majapahit power to enter a period of decline with conflict over succession.

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