Paper Example on Indonesia: Home to the World's Largest Muslim Population

Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world. At present, the number of Muslims reaches in this country is estimated to reach 207 million people or 85% on the total population. This enormous number also implies that around 13% of Muslims around the world live in Indonesia. Although the majority of the population is Muslim, Indonesia is not an Islamic state based on Islamic laws. This country holds a democratic principle, which also means the freedom of religion of all citizens, but with certain conditions. Every individual is obliged to embrace one of the six religions (atheism is not an option), which is recognized by the state: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Consequently, why did Islam become the dominant religion in Indonesia instead of Christianity (Catholics) such in the Philippines, its neighboring regional country? This essay will analyze the economic, political, and social causes that are considered as the significant driven factors which have facilitated the Islamic superiority in this nation out of three different stages.

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To start, Islam initially entered and was known to by the local Indonesian community because of commercial activities before that time, where the rampant of the world market in the 7th century has started to take place. The economy usually plays a significant role in regards to the spread of religion or other aspects. This is because people interact within a commercial setting such as markets and through trade.

Indonesia is geographically located in a strategic location of trade-route and was also one of the spice-producing countries. Hence myriad traders and merchants arrived there, including those from Arab India and Persia who are Muslim. Many of them then lived and built settlements and preached about Islam to the locals. The first people to adopt the new religion were the local traders and the royalty of major kingdoms. The Islamic spread among the ruling class precipitated as the Muslim traders were marrying the local women of the Indonesian community. Some of the wealthy traders married the families of the ruling elites.

After the Islam teachings has been accepted and followed by more people, they became familiar with religious customs and practices. This phase has contributed to establishing the start-off structure of the political system in Indonesia. At that time, Islamic empires began to be formed in several islands of Indonesia. For instance, the Malacca Empire located around the Strait of Malacca, which is the shortest shipping channel from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, a significant economic connection between these countries which are now known as the Middle East, China, Japan, and South Korea. The empire had relatively rapid progress and was influential enough to emerge the concept of regulations that guarantee the political, monetary systems such as rules on unity of size and the payment system of using coins. Banten Empire was also another well-leading Islamic center by the Javanese in Strait of Sunda. Banten empire is the westernmost province of the java island within Indonesia. This empire was influential in teaching and organizing tariqas within Indonesia.

Its aristocrat, Regent of Banten, chose to get his younger sister, Nhay Kawunganten, to marry Syarif Hidayatullah, a Muslim merchant, because he was fascinated by his character and knowledge. Subsequently, the good profiles of rich, charming, knowledgeable merchants were effectual in appealing the royals and nobles as a perfect match for the young royal and noble ladies. Having the marriage system counts as a significant approach in constructing stepping-stones of the Islamic expansion, although Hinduism and Buddhist already reigned this area. Following the royal, aristocratic families who were converted to Islam belief because of the marriages, so did their obedient commoners would instinctively imitate similar decisions.

Another reason, the class division (caste) concept in Hinduism created a social gap between people, a theoretical postulation that was not found in Islam; thus, this belief instead readily embraced and replaced the Hinduism of the local people who yearn for equality of rights and opportunities. This initiates the idea that the "Islam propagators" were able to win the hearts of all social groups, including the royal authorities, to believe and practice Islam. Moreover, there is a principle in Islam that is more children means more blessing, and so in respect to practice the teaching, Muslim family and its descendant's population able to increase in Indonesia.

Having the success of Islamic empires and following dominion gain of Islamic religion, the Muslims try to integrate Islamic teaching into educational institutions to validate the Islamic supremacy in various regions. The strategy used is to establish Islamic boarding schools in which purpose to deepen the teachings of Islam. The alumni who are called Santri, once finished, will become Islamic religious leaders and spread the teachings to various other regions. Besides, the channel of Islamisation was also developed through art. Among them are traditional buildings, sculptures, dances, music-for example, the sculpture in the ancient mosque of Demak or Banten Great Mosque.

Arts puppets performance, the traditional form of theatre plays that used to convey Islamic teachings. Traditional dances are performed using gamelan instrument to perform the religious motive in persuading the audience to intrigue the Islamic practices.

Overall, from the previous elucidation, Islam in the past managed to enter and completely change the majority of the original Hinduism community and traditional political institutions into an Islamic empire.

Furthermore, the second phase of Islamic interaction with colonialism in Indonesia comprised of Islamic groups who went against Dutch invaders, and this was carried out by for 3.5 centuries. Islam and European colonialism shaped the modern Indonesia. Indonesia, as a country, is known for being colonized by the Dutch from 1600-1941 due to different reasons. In the Netherlands, there was the development of anti-colonial resistance from the Dutch. Dutch attempted to downplay the sharp edges of conflict existing between two parties, the believers and non-believers. Islam in the Netherlands could not allow the Dutch to change their society or rather their way of life. In this light, they resisted in three stages; this entailed the Islamic rulers and states, Islamic rebels within the vassal states, and lastly, the areas that were directly ruled. Due to such resistance, the Islamic religion within Indonesia grew broadly.

In that midst of Dutch East-Indies pro-Christian policies that hampered the development and implementation of Islam, The Islamic group then decided to make strategic partnerships with the leaders of the Protestant reformation in search of religious and commercial supremacy and income. Such alliances established essential socio-religious frameworks that shaped political thinking and contemporary government institutions, including the philosophy of the state, the Pancasila, and the constitution, which forced the government to recognize religion. As time went by, many Muslims were given the freedom to practice their religion freely. Enabling environment encouraged Islam religion, which thrive as the majority religion of the Indonesian population.

More relevantly, in the period leading-up to Indonesian independence, the Islamic groups took a pro-active attitude towards preparing for the formation of a post-independence state. The world's two main denominations of Muslims, the socially conservative Nahdlatul Ulama and the reformers Muhammadiyah, coincided with the rise of the Islamic Merchants Movement as a political Islam. The emergence of Islamic political parties and Islamic religious groups after Suharto's collapse was not sudden in any way. The cycle was slow, with numbers of national and global influences involved. Muslim leaders and political activists endured state persecution under the regimes of Sukarno and Suharto, but this simply had the effect of motivating Muslims to organize themselves through revolutionary organizations and movements.

Islamic nationalists and religious leaders sought to establish Islam as a national principle of Indonesia but ultimately had to compromise with the heterogeneity of Indonesian society. They created a religious conflict which always kept the Indonesians protestants at war with the Muslims. The pre-eminence of Sufism amongst Islam in Indonesian persisted until the move from South Asia to the Arab Peninsula of external interference, whose intellectuals introduced more conservative teachings and interpretations of Islam. Some ruling forces had viewed the gradual embrace of Islam by Indonesians as a menace. As coastal cities adopted Islam, it weakened the fading influence of the 16th-century East Javanese Hindu / Buddhist Majapahit empire. Javanese leaders subsequently escaped to Bali, where over 2.5 million Indonesians conducted their edition of Hinduism. Unlike the coastal Sumatra, whereby elites and masses embraced Islam. It partially acted as a strategy to fight the political and economic influence of the Hindu Buddhist empires. The liberals only slowly embraced Islam in Java's interior, and then only as a legitimate legislative and theological framework for Javanese spirituality.

Conclusion

Conclusively, political leaders favored the Islamic nation to overwhelm the Indonesia region. The process of Islamification has been ongoing in Indonesia for several decades, and continues today. Through a succession of movements of foreign trade, the creation of numerous powerful Muslim Sultanates, and social revolutions, Islam became an influential force. However, present Indonesian Islam is also represented by the multitude as each country encountered its own distinct culture, marred by distinctive and different impacts. From the late nineteenth century onwards, Indonesia-as a whole-witnessed a more common mutual past as colonial powers imposed a unified framework on the different regions. This reconciliation process also impacted on Indonesian Islam. Indonesia also promoted religiously liberal party social groups. Also, Pancasila was inspired by some elements of selective world values and philosophies such as liberalism, humanism, liberalism, socialism, and religiosity that encouraged visitors to come and rule the Indonesian territory. The desire to harmonize this vibrant country has contributed to the creation of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, the national motto, which can be interpreted as unity in diversity. These factors created an enabling environment for Muslims to dominate the Indonesian land.

Bibliography

Feener, R. Michael. "Religious competition and conflict over the longue duree: Christianity and Islam in the Indonesian Archipelago." Asian Journal of Religion and Society 5, no. 1 (2017): 1-22.

Haryanto, Sindung. "The Sociological Context of Religion in Indonesia." In Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, Volume 30, pp. 67-102. Brill, 2019.

Prawitasari, Johana E., Evans Garey, and Ralph W. Hood. "Introduction to Social Scientific Study of Religion in Indonesia." In Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, Volume 30, pp. 47-53. Brill, 2019.

Sutrisno, Evi Lina. "Negotiating the Confucian Religion in Indonesia: Invention, Resilience and Revival (1900-2010)." PhD diss., 2018.