China and Spread of Islam in Indonesia

[falah]

China and Spread of Islam in Indonesia

Immigrants of Chinese descendant played a major role in converting the people to Islam.



History has it that the early wave of Chinese Muslims migration into Indonesia was not intended to spread the teachings of Islam. Welfare was the main reason they came into the archipelago.

The voyage of Admiral Zheng He to Indonesia in the 15th century was also of the cause. Zheng He was the first Chinese Muslim leader who explore Southeast Asia.

He along with his men, who were also Muslim, sought to attain his goals in strengthening China's relations with Asian and Africana countries through trade and diplomacy.

Some references write that Zheng He were accompanied with two interpreters, Ma Huan and Guo Chong Li, who were very proficient in Arabic and Persian. Although the initial goal was not to propagate Islam, the assimilation process made many residents of the places they visited eventually embraced Islam.

Immigrants of Chinese descendant played a major role in converting the people to Islam. Several sources noted that some of the members of the Wali Songo (the nine revered saints of Islam in Indonesia, especially in Java, because of their historic role in the spread of Islam in Indonesia) had Chinese blood in them.

So the assimilation of Chinese and indigenous Muslims actually took place. However, when the Dutch came and put into practice divide-and-conquer policy, the integration failed. The policy divided the population into three groups, namely European, Easterners (Chinese, Indian, Arabic), and the natives or inlanders, who were of Muslim majority.

The Dutch appeared to be afraid to see the Chinese and Muslims united, so they made regulations that could separate these two categories. Then in the 18th century, the Dutch issued a regulation banning the Chinese from converting to Islam forbidding Muslims from marrying a Chinese ethnic. The colonial regulation further distanced the Chinese from the natives.

In order to unite Chinese Muslims with Indonesian Muslims, Chinese Muslims with Chinese ethnic and Chinese ethnic with the Indonesian natives, Haji Isa Idris initiated the establishment of the Chinese Muslim Association of Indonesia (PITI) on April 14, 1961, in Jakarta.

However, in 1972, at the urging of the Attorney General’s Office, which deemed the religion of Islam as universal, thus there is no such term as Chinese Muslims or other Islam, then the PITI changed its name into Islamic Tawhid Builder. PITI changed back into Chinese Muslim Association of Indonesia after being deliberated in the organizational leaders’ meeting in May 2000.

There are no official data on the number of Chinese Muslims in Indonesia. PITI, as an organization that houses Chinese Muslims, does not collect the data regarding the exact number of Chinese Muslims in Indonesia. PITI viewed that such data are not necessary because it suggests the partition between native Muslims and Chinese Muslim.

The grouping between the Chinese and the natives actually suggests a gap between the two. No wonder, whether noticed or not, people still have a certain stereotype for ethnic Chinese, that they are generally rich, they tend to be exclusive, stingy, ethnocentric, and apathetic.

Given the problem of national inter-ethnicity, PITI has a mission to be the mediator. Thinking that there is no problem anymore with the natives who are Muslim majority, PITI has a duty to disseminate Islam among the non-Muslim Chinese.

Socialization is important to mend the impaired perceptions that have been firmly implanted in the minds of both societies. These include that ethnic Chinese are exclusive and wealthy, albeit such perceptions are not entirely true.

Meanwhile, non-Muslim Chinese hold to the stigma that Islam or the natives is of the lower class, so they need not mingle with the latter. The Dutch divide-and-rule policy was significant in engrafting the perceptions in the minds of Indonesians. The brainwashing was deliberately made to ruin Indonesia as a nation.

PITI is expected to be able to nourish the communication with non-Muslim Chinese. The similarity of characters between the Muslim Chinese and non-Muslim Chinese is expected to make smoother communication possible. Thus, the misperceptions between the natives and non-Muslim Chinese can be addressed.

As regards the spread of Islam among the ethnic Chinese, the Haji Karim Oei Foundation (YHKO) should also be noted. Karim Oei was a prominent Muslim of Chinese descent who was familiar with such national founding fathers as Sukarno and Muhammad Hatta. Apart from being known as a devout Muslim who practiced the Islamic Sharia, he was also a successful entrepreneur who co-founded Bank Central Asia (BCA).

The foundation was established in 1991 by Haji Junus Jahya to commemorate Karim Oei. YHKO Jakarta is located in a four-storey shophouse on Jalan Pasar Baru Lautze 87-89, where the ground floor functioned as a mosque (Masjid Lautze).

Various activities are carried out here, such as regular Quran recitals on Sundays (open for public), study of religion, mental health therapy, Mandarin course and education for the converts.

http://us.en.vivanews.com/news/read/...m-in-indonesia

[Abdraheim]

aint that ironic

[Masjidah]

I really appreciate this post here on AM.

Well, from the time of the third caliph of Islam, 'Uthman' (644-656) Muslim emissaries and merchants were arriving in China who must have passed Indonesia sea routes through Indonesia from the Islamic world. Perhaps they had established Muslim community in Indonesia before reached China mainland.

Wahab bin Qabishah Mursala landed on Barus, North Sumatra Province, in 627 AD (before Rasulullah SAW passed away in 632 AD). Later Sheikh Ismail went to Samudera Pasai and stopped at Barus around 634 AD. Since then, the Arabs established Muslim colony in Barus long before Admiral Zheng He come to Indonesia.

Beside, the oldest masjid in China (Huaisheng Mosque) was built in 650s AD after Khalifah Uthman ibn Affan RA sent an envoy to invite the Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty to join Islam. The Emperor declined the invitation, but respected Islamic teachings, and believed it to be compatible with his Confucian life philosophy, later granted permission for the Muslim envoy to build a mosque in the city. Means, it was about 20 years after Muslim first arrived at Barus.

Other references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Indonesia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_...m_in_Indonesia

BTW I like the fact that Islam is the dominant religion in Indonesia, which also has a larger Muslim population than any other country in the world, with approximately 202.9 million identified as Muslim (88.2% of the total population as of 2009), without ever state itself as "Islamic Republic". All of us here have learned that any diversity/discrepancy/disparity/contrast should not become reason to discriminate anyone, otherwise we might end up killing each other in the name of Allah again (yeah, it happened - and still happening at micro scale though). Look what is happening in Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

Disappointing fact: Anyone you meet anywhere in Indonesia, it's 88.2% probability that s/he is a Muslim but you might be surprised that probabbly nobody would say salam to you (eventhough you wear above ankle pants, turban, and got beard) unless s/he knows you. Not good habit, I guess. We only say it whenever enter/leave a room. At personal level, it replaces "hello" and "see you later" when we meet someone we know for sure as Muslim.

Fun fact: Unless it's a restaurant selling pork, then wherever you go will not get any other food other than halal ones. Buy poultry or meat anywhere, it must be butchered on Islamic way. That's why http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/conte...1/s3228880.htm was a bit confusing. Perhaps it was staged (http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/...-claims/458503). Anyway, probably because Indonesia is Australia's largest market for live-cattle exports (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13605058) then everything's okay now (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...146194/1/.html).

Salam,

[nis]

[QUOTE=Masjidah;537051]I really appreciate this post here on AM.

Well, from the time of the third caliph of Islam, 'Uthman' (644-656) Muslim emissaries and merchants were arriving in China who must have passed Indonesia sea routes through Indonesia from the Islamic world. Perhaps they had established Muslim community in Indonesia before reached China mainland.

Wahab bin Qabishah Mursala landed on Barus, North Sumatra Province, in 627 AD (before Rasulullah SAW passed away in 632 AD). Later Sheikh Ismail went to Samudera Pasai and stopped at Barus around 634 AD. Since then, the Arabs established Muslim colony in Barus long before Admiral Zheng He come to Indonesia.

Beside, the oldest masjid in China (Huaisheng Mosque) was built in 650s AD after Khalifah Uthman ibn Affan RA sent an envoy to invite the Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty to join Islam. The Emperor declined the invitation, but respected Islamic teachings, and believed it to be compatible with his Confucian life philosophy, later granted permission for the Muslim envoy to build a mosque in the city. Means, it was about 20 years after Muslim first arrived at Barus.

Other references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Indonesia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_...m_in_Indonesia

...

Salams sister, do you have any references that are not from wikipedia?
Thanks

[Masjidah]

Waalaikum salam,

Only those two lines marked as "other references" that I've taken from Wikipedia. The rest of details might be known by 5th Grader Muslim students in Indonesia from history textbook, also based on my discussion with a friend (Barus is his hometown, and I've ever watched the feature about it on TV) and my visit to Masjid Huaisheng (December 2010).

About no more Muslim who's killing each other on big scale, I could write it because my grandfather miraculously survived and once I had boyfriend who was assigned as medical emergency team to somewhere in East Indonesia during civil war between Muslim and Christian not so long ago.

I wear hijab, but guys who said salam to me mostly had intention to tease (they would whistle to girls without hijab). Well, not all, but please don't get emotional when you experience it by yourself here in Indonesia.

As for food in Malaysia, it's true and I've experienced it by myself. There were some restaurants hang some kinds of Arabic wall decoration, could give us wrong impression that it's selling halal food, still you must ask first to confirm.

In Indonesia, once a bakery or fast food chain or any brand of food rumored as non-halal then rapidly will lose the huge number of customers. No other way to recover sales than getting halal certificate from authorized organization.

There you go...no quote from Wikipedia tonight...

[Masjidah]

aint that ironic

Which part is ironic?

[muslim-homeexchange]

assalam alaykum

you can learn a lot on this website http://www.crescentrating.com/en/ind...travelers.html here is the journey of ibn battuta in sumatra island indonesia.