Islamization In Indonesia

1093 Words5 Pages
Indonesia, being the fourth most populous country in the world with a population of approximately 250 million people, has the largest number of Muslim adherents with 87.2% of its population identifying themselves as Muslim in 2011. However, it is rather surprising, at least to me that Indonesia was not an Islamic country to begin with. In fact prior 13th century, Buddhism and Hinduism were the two dominating religions in Indonesia while Islamization was only inaugurated after 13th century. Islamization, defined as the conversion of country’s legal system to Islamic, or more commonly known as the Shariah law, is a slow and complicated process which underway centuries and is still continuing in Indonesia today. It is one of the most significant…show more content…
Hence, I believe that if they are able to accept and not force what they believe on others, this challenge is not inevitable and can be resolved rather easily. It is also noteworthy that the mindset of the Muslim radical groups are solidly skewed, therefore with respect to this, I felt that the only way to stop them is to have a strong government and additionally, the public should also be critical on the news that are reported on the media in order to not over-gratified the radical…show more content…
Interestingly, women have come to be an Islam symbol where there is a surge in the number of women wearing jilbab in Indonesia. Furthermore, the kebaya is also designed more luxuriously, which could be an attempt to portray an affluent image so as to attract others to convert to Islam. Besides the female dressing, Islamization also causes praying to transform from a practice in private sphere to a common practice, where one get embarrassed and judged if they do not conform, that is conducted in public space, accounting for the increasing visits to the mosque. Words such as “syariah” and “halal” are also employed as marketing strategy in many Indonesia’s businesses. These Islamic-induced changes are in fact a backlash effect of Suharto’s effort in suppressing Islamic activities and the conducting of Islamic activities openly represents a form of freedom which they are deprived of for 32 years. Although these changes are seemingly harmless, it does has the potential to cause the aforementioned tension and disunity if these changes are forced upon others, either in the form of social pressure such as being judged if they do not follow suit, or in the form of legal means. The latter, in my opinion, is likely to cause more of an issue as people can neither retaliate nor reason their ways as it is a law. Hence, it is
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