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The nature of Islam in China and South East Asia :-
Islam regards all of humanity as one family as Allah SWT created mankind to get to know each other, including the Chinese and their role in spreading Islam is no less than other races.
The only thing that separates one Muslim from the other is their strength of faith (piety)
in god/Islam. In short, there should be NO discrimination or hate among Muslims just because they are of different race, color or nationality, meaning, what It said is right!
MY CONDOLENCE TO THE LONDON VICTIMS - My eyes bleed and my heart weeps as to the level of man's inhumanity to man. The bombings in UK just remind us to work harder than before to change the world for the better. Good will always triumph over evil and the truth will always stand. My condolence to all bereaved families, GOD BLESS YOU AND EVERYTHING YOU STAND FOR, THE WORLD NEEDS PEOPLE LIKE YOU,NOT AS MATYRS BUT VOICES OF GOOD CONSCIENCE AND GOODWILL!
While it's true that local leaders in Indonesia and Malaysia tend to manipulate the populace's ignorance by resorting to bigotry to scapegoat the Chinese in times of crisis. It is important to gain understanding as to the nature of Islam in South East Asia which happens to be the religion of the majority in the two aforesaid countries.
The form of Islam which came through China to South East Asia during the 14-16th centuries via the Sea Silk Route connecting the port cities of southeastern China to the Gulf of Hormuz to the West was of the Hanafiyah doctrine, an ancient form of Islam considered in the West to be the most liberal branch of Islam. Whereas as of the 17th century and onwards, the form of Islam which spread to the southeast Asian region was of the Syafi doctrine which was more recent and strongly influenced by the radicalization of Islam in much of the Middle East following the first Crusades.
The Syafi doctrine gradually supplanted the Hanafiyah doctrine, the former was disseminated by traders and other immigrants from Gujarat in India and the southern half of the Arabian peninsula, they were brought in by the European colonial authorities who also imported Chinese coolies, traders and other immigrants. These recent Chinese immigrants were mainly Buddhists and Daoists mainly from places such as Guangdong and Fujian in southeastern China unlike the earlier Chinese settlers who were mainly Muslims, many of whom were from places such as Yunnan in western China. Apart from economic reasons, the Arabs, Gujaratis and Chinese new arrivals were brought in to supplant the Chinese Muslim communities and the Hanafite Islam they introduced to the Malay world.
Even though Hanafite Islam was dominant in the Malay world, most of the natives were still nominal Muslims as the Islam introduced to them from China was too rationalistic for them to accept. Moreover, Islam in its Chinese version was already synchronized with Confucianism and Buddhism as well as Daoism but to a lesser extent. The less rationalistic Syafite Islam was deemed more compatible with their mystical animistic-rooted native cultures. Thus the vast majority of the native nominal Muslims converted to Syafite Islam, whereby more and more of them became devout Muslims, a good number of them influenced by the new radicalization of Islam from the Middle East and India.
Chinese Islam developed independently and was not affected by the radicalization of Islam in the Middle East due to China's sheer distance from West Asia. Moreover, one fundamental difference is that the Hanafiyah doctrine represented an inclusive Islam in Chinese, embracing people of all races and nations, whereas the Syafi doctrine represented an exclusive Islam which tended to define non-Muslim races and nations as kafir or non-believers who either had to be ostracized, even exterminated unless they converted to Islam.
The shift in the native Muslim population in South East Asia from Hanafi to Syafi signaled a change in that part of the world from its originally inclusive nature to an exclusive one which tended to exclude the non-Muslim Chinese who began to view Islam negatively and with suspicion. Moreover, the natives of South East Asia were mostly backward, poor and uneducated, this made the Chinese associate Islam with those negative traits. The Chinese Muslims became a minority within a minority, neither accepted by the natives and many among the newly arrived Chinese mainstream from southeastern China.
Is this the final choice of the Indonesian people?
The choice of Islam as a religion is a pretty good one. It is based on a community like, fair, just and equality for all its members. Their religion uses the Kaabah as the icon of worship reflecting the principals of fairness and justice of that religion.
However, the problem of creating equality includes having a set of "morality" that can cause a little bit of anxiety of its people, ie. lack of entertainment, vices that in other societies; is stress reduction among consenting adults.....it is also strict religion that is based mainly on surah, koran of yesteryears.....which mean dogmatism; especially damaging when in hands of Greedy or Dogmatic adherence...creating Jewish like problems of greedy Princes and Military elites.
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Islam is a religion of peace FREDEX KING TUT JR. | Aug 29th, 2005
Islam is a religion of peace
YES YES
DO YOU AGREED TO THAT FREDEX KING TUT JR. | Aug 29th, 2005
Islam regards all of humanity as one family as Allah SWT created mankind to get to know each other, including the Chinese and their role in spreading Islam is no less than other races.
PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR COMMENT FREDEX KING TUT JR. | Aug 29th, 2005
Islam regards all of humanity as one family as Allah SWT created mankind to get to know each other, including the Chinese and their role in spreading Islam is no less than other races.
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