Indonesia has more Muslims than any other country
However, within that community there are differences.
When many parts of Indonesia converted to Islam
they kept older beliefs, and their religion became a mixture
of Islam with other ideas and practices
Some of this is due to the missionary efforts of men like
Sunan Kalijogo, one of the Wali Songo or Nine Walis
who combined Islamic ideas with traditional
rituals such as the Garebeg.
Because much of Indonesia was far from the
rest of the Islamic community
most of the new Muslims of the 1500s had
no idea that their "Islam" was different from the regular
Islam of Egypt, Arabia, or Turkey
In those days, travel was dangerous
long and expensive
and only a few people were able to make
the hajj to Mecca.
By the late 1800s, new technology
was changing the situation. Steamship travel allowed
many more Indonesians to
make the hajj, or even study their religion in
Cairo or Mecca. Newer and cheaper printing
methods allowed more people to read Islamic texts.
Some Indonesians decided to change their
way of religion to avoid mixed practices
and to follow Islam the way that the rest of the
world did. These people are sometimes
called "modernists", although they often call for a return
to old traditions. People who choose to stick to
the way Islam is practiced in places like rural
Java are sometimes called "traditionalists".
In Indonesian history, these differences
have come to the surface from time to time
The "Padri War" in the Minangkabau region of
Sumatra during the 1820s and 1830s was
partly a conflict between "reformers" who
wanted a more standard Islam and
the traditional leaders who did not want to change
In Aceh in 1945, the traditional leaders were
viewed as being pro-Dutch, and were swept
away by pro-independence feelings as well
as the idea of Islamic reform
A more destructive force was the
Darul Islam movement under
Kartosuwirjo, which fought against
the new Republic of Indonesia
This sort of extremism is not widely respected.
Today there are two large
respectable organizations
for Muslims in Indonesia
Muhammadiyah which tends to be
more "modernist", and Nahdlatul
Ulama which tends to be more "traditionalist".
In the 1950s and after
mystical books were published on
Java such as "Darmogandul"
and "Gatoloco", which were Islamic in name
but not in substance
