Islam, Indonesia and China

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Islam which had been in China since the early Tang period flourished in China during the Ming Dynasty. Many people in Yunnan, Shaanxi, Hebei and other areas in China were Muslims. There were also burgeoning Muslim communities on China's southeastern coast, notably in Guangzhou and Quanzhou. Muhammad Ma Huan who accompanied Admiral Zheng He on his voyages to South East Asia beginning in 1406 were Muslims. 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 Chinese played an major role in the initial stage of the propagation of Islam in South East Asia. Dr Asvi Warman Adam from LIPI (Indonesian Institute of Science), states that without them (the Chinese), the Islamisation process in Java during the Middle Ages would not have taken place. "The Chinese and Islam have a relationship that goes back a very long time," he said. Historical facts show that Chinese Muslims pioneered the dissemination of Islam in Java during the 14-16th centuries. They came to trade, settle down and spread the religion in what is today Indonesia and other countries in South East Asia. Others were simply looking for a better life or seeking political refuge from oppression, especially during the Qing Dynasty. It is said that the naval expeditions led by Admiral Zheng He had a secret agenda to spread Islam in South East Asia. The huge Chinese armada at times consisted of 62 ships manned by 27800 soldiers, most of them Chinese Muslims who were prepared to adapt to varying local conditions in the lands they were to be stationed with their different cultures and religious beliefs. Therefore, Zheng He was accompanied by an entourage of Muslim ulama, from China and elsewhere to solidify relations with Muslim communities outside China proper. After the formation of Chinese Muslim communities on the northern coast of Java, Islam began to spread into the island's agrarian hinterland where the Hindu-Buddhist culture was still strong. From these communities arose the Walisongo or nine Chinese Muslim saints who pioneered the Islamisation of the majority of the island's native populace. In time, leaders of the Chinese Muslims as well as other Chinese came to be accepted as royalty and aristocracy by the indigenous people. In what is today Indonesia and within her socio-political and cultural context, it is a controversial issue to discuss the Chinese identity of the Walisongo which many Indonesians are unaware of, there are even those who know it but deny it for ulterior motives of theirs. The contribution of the Chinese to Islam in present day Indonesia has been whitewashed by three centuries of European colonisation in the archipelago. In 1970, Indonesian professor Slamet Muljana wrote a book explaining that the Walisongo are Chinese and upon its publication, the book was banned by the Indonesian government. However, the first Chinese Muslim communities in South East Asia were not in Java but in Palembang in East Sumatra and Sambas in West Kalimantan. Only several years later were the first Chinese Muslim communities founded on Java's northern Coast. Many Indonesian Muslims as well as non-Muslim Chinese are unaware of the link between China and Islam as well as its role in the Islamisation of what is today Indonesia due to the political conditions during the colonial period and post-colonial Indonesia. The discrimination against the Chinese in Indonesia cannot be separated from the apartheid policies of the Dutch colonial authorities who divided their colonial subjects along racial lines. There existed a racial caste system made legitimate by colonial laws and statutes placing the whites on the top, Chinese and other Asians ("Foreign Orientals) in the middle and indigenous people at the bottom. As the Chinese were the most numerous among the "Foreign Orientals" they became an object of ire of many natives who resented their dominance in trade and commerce which was useful for the Dutch who preferred to make use of Chinese middlemen instead of dealing directly with the native populace. Worse still, the Dutch employed a good number of Chinese as administrators, such as tax collectors and the business of gambling was left to the Chinese, all of which contributed to the negative stereotype of the Chinese as an avaricious, merciless and egoistic race. In order to normalise the relationship between the Chinese and indigenous people to the harmonious and peaceful one that existed during the pre-colonial period, it is therefore very important for the two sides to respect each other. In relation to this aspect of harmonising Chinese-indigenous relations as well as those between China and Indonesia who are now strategic partners - a milestone in contemporary Asian politics, the history of the contribution of the Chinese Muslims towards the Islamisation of Java and elsewhere in Indonesia has to be written in school textbooks to be taught in Indonesian schools. These facts have to be made known to both people from a young age so that there will always be good relations between the Chinese and Indonesians, China and Indonesia. It is a pity that there is hardly anything mentioned about the Chinese presence in the Malay Archipelago in the pre-colonial period, what more that concerning the dissemination of Islam. Indonesian history textbooks only mention about a so-called "Chinese invasion" of Java ordered by Kubilai Khan while actually it was a Tartar invasion not one initiated by the Han people even though there were many Han troops among the expeditionary force. Even today in Indonesia, in spite of the discrimination faced by the Chinese many Chinese Muslims continue to contribute significantly to their faith and a good number of Chinese still convert to Islam. This shows that within a religious context, there is no barrier to integration but only due to the socio-political conditions in contemporary Indonesia is there racism against the Chinese. Recently, books about the role played by Chinese Muslim communities in disseminating Islam in Java and elsewhere in Indonesia have been published and this is a positive development.