Bromo Tengger Converts to Islam
Mar 2nd, 2009, in News, by Patung
Some of the last holdouts against Islam on Java convert under the guidance of Hidayatullah.
On 1st March 2009 at Tempuran, Senduro, Lumajang, East Java 70 Muslim converts (mualaf) from the Tengger ethnic group (suku Tengger) were married in a mass ceremony.
The 70 people were part of a group of 227 Tengger people that had converted from Hinduism to Islam in mid 2007. Previously the 70 had been married according to Hindu rites, however these marriages were not officially registered or recognised.
They originate from Wonocempoko Ayu, Argosari, and Burno in Senduro, about 8km from Mt Bromo. 400 people from these villages have converted to Islam in recent years.
Zeigeist 1, Majapahit 0.
One man, Suyanto, said bmh.or.id
Wow, I’ve been married twice but with the same wife. Before I married according to another religion, now in the Islamic way. I’m so happy to be married within Islam after saying the confession of faith last year.
The Islamic marriages were organised by the fundamentalist group Hidayahtullah and the Lumajang local government. The couples paid nothing. Samsudin from Hidayatullah said: detik
So, people who convert to Islam will have their weddings paid for by Hidayahtullah.
Tenggerese are generally Hindu and traditionally live around or near Mt Bromo, and consider themselves to be direct descendants of the rulers of the last Hindu kingdom of Java, Majapahit. See “Hindu Javanese: Tengger Tradition and Islam” by Robert W. Hefner, Amazon, Google Books.
228 Comments on “Bromo Tengger Converts to Islam”
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schmerly says:
@ mohammed..
Muslim countries were the most advanced in the world
Any idea how long ago that was??
the crusades and the mongolians destroyed everything
No they didn’t destroy everything, get your facts straight, btw do you know the reason behind the crusades? the crusades had the goal of recapturing Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Moslem rule and were launched in response to a call from the Eastern Orthodox Empire, who called for help against the expansion of the Muslim Turks into Anatolia, the crusaders also went to war against the Mongolians.
historians have said this put the world back 1000 years in terms of your advancement and technology
And that’s debatable.
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Lairedion says:
andrey
On what ground are you calling hidayatullah a fundamentalist?
Are you calling anyone who is not JIL a fundamentalist?Islam is fundamentalist by nature. All Muslims, the so-called moderates and liberals also, believe there is no God but Allah, Mohammed is his Messenger and also believe the Qu’ran is literally the word of God, absolutely and unquestionably true for all times, places, and people.
As a true Submitter you will agree with this, andrey so there’s no reason for you to complain and whinge….
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Mr Tic Tac Toe says:
One must realize Islam is one thing and Muslims are another.
I agree with you completely, brother.
Up until recently, Most of my life i have only seen moslems that are kinder than they supposed to be by definition of the doctrines that they preached themselves from masjid speakers, or radios.btw Muslim countries were the most advanced in the world before the crusades and the mongolians destroyed everything.
Blaming everything to the crusades is definitely gravely deficient in explaining everything that went wrong.
Even you, brother, would have to admit that the moslem world attacked first. Mbak schmerly gave the best example.
Byzantine was completely christian greek, The Biblicaly Legendary 7 early churches were there, before being completely taken over by the turks.
The turks! For Zeus sakes! arguably a mixed mongoloid race.Its comparable by the present zionism, or indonesian transmigration to papua.
The assertion that it was done only and only by peaceful way is almost unthinkably absurd. Its like if the christians are able to convert whole saudi arabia to christianity, by mere proselytisation (which is, by the way, prohibited), or like saying the entire state of israel converted to shinto by mere meditations.
Without Charles martel as the defender of those christians, the christian europe would have been decimated by moslem expansion, 200-300 years before the first crusade.
(Then no bule would have been able to challenge the moslem chinese sultans of indonesia by penjajahan, and by 1800’s nusantara would have been a daoist region as vassal kingdoms to the northern empire. Imagine that! Indonesia, a country with the second largest daoist population!)
This victim mentality of yours is degrading yourself. It makes it difficult for (at least) me to appreciate your obvious intellectuality.
I am NOT saying that crusades was the right thing to do. No, not at all. But from my point of view, it was at least understandable.
Brother, You should at least try to own your own history, and dump the denials.
I know many people who were so against Islam and were doing everything they could in order to prove Islam wrong and ended up becoming Muslim because of what they learned. Mostly Christians but some atheist who used to be Christians.
Funny you should say that. Most of my moslem friends and teachers were trying to convince me to convert to islam since i was 10(!). Again, from my own anecdotal point of view, It wasnt I who tried to prove anything.
Sure, you might be right. Perhaps islam is the best religion. By acknowledging that, you should not be afraid to proselytisation, or money for conversion. They wont work anyway, coz, duh! who can persuade somebody to convert from the best?
Its just not the best for me.
good thing only a quater of the world is Muslim and growing. I have seen statistics that say by 2050 more than half the world will be Muslim. isn’t it amazing that even after what is said about Islam around the world it is still the fastest growing religion in the world.
On ad populum as the standard for the truest truth, then perhaps by your logic, buddhism is the truest religion? Or maybe “indifference” is the truest religion of all!
If I start the “church of indifference”, i might get lots of people joining. hmmm that might be fun…
Yes today many Muslims are poor and kill each other and are killed by non muslims and some might have a lack of education due to outside factors imposed on them but they are still the fastest growing religion in the world.
Perhaps you should first fixing your own decadent society, before trying to convince people by resorting to ipse-dixitism. It will work better, less people will try to prove you wrong. trust me 🙂
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Mr Tic Tac Toe.. Don’t forget in some country’s changing your religion from Islam carries the death penalty, also in Indonesia if you want to change you’ll be ostracised, it’s unfortunate we don’t have figures on the people who would like to change but are to afraid to.
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Aluang Anak Bayang says:
Mas/Mbak Schmerly,
What country you talking about? This is IM (Indonesia Matters).
Open your eyes (and ears). In Indonesia, one can mualaf and de-mualaf anytime one wishes. As a Javanese moslem, I prayed at temples, sang halleluja in churches and praticed yoga in mosques. Bu Megawati is one good example of a Javanese moslem. Only last year while visiting Bali, she visited a temple and burned some incense. Our national mosque, Masjid Istiqlal, built to commemorate Indonesian independence was designed by Frederich Silaban, a Christian architect.
Mas/Mbak Schmerly, your ignorance is a result of not reading the Pancasila. Otherwise you wouldn’t be talking out of your rear.
.. it’s unfortunate we don’t have figures on the people who would like to change but are to afraid to.
This is because there is no figure to start with.
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diego says:
Sr. AAB,
Can you englihten me, what’s really the difference between singaporeans (chinese) and indonesians? They eat the same kind of food, they share common genes (both can be traced to china, according to dragie), and… they produce people who are capable of having thought like this: “i wish there’s forever no cure for AIDS , else? people might sex around the world. and many people might become rapers and sex maniac” (I found in on youtube). I also found several videos (produced and uploaded by chinese singaporeans) candidly taken with their cellphone in singaporean MRT, mostly about indian / bangladeshi gay couple. Is that what singaporeans do daily? Why is it no different from indonesia? If they are so much alike, why do singaporeans dislike indonesians and vice versa. Thanks.
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Ross says:
Andrew is quite right; thousands of Muslims cast off the yoke every year, but he is also right when he says it is not often broadcast, because so many stinking primitives actually believe that such spiritual self-determination merits capital punishment.
I know lots of Muslims and most of them are not of the scummy Lombok thug variety, but the problem is basic -the moronic ‘ummat’ thing, whereby they are required to put solidarity with fellow-Mulsims ahead of loyalty to one’s one country, family and even common decency.
That’s why the silent majority remain mostly silent. Brave ones, who speak up, are either intimidated or by-passed, as was Gus Dur when he tried to stop the Laskar Jihad vermin going off to engage in sectarian murder in Maluku. And he was President at the time! -
@AAB..
As a Javanese moslem, I prayed at temples, sang halleluja in churches and praticed yoga in mosques. Bu Megawati is one good example of a Javanese moslem. Only last year while visiting Bali, she visited a temple and burned some incense. .
I’m talking about CHANGING your religion you numbskull.
Thanks Ross that’ll save me trying to explain to the village idiot.
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hariyangindah says:
Many people say that Satan seeks people to do bad things because they want to be accompanied in hell. That also applies to religions. Most religions seek people to join them because they want to be accompanied in hell. But to tell you the truth, that is particularly true to Islam, where Muslims try hard to convert everybody else to Islam, because Muslims want to be accompanied in hell.
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ET says:
Mohammed
This is why when non Muslims learn the truth about Islam they accept it without any doubts in their mind.
Before I knew what Islam was all about, that is before I read the Koran and the Hadith, I thought that Islam was a religion like any other, a variant of Christianity or Judaism, only more demanding in terms of commitment.
Now, after reading, I have realised that it simply boils down to brainwashing and exploitation of people’s weaknesses.isn’t it amazing that even after what is said about Islam around the world it is still the fastest growing religion in the world.
This is not amazing at all. The world has become a complex and difficult place to grasp for the less educated mind. So more and more people will turn to ready-made solutions concocted by self-appointed prophets who claim to speak on behalf of some supernatural authority. What attracts people to Islam is its easiness. In fact there is nothing much to understand or find out. Everything is spelled out in scripture and all one has to do is submit.
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hary says:
Hang on guys, Islam has a lot to offer.
In essence, the religion preaches social equity and practical socialism. The prophet’s (saw) teachings on women’s rights were way before its time. Women fought in his armies, had equal status before G-D and were given rights of inheritance that were non existent to her Western sisters. Note that his wife, Khatijah, was an independantly rich and successful woman who was the Prophet’s employer.
Muslim Women in the 8th C did not even wear the chador nor were they excluded from public life. The chador was inherited from the Byzantine Christians who kept their women cloistered. As with Christianity, Islam was later hijacked by the patriachal society who used their teachings to subjugate women.
Christianity was no better in its treatment of women. I will invite you to read the Gospels of Mary, and the Gospel of Jude. Yes, there were many other versions of the Bible that were not included in the Authorised KJ version.These were not included in the official Bible because of the decision in the 5th C to make the religion male centric. Woman’s equality, which we take for granted, is a product of the suffragette movement. Christianity still does not allow Women to be priests or pastors. So on that score, my OP is that the Muslims, until the 10th C got it right.The most attractive feature of Islam is its simplicity. The problem is that simplicity means it is open to wide interpretation. That’s when religions get hijacked by the narrow minded for their own selfish,political, economic agenda. (see the Fatwa on golput).
Christians and Jews lived side by side in peace in every Islamic society until 1948. Muslim rulers readily allowed the practice of any monotheistic religion and none were forced to convert. The Spanish Muslim empire in Cordoba in fact prospered through the acute business acumen of their Jewish population. The phenomena of Anti Semitism is a direct result of the establishment of the State of Israel.Before 1948, there are no written records of any Anti Semitism in the Muslim world. In fact, anti- Semitic Muslim literature are all translations of earlier European works. Muslims clearly then ( 1948) believed that the G_D of the Jews was the same G_D of the Muslims. Surah 29 Ayat 46.Fundamentally, Islam is about peace, submission to one G-D, and being protective of the poor and defenceless. It has taken on a militaristic tone as a reaction to increasing secularisation and modernisation of society. All combative fundamentalist movements arise from their aversion to the majority in their OWN religion being percieved as moving too far away from fundamental teaching.
Arguing that Jihad is a holy war ( in the sense of killing non-Muslims) is simply twisting the original concept of Islam as set out in the Al Quran. This is a direct result of such twisted minds as Sayyid Qutb ( Pakistani) who originally came up with this new concept in the 1950s.Why can’t we all just be friends and live and let live. Yah-Weh, Allah and G_D will judge us for what we do with our lives and how we treated other people. We will not be judged by what religion we print on our KTP. Perhaps the atheist might be right and there may just be nothingness after we die. Well, we will all eventually find out!!!
Assalamualaikum -
hary
Note that his wife, Khatijah, was an independantly rich and successful woman who was the Prophet’s employer.
Here you contradict yourself. Khatijah was already an independently rich and successful woman before islam was invented. So the situation of women in pre-islamic times doesn’t seem to be so disastrous.
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hary, sorry but I don’t buy your apologetic explanations. There may be moderate Muslims but Islam itself is not moderate. Its simplicity leaves no room for wider interpretations.
At least the fundamentalists understand their religion with greater logic and coherence when the Qu’ran states idol worshipers and disbelievers must either be converted or killed.
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DumadiSatrio says:
Just 2 quick corrections:
@Muhammed: “they also discovered many new things that we take for granted today, ie like soap, irragation, navigation and medicine and surgery”
Soap (as we know it today) was invented by the Romans. Soap got it’s name from Mount Sapo, were animals were sacrificed. Rain water washed down the mountain through this mixture of melted animal fats and wood ashes into the Tiber River below. Women doing their wash at the river noticed clothes coming cleaner that were exposed to this soapy mixture of saponified acid (fats) and alkali (caustic ashes).
As for irragation, navigation and medicine and surgery; these are not things that were “invented” but had existed since ancient time. While the medieval muslims made many contributions, to say they invented such concepts would be very unfair to the Sumarians, Greeks, Romans, and so forth. For instance, the Mayans were very skilled at Brain Surgery.Now, an area where you could find better examples would be in the field of Optics. Where Ibn al-Haytham made many discoveries and inventions, as well as the link between algebra and geometry.
Sorry, just wanted to help you out. And I’m a really big history buff (esp Roman History).Hery: Sayyid Qutb was Egyption, not Pakistani.
anyway,
Following what you are saying, personally I agree with the fundamental basis of what you wrote. However, on the subject of religion my view is very unorthodox, in that I see no reason to believe in prophets. God gave man Intellect to reason, Imagination to be creative and make things of beauty and enjoyment, and Empathy to guide compassion.Similar to the line of thought of Ibn al-Rawandi, who said:
“God has bestowed upon human beings the gift of intellect, by which they can judge right and wrong. Therefor, If what a prophet announces corresponds to what the intellect decrees, then prophets are superfluous. If it contradicts what the intellect decrees, then one should not listen to them.” -
just to clarify, What I more or less meant, is the actual submission to god, would be very simple. You must simply follow your inborn reason and compassion.
Sin is when one denies what their heart and mind tells them in favor of submission to something else (social pressure, religious leaders/prophets/books, fear, greed, ect.). -
DumadiSatrio,
You said it before elsewhere, prophets were sent to the Semitic people only because they needed prophets..
You must simply follow your inborn reason and compassion.
This is a concept already acknowledged by Buddha. Do not really see why submission to or belief in a creator God is required to follow your inborn reason and compassion.
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No contradiction about Khatijah. Women were independant and continued to be independant during the first four Rashidun.
I stand corrected. Qutb was Egyptian. Put to death by Naseer, I think.
@ Lareidon, I am not being apologetic. I am merely stating the position in the Koran. I had long ago ditched the nonsense in the Hadiths and Sunnas. What more the dribble of modern Islamic scholars ( oxymoron). -
@Lairedion: Yes, I like to make jokes. In fact, that joke was not mine (but simply repeating what a friend of mine had told me in jest). Something may be funny or relevent or for satire purpose, does not mean it is one of my beliefs (referring to my semitic peoples joke).
You are also correct, your belief or disbelief in a god/deity is not relevent to what I wrote. It may not even be relevant to god itself.
If you delve further into what I wrote, you will find that purposely submitting to god would not be required to submit to god.Imagine it like this:
I dont murder someone because I dont want to murder anyone. I would feel empathy for them and guilt and it would feel repugnant to me. The laws against murder are not the reason that I’m not a murderer, however by not murdering someone, I am still following the laws.I know that seems convoluted, and I hope it makes sense, kind of off the top of my head. Maybe I’ll think of a better way to express it after a good night sleep.
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@ Mas/Mbak Schmerly
Your problem is neurological. You have trouble reading and understanding. Javanese changed their religion many times, not just myself.
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Saipul says:
Still find it strange that Muslim groups can actively proselytize in Indonesia, while if people of other faiths carry out similar activities they are imprisoned.
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Don’t get me wrong. The situation is much better than it is, for example, in Malaysia. Indonesian Muslims are generally very moderate. That’s why the minority religions have, alongside Islam, grown so much over the last 50 years. But if we’re going to have laws, if we’re going to set a precedent, let’s enforce those laws fairly.
But about the Tenggerese, small groups have converted to other faiths in the past. Some of the religious leaders there informed me that about 5,000 converted to Islam during the 90s, primarily because of mixed marriage and urban migration. That’s what led to the Hindu revival there back in the late 90s and early 00s. There is also a Tenggerese church which has received some 200 converts over the last decade. The Hindu leaders have reacted harshly against the conversions to both Islam and Christianity and have publicly ostracized the converts.
I say lift the draconian laws against proselytizing. Let it be a free-for-all. May the best man win. Just like in the civilized countries.
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@ Assmads Bitch..
Javanese changed their religion many times, not just myself.
I’m talking Indonesia not just Java, and I’ve personally witnessed it, people ostracised for changing from Islam to Christianity. So don’t pretend it doesn’t happen, looks like you’ve still got the head stuck up the black hole.
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The fact says that there are more people who leave Islam than the other way around.
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schmerly: Paijo is right. The number of people claiming Islam as their religion in Indonesia has been declining since 1990.
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The policy of allowing only six religions is keeping the numbers of Muslims artificially high. The same is done in Malaysia where ethnic Malay are Muslims by law and are not allowed to apostate. 😕
What if Indonesians could list their religion (or not) freely, the amount of kejawen followers and other indigenous beliefs would steeply rise at the expense of the number of Muslims…
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Saipul Thanks for that.
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P. Lai:
The policy of allowing only six religions is keeping the numbers of Muslims artificially high.
There is another theory on that. The number wasnt high at the first place.
It was the dutch who classified the pribumis automatically as moslems, unless the pribumis specifically state otherwise. It was to simplify the govt. administrations.
I know this because my ancestors were classified as moslems even though they drank human blood in pagan rituals and never heard of mohammed.
Sure, there were already moslem populations converted by the walis and such. But considering the length of time the dutch were in power, we can say that the dutch were the greatest penyebar-agama-islam in history.
One can argue that by clinging to the dutch-sponsored religion, a person is actually a supporter of the old penjajahan.
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Lairedion
The same is done in Malaysia where ethnic Malay are Muslims by law and are not allowed to apostate.
I didn’t know that, but if this is true then I will never again fly Malaysian Airlines, nor spend a Ringgit in Kuala Lumpur.
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ET,
It is true so you might wanna cancel your MAS flights if you had booked any. If a Malay apostates he/she is no longer considered a Malay and cannot enjoy the special privileges as such. Some sort of apartheid system if you ask me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_160_of_the_Constitution_of_Malaysia
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@ Mohammed.. when are you going to stop preaching??? if you want to preach start your own blog and take the other brainwashed morons with you.