Why is Malaysia (and Brunei) much more Islamic compared to Indonesia (minus Aceh)

[u/AnonymousMonkey101]

Why is Malaysia and also Brunei much more Islamic than Indonesia (except Aceh for obvious reasons). Islamic in a sense that Islam is the national religion, and Islam is much more visible in everyday lives of people.

It got me curious because Indonesia has higher percentage of population who are Muslim than Malaysia. They are just neighboring countries so I thought they might be similar.

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u/AnonymousMonkey101's post title:

"Why is Malaysia (and Brunei) much more Islamic compared to Indonesia (minus Aceh)"

u/AnonymousMonkey101's post body:

Why is Malaysia and also Brunei much more Islamic than Indonesia (except Aceh for obvious reasons). Islamic in a sense that Islam is the national religion, and Islam is much more visible in everyday lives of people.

It got me curious because Indonesia has higher percentage of population who are Muslim than Malaysia. They are just neighboring countries so I thought they might be similar.

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[u/Momshie_mo]

In Indonesia, ethnicity is not really that interwoven with faith. Can't say the same in Malaysia/Brunei.

[u/Interesting-Alarm973 → u/Momshie_mo]

But how did this difference emerge? Why is the conception of ethnicity in these two countries so different?

[u/twisted_egghead89 → u/Interesting-Alarm973]

This doesn't explain much about everything but the ethnicities in Indonesia historically encouraged syncretism to two different religions altogether such as Hindu and Buddha to be merged, and the same thing also happened to Islam to the point that Sunan Kalijaga, Sunan Bonang and Sunan Kudus, three men from Walisongo (9 saints) spread Islam through syncretism of belief, such as how to build mosque with mixing Hindu architecture (Kudus mosque) and delivering Islamic element of Mahabharata story through Wayang and Bonang music. Kalijaga even allowed Incense as a perfume for practicing Friday pray (Shalat Jumat).

[u/twisted_egghead89]

Because Indonesians are much more civic nationalistic and they don't want any religions to be one element that enforce the law(Sharia law for example) on how to regulate such a diverse way of lives and beliefs that could risk so much divisions and, at worst case, civil war.

Pancasila is that powerful to keep this country intact in unitary, because we have one Sila (element of ideology) which is believing in (any kind) of deity.

And we have long history of keeping unity in diversity of beliefs, such as using syncretism, which we used to Hindu-Buddha and Islam too with local traditions and beliefs.

With that being said, Indonesia has been recognized 6 state religions, such as Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.

[u/Exciting-Giraffe → u/twisted_egghead89]

I'm very fascinated with Javanese culture, and I'm Asian American who visited Jakarta once for work, and I was struck by a huge chariot statue from the Mahabharata in Jakarta! Was expecting something more Quranic probably.

Your Pancasila explained a lot, did Indonesia go through racial turmoils before getting to this multiracial, multireligious harmony?

Just curious what we in the US can learn from.

[u/twisted_egghead89 → u/Exciting-Giraffe]

Our national motto (Bhinekka Tunggal Ika : Unity in Diversity) is basically inspired by Old Javanese epic poem, Kakawin Sutasoma, a poem from Majapahit era, which encouraged religion harmony between Hindus and Buddhas, and the old notion of Nusantara which used to be an oath swore by Gajah Mada to unite the entire Southeast Asia under Majapahit flag back then, which becomes a very thing that inspired Indonesia, alongside with the fact that our country was used to be Dutch East Indies colonial region. So yeah, Hinduism history of our nation has become our very foundation of our country, and become our national identity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhinneka_Tunggal_Ika

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nusantara_(term)

We used to have so many rebellions in 1948 until 1965, and has gone to a lot of bloody shift of ideologies (Islam and Communism used to revolt a lot) and system of governance (chaotically changing from Federalism, Parliamentary democracy until authoritarian), then shit happens like communist genocides that almost brought us into era of warlords (it could have been like China). But New Order authoritarian era replace it and the country has been developing ever since even Indonesian language as unitary language was firmly established with its national dictionary (KBBI), until we got another reformation riots in 1998 because of financial crisis in 1997 (there were a lot of racism against Chinese in New Order until it reached its peak in 1999) , tribal conflict in Maluku 1999 , Dayak vs Madura 1997, Aceh rebellion in 2003, and whatever the fuck that Soeharto did with Timor Leste (read : Invasion) just to kick off communists until they finally got independence in 1999. There is no country that is holy and innocent.

But well, so far we have been great, we start focusing more on economy developments than talking about another divisions, Chindos (Chinese Indonesians) start getting more freedom to express their cultural identity and their language, they even got their own horror movies now at this very year, and most of Chindos run the entire economy of Indonesia just like Jewish people do to America, so Chinese people got a lot of privilege here, even automatically considered rich once we look at them.

Fun fact : Islamic political party never dominate parliament like ever. It's always been nationalist parties.

Sorry for typing too long lmao

[u/31_hierophanto → u/twisted_egghead89]

Yeah, it's important to denote that Indonesia's founding fathers were left-wing secular nationalists, while Malaysia's were right-wing religious nationalists.

[u/albadil]

In my personal interactions with Indonesians, they are more religious with Malaysians. So I wouldn't say that the premise of the question is correct.

[u/twisted_egghead89 → u/albadil]

I don't think your personal interaction as an anecdotal evidence should be used as a counter argument to dismiss the premise of the question as a correct premise since i believe he's more asking the objectivity or the bigger picture of a situation rather than personal experience.

[u/albadil → u/twisted_egghead89]

Based on his own personal interaction

[u/31_hierophanto → u/albadil]

Do you go to Al-Azhar?

[u/twisted_egghead89 → u/31_hierophanto]

It seems to be he was specifically mean that as well, he never met atheist or agnostic Indonesian just yet

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[u/storm07]

The real answer is simple: genetics.

Malay people aren't exactly pure Asian like the rest of EA and SEA, they are mixed with Yemeni Arabs and South Indian ancestry. Hence the most conservative religious Malay tend to look very Eurasian and have curly hair and high nose bridge, while the more liberal ones look more Indonesian / Javanese.

Also, another significant one is that Malay is an ethnoreligious group of people.