'Islam could adapt to local cultures'

Surabaya, NU Online
Member of the Advisory Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) KH. M. THolhah Hasan said that the regions in the archipelago firstly becoming a snapshot of the spread of Islam were trading centers in urban communities in coastal areas. While orthodox Islam could enter deeply in regions outside Java, which are not much influenced by the values and traditions of both Hinduism or Buddhism.

"Unlike in Java. In this region, Islam faced resistance from Hinduism and Buddhism having long been established. At this point, Islam did not just have to tame its target but also had to tame itself,"he said here recently, adding that in the face of local conflict and cultural resistance, Islam must be able to get the symbols aligned with the local cultures.

According to Kiai Tholhah, the ability of Islam to adapt to local cultures has paved the way for reaching the grassroots.

"As a result, Islamic cultures are strongly influenced by the farmers and inland ones, so that the Islamic cultures could undergo a transformation not only because of the geographical distance between the Arab and Indonesia, but also because of cultural distances," he said.

He added that the process of cultural compromise would bring possible risks because in certain circumstances it is often tolerant of interpretation which might be considered to deviate from the pure Islamic teachings.

The cultural compromise could eventually give birth to what is on the island of Java known as syncretism or Islam Abangan, he said.

According to Kiai Tholhah, the Islamization process that took place in the archipelago is inseparable from the process of acculturation. As already known that the spread of Islam in the archipelago is a normative aspect in addition to being influenced by tradition and cultural aspects. (Masdar)