AHC: Islam a minority in Malaysia and Indonesia

The conversion of the populations of modern day Indonesia and Malaysian to Islam began in the 1300s. My challenge is that with a POD not before 1500, Islam should not become the major religion in the Archipelago but should become like Islam in the Indian sub continent i.e. constitute around 30% of the total population.
 

katchen

Banned
I think someone would need to jumpstart the Age of Discovery to about 1300. If Genoa or Portugal can't get someone to go beyond Cape Bojador, maybe Navarre with those far seafaring Basque fishermen that get all the way to Newfoundland can be persuaded to try to get past the Sahara--and discover Mali---and then a route to the Orient that does not depend on the Muslims. Get Europeans into the East Indies by 1350-1400 missionizing for Christianity and there's a good chance Islamicizaton will come to a screeching halt as it did OTL when the Portuguese and later the Dutch reached parts of the East Indies with their Christian missionaries that the Muslims had not gotten to.
 
In Malaysia, with it's resources and low population..

Greatly increase Chinese & Indian immigration during the colonial era. Add in more warfare and depopulation actions before then, and then proceed to encourage Muslim emigration & conversions. If Muslim population goes to ~40%, and the policies continue after independence, you might see them reduced to ~30% by the modern era.

Indonesia is harder to crack however, due to is larger population. Maybe have conquistadors ban Islam or something?
 
The conversion of the populations of modern day Indonesia and Malaysian to Islam began in the 1300s.

No, 1300 is just when it really took off, the beginnings of the spread of Islam into the Archipelago started in 7th century, with trade links between the Islamic World and archipelago and grew more from the 10th century onwards until the gradual booming that started from the 14th century onwards.

To answer the challlenge though, what exactly do you mean a minority?

If you mean it's a minority in all of Indonesia and Malaya collectively that can be done, however if you mean a minority everywhere (IE few to no local majorities) that's not really possible; in the case of Indonesia finding some way to keep Islam a relatively small minority in Java would do it, as Java has always been the most populous island (at present it has 138 million people or 58.1% of Indonesia's population), and even now Islam in Indonesia is found primarily in Java and Sumnatra while elsewhere it's either a minority or a new introduction; in the case of Malaysia it's much more difficult as Islam was neither spread by force nor enforced by a converedted rules on the populace but spread as teh result of large scale peaceful conversion among the populace who had regular contract with Arab and Indian traders.
 
In Malaysia, with it's resources and low population..
Greatly increase Chinese & Indian immigration during the colonial era. Add in more warfare and depopulation actions before then, and then proceed to encourage Muslim emigration & conversions.

A Chinese or Indian majority in the region would butterfly away the name "Malaysia", and therefore make this thread pointless.

Malays used to be devout Buddhists who built the Srivijaya Empire and Borobudur, it would be simpler to make the Malays keep their faith.

If Muslim population goes to ~40%, and the policies continue after independence, you might see them reduced to ~30% by the modern era.

Muslims always have a higher birth rate than non-muslims, so even if we have a ~40% at independence, it might still rise to >50%(majority) after a generation or two.
 
Muslims always have a higher birth rate than non-muslims,

No, they don't.

Their is a high birthrate among many Muslim countries now for the same reason their is among the various Christian African countries and has historically always been among all populations that being that they're underdeveloped.

In first world countries with long established, integrated populations and/or well integrated recent immigrants the birthrate is no different than other groups.
 
We should focus on Indonesia, because it's easier for Indonesia to culturally influence Malaysia than the other way round.

1)Keeping the Hindu Majapahit Empire and minimize the influences of the Islamist city-states of north Java?

2)The Dutch replaced "Ethnic Policy" with "Missionary Policy", and make Christinization a part of their Culture.

3)IOTL, One Indian soldier under Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles tried to convert a Javanese king back to Hinduism, and (according to Raffles) almost succeeded, because Java still had strong Hindu cultural background.

ITTL, If the British stayed longer with their Hindu mercenaries, and forcibly got rid of the Arab-descended Sheikh-class, they would have stopped the (then-superficial) Islamization and convert Java back to Hinduism.

Later on, the Javanese decide that Hinduism is a part of their national identity, and radiate Hinduism to entire Indonesia.
 
Maybe have conquistadors ban Islam or something?

This is tricky. The conquistadors would have banned anything from Papuan paganism to Balinese Hinduism... so Islam would become a minority, but Hinduism, Buddhism and primitive religions might completely disappear.

Indonesia would be more like the Philippines, rather than Cambodia or Thailand.

I also suspect the Conquistadors actually unwittingly encouraged Islam, as foreign Christian aggression drove native rulers to adopt Islam as a banner of rebellion.
 
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