After Constantinople's conquest in the mid-15th century, Muslims controlled the international maritime routes and a lot of Indonesian rajas saw it as a mark of prestige and opportunity to be part of such a network should they have converted to Islam.

Islam in Indonesia Contributed by Prof. Dr. Nazeer Ahmed, PhD Modern Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world. Together with Malaysia and the Philippine islands, this area is home to over 250 million Muslims.

If numbers can tell a story, the conversion to Islam of the peoples of the Indo-nesian archipelago can be counted as a great success. Even if the official statis-tics claiming that 90% of Indonesians today are Muslim are somewhat exag-gerated or ill defined, it is clear that Islam has taken strong root in the region

How Islam came to dominate Indonesia Unlike other parts of the world, Islam spread in Southeast Asia without a major conquest.

The Sumatran rainforests of Indonesia are home to the Orang Rimba - the people of the jungle. Three months ago, the 58 families that make up the Celitai tribe of Orang Rimba converted to Islam. ^{In 1451, Shaykh Rahmat, a sage who had made his center near the modern city of Surabaya, converted the Majapahit ruler, Raja Kertawijaya, to Islam. By 1475, Majapahit had changed its character to a Muslim sultanate, although the kingdom itself survived until 1515.}

Classical documentations divide Indonesian Muslims between "nominal" Muslims, or abangan, whose lifestyles are more oriented toward non-Islamic cultures, and "orthodox" Muslims, or santri, who adhere to the Orthodox Islamic norms.

Islam in Indonesia. Indonesia contains the largest Muslim population of all countries in the world. The current number of Muslim inhabitants is estimated to be around 207 million individuals, most of whom adhere to Sunni Islam. This large number implies that approximately 13 percent of the total number of Muslims in the world live in Indonesia, The Changing Face of Indonesian Islam Hijrah movements are flourishing on Indonesian campuses, worrying some proponents of Indonesia's more moderate traditions. By Carter Banker December 24, ^{Islam had an advantage over other religions, because it was founded by merchants! Converting places to Islam only required books, while converting places to Hinduism required temples, which were much costlier. So in the 13th century, many locals in Indonesia began converting to Islam. Why?} ^{In 2022 Indonesian governmental statistics, 87.02% of Indonesians identified themselves as Muslim (with Sunnis about 99%, [20] Shias about 1% [21] and Ahmadis 0.07-0.2%), [9] 10.49% Christians (7.43% Protestants, 3.06% Roman Catholic ), 1.69% Hindu, 0.73% Buddhists, 0.03% Confucians and 0.04% others.} Indonesia: Treatment of Indonesians who have converted to Christianity; the number of Indonesian Christians; whether Sharia law applies, and if so, how; whether there have been any fatwas in this regard; whether the radical Muslim community loses interest once a Muslim has converted to Christianity and has lived as a Christian for some time ^{The Samudera Pasai Sultanate (Malay: كسلطانن سامودرا ڤاساي), also known as Samudera or Pasai or Samudera Darussalam or Pacem, was a Muslim kingdom on the north coast of Sumatra from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The kingdom was believed to have been founded by Merah Silu, who later converted to Islam and adopted the name Malik ul Salih, in the year 1267 CE.}

"Indonesia ensures respect for all religions, and this has led to a strengthening democracy." In fact, this harmonious relationship reflects the peaceful manner in which Islam was originally introduced to Indonesia, a country which has grown to represent the largest Muslim population in the entire world. [Read more: Islam in Asia]