Muslim-Christian polemics in Indonesian Islamic literature Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations

Ropi, Ismatu. 1998. "Muslim-Christian polemics in Indonesian Islamic literature". Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. 9 (2): 217-229.

Author: Ismatu Ropi^a

DOI: 10.1080/09596419808721149
Affiliation: ^a Institut Agama Islam Negeri, Jakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

As Indonesian Muslim depictions of Christianity have varied over time and according to the receptivity of particular regions, this study provides a brief survey of the Muslim attitudes towards Christianity from the seventeenth to the twentieth century in Indonesia. In this article, Nuruddin al-Raniri and Hasbullah Bakry are taken as the prototype of Indonesian Muslims' depictions of Christianity in the early and modem eras. In Bakry's works, as the main concern of this study, we find greater familiarity with the Bible which is quoted in an almost literal fashion. The biblical verses are quoted for the purpose of convincing a Muslim audience that Islam is the last religion and that Muhammad is the last messenger; they are used to defend Islam from the misrepresentations of Christians who had wielded the Bible as one of their chief weapons in the effort of Christianize Indonesia.