THE HISTORY OF ISLAM IN BOLAANG MONGONDOW, NORTH SULAWESI

Abstract

This article describes the spread of Islam in the Bolaang Mongondow region of the province of North Sulawesi and shows that religious conversion was an intermittent if ongoing process. It is characterised by changes very much along the lines of religious rationalisation in the Weberian sense including systematisation and codification of doctrine, building of formal institutions, professionalisation of the clergy and a universalistic claim to truth transcending ethnic and national boundaries. The emphasis on aspects of rationalisation also serves to shed more light on processes that run in the opposite direction since rationalisation of Islam facilitated the carving out of an increasingly separate sphere of popular beliefs and practices. I will refer to this sphere as folk beliefs in contrast to rationalised scriptural religions (in this case Islam) and the traditional local religion of Bolaang Mongondow, because folk beliefs include elements and adaptations of both religions but in markedly derationalised form.

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