The Shi'i Minority in Indonesia: A Consideration of its Historical and Cultural Links and Gaps with the Sunni Majority

There are two different theories concerning the historical and cultural role of the Shi'i in Southeast Asia: (i) the theory that Sunnism was the first and only Islamic denomination introduced to Indonesia, without Shi'ism having had any historical or cultural role in the region; (2) the theory that Shi'ism has historical and cultural roots in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia, which is supported by evidence from tombs, written sources in their native language as well as in Arabic and Mandarin, and Shi'i cultural and literary traditions in the Malay Islamic culture and literature. In this paper, we seek to consider these two theories, and then revisit the conditions of the Sunni majority. Ways out of these challenges will be proposed in the paper.