NAS: and they glorified the God of Israel. God has a strong, beautiful and personal connection with us, enabling us to grow into the best versions of ourselves. An accomplished mechanical engineer, Trevithick was born in Cornwall, England, in 1771. Among his many notable accomplishments, he’s probably best known in transportation circles for constructing the very first steam locomotive. There is no clear indication of when Islam first came to the region, but the first Muslim inscriptions have been dated to 1028 was found in Pahang, Malaysia. It is the official religion in Malaysia and Brunei while it is one of the six recognised faiths in Indonesia. Islam is the most widely practised religion in Southeast Asia with approximately 240 million adherents in the region (about 42% of its population), with majorities in Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia as well as parts of Southern Thailand and parts of Mindanao in the Philippines respectively. Southeast Asia is the global region with the highest number of Muslims in the world, surpassing the Middle East and North Africa. After a six-week voyage, Omar arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, in about 1807. About four years later, he was sold to James Owen of North Carolina’s Cape Fear region.

Malacca was an early stronghold of Islam as well, and it served as a starting point from which Islam was propagated along the trade routes in the region. Established around 840 AD, the Peureulak Sultanate played an important role in the history of Islam in the archipelago, even before the emergence of other Islamic kingdoms such as the Samudera Pasai and Malacca Sultanates. This made it play a major role in the spread of Islam in Southeast Asia. Islam is part of everyday life for adherents in Southeast Asia and is not separated from “non-religious realms”. Most Muslims in Southeast Asia are Sunni and follow the Shafi’i school of fiqh, or religious law. Although the dynasties of caliphs that followed the Rashidun-the Umayyads (ruled 661-750) and the Abbasids (ruled 750-1258)-built up Islam’s power and prestige in the world, they do not have quite the same reputation in Sunni Muslim eyes. Those who believe that Muslim ruled Spain was pluralistic point to the audio narration in the Museum of The Three Cultures in Cordoba, Spain, where the audio narration says that “when the East was not separated from the West, Muslims were not separated from Jews or Christians”.

They contend that later Christians rewrote Jesus as a historical figure who suffered at the hands of earthly rulers. The Muslim rulers of Spain “relied on the Jews for diplomacy and public administration who were inaugurated into posts of commerce and played important roles in cities such as Toledo and Cordoba”. The religion was then further spread by Sufi orders and finally consolidated by the expansion of the territories of converted rulers and their communities. The first Muslim communities arose in Aceh in Northern Sumatra, with the establishment of the Peureulak Sultanate in the 9th century which is considered to be the oldest Islamic sultanate in Southeast Asia. As one of the early centers of Islamic development in this region, the Peureulak Sultanate became the gateway for Islam to enter through trade routes involving Arab, Persian, and Indian traders. Islam in Southeast Asia is neglected in Western study of Islam which centers around the Middle East.

Muslim merchants dominated trade in Southeast Asia by the 9th century or earlier. On April 30, 711, Muslim General Tariq ibn-Ziyad landed at Gibraltar and by the end of the campaign most of the Iberian Peninsula (except for small areas in the north-west such as Asturias and the Basque territory) were brought under Islamic rule. One name frequently mentioned is Count Julian of Ceuta who invited Tariq ibn-Ziyad to invade southern Spain because his daughter had been raped by King Roderick. This campaign’s turning point was the battle of Guadalete, where the last Visigothic king, Roderick, was defeated by general Tariq ibn-Ziyad. Martin even proposed that the concept of secularization be eliminated from social scientific discourse, on the grounds that it had only served ideological purposes and because there was no evidence of any general shift from a religious period in human affairs to a secular period. According to Edward H. Schafer, there are several passages in Chinese chronicles compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907-979 CE) mention some Islamic activities in the Champa Kingdom during the 10th century CE. Freedom of belief is a government policy, and normal religious activities are protected by the constitution. Significant minorities are located in the other Southeast Asian states.