Re: Majapahit and Islam

Hi, Betty:
Sometime ago you mentioned that the presence of the
Mon people was (one of) the main reason(s) why
the penunsula SEAsia wasn't overtaken by Islam
while the island SEAsia was overtaken by it.
As you know that histroically Indonesia had two
great powers; one being Srivijaya and the other
Majapahit. Both of these political powers cutivated
(Hinduism and) Mahayana Buddhism. By the 14th century,
however, Majapahit's power embedded due possibly
to the raising of many local rulers, who
established their own lucative trading networks,
(which was part of the international network)
undermining the economic ground of the kingdom.
These local rules all seem to have SO EASILY
adopted Islam as their religion. The question
I would like to ask you is why did these local rulers
adopt Islam? I know that it is very easy for one
to covert to Islam. All one has to do is to profess that
he is a Muslim. This fact does not, however, explain
why these local rules adopted Islam so easily. Do you
know whether at that time in Indonesia there were any
political, economical, social reasons/benefits due to
which these rules converted their religion to Islam?
tadao