1. Discuss impact that different religions had on Ancient SEA.

Answers:
Islam:
The actual timing and introduction of Islamic religion and religious practice to Southeast Asia is somewhat of a debate. European historians have argued that it came through trading contacts with India, whereas some Southeast Asian Muslim scholars claim it was brought to the region directly from Arabia in the Middle East. Other scholars claim that Muslim Chinese who were engaged in trade introduced it.

Whatever the source, scholars acknowledge that Muslim influence in Southeast Asia is at least six centuries old, or was present by 1400 A.D. Some argue for origins to at least 1100 A.D. in the earliest areas of Islamic influence, such as in Aceh, northern Sumatra in Indonesia.

Whatever exact dates and sources one chooses to support, there is no doubt that Islamization of many peoples in present-day Malaysia, southern Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, and the southern Philippines occurred within a few hundred years. The process of religious conversion absorbed many pre-existing Southeast Asian beliefs (often referred to as 'animism', or the belief in the power of invisible spirits of people's ancestors and the spirits of nature to influence the fortunes of humans on earth).


The Prophet Muhammad:
Muhammad is the founder of Islamic religion. He was born in Mecca in the 6th century A.D. Orphaned while young, he married a well-to-do widow who employed him in trade. In the year 610 A.D., he began his religious quest. he believed himself a 'messenger' of Allah, the one true God. He attacked polytheism and proposed a religion of equality. By the year 624, he became the leader of Mecca, the sacred city that houses the holy building of the Ka'bah. The Ka'bah is the focus of annual pilgrimages by Muslims from all over the world.

Muhammad died in 632 A.D., but he is considered by Muslims to be the final prophet, the one whom God (or Allah) gave his final revelations, long after the beginning of Christianity in Europe.

Muhammad is not considered a 'god'; he is an ideal figure, a model, but Islam is more conservative than Christianity in that it accepts no sacred or holy figures other than the one god, Allah. Whereas Christianity accepts, in various religious denominations, the holiness of the Virgin Mary or Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Islam views such figures as ordinary mortals. Only Allah is sacred and holy in Islamic belief.

The Koran (Qur'an):
The Koran is a holy book; it is scripture to Muslims. While most Christians view the Bible as a holy book, the Koran is considered to contain the holy words of Allah. It is not written by mortals, and in that sense it has a deeper meaning than the Bible to Muslims. The words and meaning of Allah can best be understood in Arabic; hence, Muslims all over the world learn to recite portions of the Koran in its original language--again, very different from the Christian effort to translate the Bible into as many languages as possible for missionary purposes.

Summary:
In the year 1500, Anthony Reid notes that Islamic influence was present in coastal ports of Sumatra, Java, and Malaysia. During this period, Muslim rulers tried to balance their patronage of Islam with international traders, urban mosques, and basic adherence to the Muslim doctrine of avoiding pork with their need to sustain rural peoples' beliefs in animism.

In the year 1590, Islamic writing appears in both Malay and Javanese scripts. This indicates a period of activity by Muslim scholars in select areas who were promoting Islamic beliefs.

Rapid commercialization increased global trade that involved Southeast Asians in extensive travel outside their home areas. Animism, or the belief in spirits, was an intensely 'local' religious form. It was difficult to perform rituals outside of one's own home area, since spirits (ancestral or otherwise) were not 'portable'. The increased global trade influenced indigenous Southeast Asian traders in two ways:
1) they were attracted to new religious forms that were not tied to specific places; and
2) they were impressed by the wealth and apparent materialistic power and talents of foreign traders.





Source:
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/crossroads/russell/islam.htm
http://www.islamweb.net/ver2/engblue/article.php?lang=E&id=136127