Interesting enough, Asian Muslims have developed many variations of customs and traditions, which are quite different from one another, depending on the region they live in. It probably happened because of the large number of Hindus converting to Muslims, which resulted in a great influence of Hindu culture among Muslims in countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The countries that are dominanted by the Muslim religion are mostly Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia. A known tendency of the Muslims in Asia is to believe that their religion is more important than even their country, so they start identifying themselves more and more as Muslims, and less as Pakistani, Indonesian, etc.
Their passion is admirable, and it's quite a rarity among peoples across the world. For some of them religion is everything, and so they loyally stick to the teachings of the holy Quran. Unfortunately, because of this situation, politicians are beginning to try to use religion for their own purposes. Indonesia is Asia's largest Muslim population country, housing 170.
3 million Muslims. And because they are so dedicated, they have even started some disturbing incidents in Indonesia (and also in Bangladesh) for the purpose of obtaining a complete Muslim state. This can ofcourse damage the secularism of these countries.
Asian Muslims are now beginning to take cue from their Middle East counterparts, to fight for their religion. The division of the castes among Asian Muslims also seems to be a difference of opinion about the higher and lower castes, and who is eligible to be part of higher castes. Converts from Hinduism are supposedly part of the lower castes. The higher castes are also divided into four sub-castes. The Sayyids, one sub-caste of the higher caste, are supposed to be held in high regard.
They are the descendants of The Prophet. There are rumors about certain behavioral patterns of the high caste Asian Muslims, and frankly they are beginning to exagerate. They are known to take a bath if they come into contact with a Muslim of a lower caste, and also do not agree to them being buried in the same graveyard. Intelligent Muslim scholars have naturally voiced their opinions about this caste system among Muslims in Asia. They regard it as a violation of the laws of The Koran, and they are right, because this is extremism we are talking about.
But this is only a small part of the big picture. There is an organization called AMAN in Asia for Muslims, which works towards bringing the laws of the Muslim religion to light. Their main goals are to wipe out elite corruption, materialistic lifestyles and tension among various ethnic groups of people. They value the highest principles of life - truth, justice, compassion, freedom and equality.
They work together to create awareness about social justice, and also cooperation among other religions and cultures. It's always a joy to see a man dedicated to his religion, but nobody should fall in the other extremity, being fanatic. Because a person becomes fanatic, he or she forgets about the basic teachings that are there in every large religion of the world, which is love and unity between people.
However, fanatics exist in every community on Earth, and nobody should bother paying attention to them; this, of course, applies to Asian Muslims too.
Asia has many Muslims, and Asian Muslims are very dedicated to their religion.
