•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

Jakarta. An obscure group led by an academic from a respected Islamic university in Indonesia is reportedly set to petition the Constitutional Court to declare that the Borobudur Temple in Central Java belongs to Islam.

Kompasiana.com reported that researchers from the Islam and Ancient History Study Institution, led by Fahmi Basya, an Islamic mathematics lecturer from Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University in Jakarta, claimed they had solid proof the Buddhist temple was built by the Prophet Solomon’s “genie soldiers.”

Solomon, who according to the Hebrew Bible was a king of Israel, is known as the prophet Sulayman in the Koran.

According to the article, the researchers had connected Borobudur with the Kraton Ratu Boko (Queen Boko’s Palace) near the Hindu temple Prambanan in Central Java, claiming that Boko was actually another name for Queen Balqis, the wife of Sulayman.

The researchers, according to the news portal, said supporting evidence included new Islamic mathematical measurements created by Fahmi, which were known only to him.
 
Another method used by the researchers to connect Borobudur to Islam was by the association of names.

The origins of the name Slemen, a town in Yogyakarta, they said, came from Sulayman, while ‘Java’ came from the word ‘Jews.’

Fahmi also claimed that Sulayman was the only prophet whose name contained the syllable ‘Su’ and therefore the country in which he resided was later led by his descendants with names containing the same syllable, namely Sukarno, Suharto and Susilo.

Fahmi, who could not be reached for comment, intends to put forward his arguments as the basis for his claims that the Constitutional Court declare the World Heritage Site the rightful property of Muslims and revise history books and literature on the subject.

Historian JJ Rijal told the Jakarta Globe that Fahmi’s claims could be categorized as “ideological history.”

“Ideological history takes many forms. For example, in Indonesia, researchers who follow the ideology believe that Islam is the blood, the locomotive to all great events in the country,” Rijal said.

He said Sulayman was not the only prophet connected to Java.

“When Islam was first introduced to Java, a tradition was born. All prophets were linked to Java. Royal families’s genealogical trees would show that their ancestors were the Prophet Adam, even the Prophet Muhammad and now, Sulayman,” Rijal said.