Islam in Tonga

Islam in Tonga consists of about 47 people in a population of about 108,000. Muslims in Tonga belong to Sunni denomination.

Muslim school

Tonga’s Muslim community is planning to raise funds in the Middle East to build a new boarding school on Tongatapu.[1] The school is to follow the Tongan school curriculum, but additionally offer the Arabic language and Islamic studies as options. Sheikh Imam Abdul Fader, a spiritual leader of the Tongan Muslim community and a mathematics teacher, said their project is to build a three-story boarding school that will serve Muslims and non-Muslims, especially orphans who are often deprived of education. The children in the school will not be forced to study or convert to Islam. He also said that a small delegation of Tongan Muslims will leave in June 2007 for Saudi Arabia and Qatar to seek donations and funding for the new school, since these two countries are well known for their strong contributions to the Muslim community in Australia and New Zealand.

Introduction

Tonga, or the Kingdom of Tonga, is the only constitutional monarchy in the Pacific and the only South Pacific country never to have been colonized by a foreign power. It is an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, which consists of 171 islands with a total land area of 290 square miles and a population of about 106,000 as for July 2011.[1] These islands are spreading over 700,000 square miles in the South Pacific and Only 45 islands of them are inhabited. Most of the population lives in the largest island, Tongatapu.
The dominant religion in the Kingdom of Tonga is Christianity. According to the International Religious Freedom Report 2010, Christians comprise 96 percent of the overall population.[3] Islam is a recent newcomer to the Kingdom of Tonga and consists only of about 25 families. The total Muslim population consists approximately of 100 people, of which around 70 are Tongan nationals. The Tongan Muslim community is very mixed and consists of Tongans, Fijians, Bangladeshi, Pakistanis, Arabs, and Indians.

Challenges Facing the Tongan Muslim Community

The Tongan Muslim community is facing a lot of challenges going forward. One of them is the issue of Islamic education. Until now, the only places where children could acquire Islamic knowledge have been the mosque and the Islamic Center. In April 2007, an attempt was made to build the Kingdom of Tonga’s first Muslim boarding school on Tongatapu, which would serve especially the “orphans who stay in the isolated outer islands or villages and are deprived of fundamental education” and will be free of charge. The new school was supposed to follow the regular school curriculum of all Tongan schools with the addition of Arabic language and Islamic studies as options. The non-Muslim children would neither be forced to study these subjects nor will they be forced to convert to Islam. But, to no avail.

However, Arif Abdul Rahim, who is a son of late Abdul Rahim Rasheed, a dedicated da’wah worker and lawyer in New Zealand, and himself a lawyer, has been paying regular visits to the Kingdom of Tonga. During these visits, he gives lectures to the Tongan Muslims, meets with them, and supplies them with reading materials.

Another problem faced by the Tongan Muslim community is that due to its small numbers, the pressure of their families, and a lack of support or follow-up from Tongan Muslims and Muslim organizations from the outside world, some of the individuals who embraced Islam, lost interest and converted back to Christianity.[15] Other difficulties faced by the Tongan Muslim community are: in the past a lot of money was showered on the Tongan da’wah operations and, as a result, some Tongans converted to Islam from money reasons, and, therefore, it is hard to know who has converted from money reasons and who did it from his own sincere wish; the level of Islamic piety and knowledge is different between the local converts to Islam and the immigrant Muslims and this gap affects the relationship between these groups; the social culture of the Tongans put great pressure on the converts against practicing Islam; and the Ahmadiyyah remains a great threat for this community by presenting its false message as a true religion of Islam.

Summary

It is important to mention in this connection that there is a lack of research on Islam in the Pacific Islands in general and on Islam in the Kingdom of Tonga in particular. Not much has been written about da’wah and Islamization processes in this country neither in English nor in Arabic and in other language. Also the activities of the Ahmadiyyah in this country are unknown. This is why it is not possible to widely explore the challenges facing the Tongan Muslim community going forward.

However, in conclusion, it is safe to note despite these gaps in knowledge that international Muslim funding, aid and da’wah efforts have been and will continue to be paramount in the sustainability of the Tongan Muslim community. In addition, its continuity depends also on the impact of the clash that might be taking place between the Tongan social culture and tradition and between the religion of Islam, which is foreign to this Kingdom and to its culture. In my point of view, the outcome of these two factors will determine the future of the Tongan Muslim community.

Source : http://www.islaminpacific.com/content/islam-kingdom-tonga