Indonesia before 1945 consisted of various kinds of powers, including Kingdoms, Sultanates and Traditional Powers, all of which were often referred to as the Archipelago.
It is often said that the archipelago was colonized for 350 years, although in fact this is very debatable, because since the arrival of the Portuguese colonialists in 1511, they only controlled a few regions such as Malacca, Sunda and Maluku. In the following years, the Spanish, British and Dutch colonialists (VOC) continuously colonized the entire archipelago, but they were still unable to fully control the archipelago's powers, such as the Aceh Sultanate.
With the slogan Gold, Glory and Gospel, it is clear that the arrival of the invaders was economically motivated. The limitations of the Kingdoms in Europe which were based on Christianity in obtaining economic resources, due to the control of trade routes in the Middle East by the Ottoman Caliphate, meant that they had to look for other routes in various directions, to the West they managed to reach the American Continent, while to the East Through southern Africa they managed to reach the Malacca region.
Every time they stopped in expansion areas, they immediately extracted economic resources, mainly gold, then natural resources, while ensuring that economic wealth remained in the hands of the colonialists by placing their military, influencing local rulers, replacing them with people. who were loyal to the colonialists, and provided education that was pro-colonialist.
The potential for economic resources was so large, it made the colonists even richer, and accumulated this wealth in European territory. Various economic systems, such as banking, securities trading, taxation and paper money, became easier for the colonialists to implement.
To this day, colonization through companies such as those carried out by the VOC is still ongoing, along with military colonization or occupation, various resources such as oil, gold and other mining commodities continue to become profits for the colonialists. Even the bankruptcy of colonial countries can easily be recovered by the existence of the same economic and financial system throughout the world.
The world is powerless to avoid various economic and financial crises that constantly occur alternately, as if colonized and imprisoned. No wonder then the impact is rampant injustice, poverty in places, gaping inequality, massive and fundamental damage to nature and humans.
The territory of the Muslims was like a food dish, which was constantly eaten easily by the invaders. As long as the economic system based on usury, banking, paper money, securities trading, bonds and so on is still applied by the whole world, then during that time economic colonization will continue.
Never mind defending the honor and dignity of you Muslims, defending the land of the Muslims has become a struggle, it is no wonder that to this day Palestine has not been liberated, the surrounding countries are busy defending their own territories from various potential attacks from the invaders. The Muslim leaders seemed to have fallen into a dilemma, so they were unable to do their best to defend the Palestinian people.
Therefore, the "atoms" of Islamic revival, especially in the field of Muamalah, must continue to be fought for, who knows how long, the most important thing is that the practice of this struggle can become a way to Allah Azza wa Jalla's heaven . Returning gold to money, syirkah to become a company system, and Baitul Mal to become the highest economic institution are some of the practices of struggle in the field of Muamalah.
By restoring Muamalah which is the teaching of Islam, actually restoring justice and welfare to all mankind, means freedom from economic colonialization, because Islam is rahmatan lil 'alamin.
Wallahu 'Alam Bishawab