When we come across the history of any south east asian country we will be reminded of its past as hindu kingdom be it burma, malaysia, singapore (singapura), indonesia (sumatra ), srilanka (asssociated with ramayan) and few other SAARC countries like pakistan, bangladesh, nepal, bhutan(partly) etc. But all this happened ages back.. start with harappa/mohenjadaro times to lates till vijayanagara empire (14th century AD) Slowly buddism and later islam took it over as sea of changes swept these most of these countries. History tells us that Islam talks of spreading its religion by any means. It vouches heaven for every one who gets killed for spreading their religion. So this very fundamentalism gave the believers to spread across the frontiers of continents and move eastern than to move west (europe etc) becoz they face excessive might of greeks,english and other religiously inclined people ( we know protestands-cathelic battles for supremacy). It is a fact that hindus didnt fight among themselves for their belief (be it a specific god, except dwaitha v.s advaitha but which is again not bloody battle)
So with little or no resistance from ancient hindus to the newer religions that stem from either west or Arabian lands, these newer religions soon found to be flourishing. This very reason of easy going with the religion by hindus has costed them highly and it is perennial effect is felt even in india, which is the birthplace for hinduism.
