This paper discuss the relationship of Islam, female performance and wayang/topeng in the performing arts of West Java, giving a very brief overview of three period: the mytho-historic moment of the wali (saints) who used arts, inclu­ding rong­geng (female-style singing-dancing) as a tool of conver­sion; the colonial era when the palaces of Cirebon which were fonts of religious wisdom and colonial resistance became major centers of school­ing ronggeng who dispersed through the Sundanese area of West Java performing genres li­ke ta­yuban (dance parties of the aristocracy) and ketuk tilu (popular dance performance) in addition to vari­ants of topeng ; and the contemporary period where the  the art has been vexed with questioning of jaipong­an and related forms. Anti-pornography legislation is, in part, aimed at remnants of long existing female-singer-dancer performance practices which are found in palace writings and linked with the advent of Islam.  Through changing assumptions about ronggeng and the arts, we see shifts in attitudes toward performance and religious discourse in local Islam.