The Politics Of Islam In Contemporary Malaysia

This book focuses on two major Malay politic parties, UMNO and PAS, two major dakwah movements, ABIM and Al-Arqam, to analyse and to examine their impact on Malaysian politics. This book explores the role of Islam in Malay society and politics and tries to establish a systematic linkage between Islam and Malay unity.

PART ONE. THE CULTURE, POLITICAL ECONOMY, AND HISTORY OF THE ISLAMIC COURTS -- Locating Islamic Magistrates and Their Courts in History -- The Work of the Courts -- Litigant Strategies and Patterns of Resistance -- PART TWO. MODERNITY AND GOVERNMENTALITY IN ISLAMIC COURTS AND OTHER DOMAINS -- Reinscribing Authenticity and Identity -- Producing Good Subjects, "Asian Values," and New Types of Criminality.

Malaysia, home to some twenty million Muslims, is often held up as a model of a pro-Western Islamic nation. The government of Malaysia, in search of Western investment, does its best to perpetuate this view. But this isn't the whole story. Over the last several decades, Joseph Liow shows, Malaysian politics has taken a strong turn toward Islamism. This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the growing role of Islam in the last quarter century of Malaysian politics. Conventional wisdom suggest that the ruling UMNO party has moved toward Islamism to fend off challenges from the more heavily Islamist opposition party, PAS. Liow argues, however, that UMNO has often taken the lead in moving toward Islamism, and that in fact PAS has often been forced to react. The result, Liow argues, is a game of "piety-trumping" that will be very difficult to reverse, and that has dire consequences not only for the ethnic and religious minorities of Malaysia, but for their democratic system as a whole.

This collection of essays has been prepared as a tribute to Clive S. Kessler, Professor of Sociology at the University of New South Wales for over twenty years and a member of staff of the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, and the Barnard College, Columbia University, New York. Written by colleagues and graduate students, the essays are divided into three sections: Islam, Society and Politics. They focus on Professor Kessler's analyses of Malaysia. Each essay draws on aspects of his published research, taking his insights as points of departure for new studies. Professor Kessler's ideas and observations are thus extended, complemented and updated in ways which emphasize the depth and extent of his influence on contemporary research on Malaysia.

Providing an ethnographic account of the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) and its Youth Wing (Dewan Pemuda PAS), this book analyses the genesis and role of Islamic movements in terms of their engagement in mainstream politics. It explores the party’s changing approach towards popular culture and critically investigates whether the narrative of a post-Islamist turn can be applied to the PAS Youth. The book shows that in contrast to the assumption that Islamic marketization and post-Islamism are reinforcing each other, the PAS Youth has strategically appropriated and integrated Islamic consumerism to pursue a decidedly Islamist – or ‘pop-Islamist’ – political agenda. The media-savvy PAS Youth elites, which are at the forefront of implementing new outreach strategies for the party, categorically oppose tendencies of political moderation among the senior party. Instead, they are most passionately calling for the establishment of a Syariah-based Islamic oder for state and society, although these renewed calls are increasingly expressed through modern channels such as Facebook, YouTube, rock music, celebrity advertising, branded commodities and other market-driven forms of social movement mobilization. A timely and significant contribution to the literature on Islam and politics in Malaysia and beyond, this book sheds new light on widespread assumptions or even hopes of "post-Islamism". It is of interest to students and scholars of Political Religion and Southeast Asian Politics.

A case study of a multi-ethnic Muslim state and a contribution to the study of the domestic functions of foreign policy. The book also addresses the real and imagined significance of Islam as a force in contemporary global politics.

How do Islamic courts work? What sorts of cultural understandings inform judicial process and litigants' strategies? How do women's claims fare? Do these courts promote social tolerance? And how do states use them to consolidate power, build nations, and shape a modern citizenry? These are among the questions addressed in this book, which not only enhances our understanding of diversity among and within the world's Muslim communities, but also provides ethnographic, historical, and transnational perspectives on contemporary Islam in the shifting landscape of a strategically important region of the world. Focusing on Malaysia, which has sustained more rapid development than probably any other Muslim nation, Michael Peletz explores the culture, political economy, and history of Islamic courts. He demonstrates that they are centrally involved in the creation and policing of new Malay-Muslim identities (such as middle-class urban dwellers) that the state sees as the basis for a national polity that will be highly competitive. He also shows how and why Islamic courts are key sites in struggles involving ethnic and religious groups, social classes, political parties, and others with a major stake in defining Islam's role with respect to the maintenance of sovereignty and the achievement of modernity and civil society in an age of globalization. Peletz deepens our knowledge of Islamic political development in a country very much concerned with forging an Islamic modernity viewed by its leaders as a viable alternative to Western-style modernization.

This book describes the Islamisation process that has unfolded in Malaysia over the last fifty years and provides feedback from in-depth interviews with 100 individuals from Malaysia’s “educated classes”, or the “elite”, regarding their reactions to the changes that have accompanied Islamisation and how they feel it has impacted them. It includes a brief overview of Islamisation globally and a brief history of Malaysia, focusing especially on those aspects relevant to the book’s subject. The book gives a comprehensive explanation of how and why Islamisation occurred in Malaysia and illustrates the extent of change that has accompanied it. The feedback from the research participants includes special analysis of reactions from Muslim women and non-Muslims. The reasons behind there being so little public debate about Islamisation and the concerns that this group of people have about what is happening is also explained. Finally, the author gives his opinion on the impact the change in government in May 2019 is likely to have.