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Volume 16, Number 2, June 2004
Contributors
Introduction by Johan Saravanamuttu
Alternative models of Islamic governance in Southeast Asia: Neo-Sufism and the Arqam experiment in Malaysia by Judith Nagata
In the prevailing political world order, sovereign nation-states and secular political authority widely face competition from transnational religious communities, whose authority and agendas derive from different principles. This is particularly evident in Islam, where ulama may acquire political power, while governments appropriate religious interpretations to their own purposes, and even determine who is orthodox or heretical in their domain. This article focuses on the origins and spread of one Malay Islamic movement, Al Arqam, inspired by a rare mix of global Sufi and strict Shari'ah traditions, many of whose members were organized into residential communes and institutions promoting economic independence, mutual support, social service and extensive mission. With their schools, clinics, farms and factories, this amounted to an experiment in alternative development and governance, although not explicitly as an Islamic state. Arqam's moral example and its success in recruiting technically skilled, highly educated young Malays, however, was perceived by the Malaysian government, as its own loss, and a threat to its legitimacy, and the movement was eventually banned. Through this non-violent ideological confrontation, Arqam became de facto political, as well as a 'heresy', in this local understanding of 'political Islam'.
Contesting models of Islamic governance in Malaysia and Indonesia by Jan Stark
This article suggests that there is much to be learnt from studying Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia comparatively to trace their emerging similarities. Various models of an Islamic state, be it by directly involving the shariah as the only source of reference, as it is proposed Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), or by gradually Islamizing the society (shariah haraki), a model that has been applied with considerable success by both ABIM and the Mahathir administration and receives backing from Islamic mass organizations such as the NU and Muhammadiyah. This suggests that there is a gradual transformation of the Wahhabi-inspired dakwah-Islam of the late 1970s into new discourses of Islamic civil society undertaken by the emerging middle classes of both countries. However, Wahhabi-Islam is nevertheless still important and its impact on the future shape of political Islam in the region cannot be underestimated, especially since dakwah-organizations link up internationally and continue to be generously sponsored by Saudi Arabia.
Women's engagement with political Islam in Malaysia by Maznah Mohamad
This essay delves into the engagement of Muslim women's groups with political Islam in Malaysia. It argues that a political Islam that has been seen to be broadly inimical to women's status and interest has been ameliorated by such an engagement. Furthermore, the plurality of Islamic engagement by women, ranging from pragmatists, communitarians to liberal-feminists, has arguably led to a less than hegemonic Islamic order in Malaysia. Such engagement by Muslim women has concomitantly also contributed to a blunting of Malay-Muslim dominance by exploding the myth of Malay consensus in the multiethnic political system.
Praying in the rain: the politics of engaged Muslims in anti-war protest in Thai society by Chaiwat Satha-Anand
In this article the author examines the anti-war protest on March 26, 2003, in Southern Thailand and suggests the notion of engaged Muslims as a theoretical alternative to political Islam to better reflect both a realistic Muslim perspective and a critical understanding of what constitutes 'the political'. Such an alternative, when it exists, depends on the ways in which a Muslim minority, such as in Thailand, chooses to engage with others in a manner that could reflect a reaffirmation of membership in the imagined community that is the nation-state, while preserving their identity as those who belong to their distinctive community of faith. In protesting for peace and symbolically 'praying in the rain' as both citizens and members of a distinctive community of faith, an alternative role for Muslims in politics as engaged Muslims has been creatively explored.
Communication by Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid
Book Reviews