Alternative models of Islamic governance in Southeast Asia: Neo‐Sufism and the Arqam experiment in Malaysia

Abstract

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’.