Islam embedded: Religion and plurality in Southeast Asia as a mirror for Europe

Abstract

This essay is a brief introductory survey of some fundamental aspects of Islam in Southeast Asia, particularly, within the maritime Malay-Muslim world. Ethnic, linguistic and cultural variation is the norm in the region. In addition, the region is heir to Hindu and Buddhist traditions and also to three European colonial systems of government and administration (Portuguese, Dutch and British). Islam is but one amongst all these. In some aspects of life it has been considerably reformulated by them. Thus to understand Islam in Southeast Asia one must begin with data from the area than with some Middle-Eastern and theological formulation of Islam. But we have to recognize that Islam is a universalistic theology originating from the Arabic Middle East. Therefore, a more informed analysis and understanding of Islam and Muslims in Southeast Asia and their contemporary articulations must be ‘embedded’ in the historical reality of both the plurality and plural society templates that become the ‘moulds’ of social life in the region. Similarly, to understand contemporary Islam and Muslims in Europe, its ‘embedization processes’, both breadth and depth, have to be understood historically and sociologically.