Islam in Southeast Asia

Abstract

This book is a revised version of the proceedings of a conference of the sametitle held in Singapore during 2002. The papers comprising this highly relevantand timely text cover topics from the history of Islam in Southeast Asiato Islamic doctrine, politics, civil society, gender, modernization, globalization,and the impact of 9/11. However, Islam and politics are the centralthemes, with special attention given to the challenges of the recent contextfor Southeast Asia’s Muslim-majority societies. As such, it is of interest toscholars of diverse fields, including history, political science, internationalrelations, religious studies, sociology, and anthropology.The introduction, “Understanding Political Islam Post-September 11,”criticizes the inequality and militarism of western-dominated globalizationand the violent responses of political Islam or radical Islamism. Clear definitionsof these pivotal terms used throughout the collection would sharpen theargument about the particular kind of political uses of Islam that the authorsview as a threat. The editors provide an adequate and enticing overview ofthis interesting collection of papers. However, it would be helpful toacknowledge that they focus on Malaysia and Indonesia, with the exceptionof one paper on the Philippines. Addressing the situation of Muslim minorities in the mainland Southeast Asian countries of Burma/Myanmar,Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, where they live under the hegemony ofBuddhist or communist majorities, would add an important comparativedimension ...