Mediating Islam: Cosmopolitan Journalisms in Muslim Southeast Asia by Janet Steele

Abstract

Reviewed by: Mediating Islam: Cosmopolitan Journalisms in Muslim Southeast Asia by Janet Steele Ross Tapsell (bio) Janet Steele. Mediating Islam: Cosmopolitan Journalisms in Muslim Southeast Asia. Singapore: NUS Press, 2018. 170 pp. “What is Islamic journalism?” asks Janet Steele in the opening line of her book (1). It’s a question that will prompt significant debate amongst journalists, scholars, and even ordinary news consumers across a wide range of countries and continents. As Steele admits, many of her Muslim journalist informants were uneasy with the central term. “Is there an Islamic form of journalism,” she goes on to ask, “and, if so, how is it related to democratic reform?” (4). Steele answers this question in the context of Indonesia and Malaysia, through insights gained from her ethnographic work, namely, interviews and participant observation at five very different print media publications in both countries. It’s this time spent in newsrooms (Steele has been doing this over several decades in the region) that allows her to provide “nuanced interpretations and multidimensional analyses of practices and belief systems that would otherwise be unavailable” (11). Steele makes clear that the goal of her research is to counter Western “monolithic understanding of Islam; when we think of Islam and the media, we think of the Middle East, Arab culture, a controlled press …” (3). So, too, the dominant Western convention that the only journalists who advocate for press freedom are “liberals” following Western “secular” conventions and rules. Steele argues that Islamic journalism still “fights for injustice and defends the rights of the weak,” not in a “half way point to the ‘real’ journalism” but in a way that compliments and encourages democracy and human rights (3). Using both Indonesia and Malaysia for this research may seem obvious, given they are the largest Muslim nations in Southeast Asia. However, recent scholarly research on both countries in this field is not common. Malaysia is more readily compared with Singapore, given its colonial history and similar “electoral authoritarian” 1 regimes. Comparisons are not easy between Indonesia and Malaysia, either. As Steele writes, in Malaysia “the state is involved in religious affairs [in a way] that is unimaginable in Indonesia” (16). Given Malaysia’s so-called “regime change” of 2018 potentially leading to a path of greater democratic reform, and, conversely, Indonesia’s witnessing the increasing role of Islam in state affairs, the two countries are perhaps becoming more similar than ever before, making comparative studies like Steele’s increasingly relevant. The first three chapters are insightful accounts of publications that undoubtedly consider themselves to be “Islamic” publications, although to varying degrees. The first publication we encounter is the “scripturalist Islam” of Sabili, which even editors of other Islamic magazines described as “distorted” (35). Many of their stories claimed terrorist [End Page 139] attacks in Indonesia were masterminded by “the West,” for example. Steele writes that the paranoia “reflected the agenda of the politically conservative movement” in Indonesia (36). Like many other niche-market print media in recent times, Sabili was forced to close, as its readers largely moved online. The issue of Islamic media as “market niche” continues in the story of Republika, which has so far survived the digital revolution due to the input of funds from millionaire businessman and media mogul Erick Thohir. Steele writes that, despite all its shortcomings, Republika “continues to serve up a style of professional journalism that speaks for democracy and economic justice” (66). In Malaysia, Steele tells the story of Harakah and the tensions between a party-affiliated publication and independent journalism. So, too, she addresses the issue of who is an authority to speak about Islam, with the idea amongst many that only the ulama (Muslim scholars) are qualified to do so (88). Yet Steele shows that many Harakah journalists believe that there is still “room” for greater freedom of expression and debate in Islam. The final two chapters are in some ways the most controversial, because they include publications that are not generally seen as having any special affiliation with Islam and, in fact, are nonconfessional. Malaysiakini was founded by Steven Gan and Premesh Chandram, and has survived in large part due to subscriptions from non-Muslims, both in...