Islamization Of Southeast Asia Research Articles

Nusantara: History of a Concept

The dictionary meaning of ‘Nusantara’ is ‘Indonesia’ (in Indonesia) and ‘Malay World’ (in Malaysia), but different meanings have been attached to the concept throughout Southeast Asian history. It appears in fourteenth-century Javanese texts but largely disappeared from written materials for a time, and surfaced again when its almost magical qualities were (re)discovered in the late twentieth century. The meaning of the term has changed over time. In 1334, Gadjah Mada, the chief minister of the Majapahit Empire, used it to refer to the maritime fringes (the nusantara) of the Majapahit Empire. During the anticolonial struggle, the term captured the imagination of writers, novelists, poets, and politicians in Indonesia and in British Malaya but it then disappeared from public debates, only to resurface in the 1990s with the emergence of a Nusantara youth culture and a politicized Nusantara Islam in Southeast Asia.

The Tradition of Writing Qur’anic Commentaries in Java and Sund

This article aims to examine the tradition of writing or copying Qur’anic commentaries in the Javanese and Sundanese cultural regions of the island of Java from 18th to early 20th centuries in terms of the choice of script, language and wrting styles, as well as the socio-historical background behind the production of such manuscripts. Some works are however available in printed forms. I also investigate how far these manuscripts contributed to the making of local Islam in Southeast Asia, specifically in Java and Sunda.

ISLAM DAN LOKALITAS DALAM BINGKAI POSTMODERNISME

For some time, Islam in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia, is considered a periphery Islam (peripheralism religion) due to the syncretism practice and accommodationists against local beliefs. Indonesian Islam is only a little tradition (small tradition) of great tradition Islam who was in the Middle East region. Great tradition is Islamic tradition that grows and develops in the center of culture, namely in the Middle East or more specifically in Mecca and Medina, while little tradition is Islamic tradition that developed outside the Middle East region, including Indonesia, and those are considered to deviate from the pure Islamic. The thesis thrive on the paradigm of modernism that spawned Islamologist like K.P. Landon, Winstedt, Van Leur and also Clifford Geertz with his Trichotomy approach which is famous for the Java community, the belief or confidence is also shared by some Muslim scholars. This paper shows some bias in the paradigm of Modernism and Postmodernism as elaborate approaches in Islamic studies. Postmodernism did de-centering to dismantle the discourse about the center and the periphery, little tradition and great tradition. This is done by presenting Islam ethnographic Wetu telu in West Lombok as an example and the object of analysis. Keywords: decentering, litle tradition, great traditon, Islam Wetu Telu

Islamic radicalisation: Questioning the security lens

Few trends have induced more fear than the conversion of seemingly normal individuals into terrorists reveling in the murder of innocents, whether on hitherto peaceful city streets or in the midst of the Islamic State’s war in Syria and Iraq. Even as Asian leaders try to convince their populations that these are other people’s wars, some Muslims from Southeast Asia have responded to the call to arms, with the internet appearing to play a role in their radicalization. Popular perception of these developments has been shaped by security analysts and scholars specializing in counter-terrorism. Farish A. Noor, a scholar at one of Asia’s leading centres for security studies, warns that the security lens has distorted our understanding of the interactions between religion, politics and communication. A political scientist and historian, his research has focused on religio-political movements in South and Southeast Asia. He talked to Media Asia editor Cherian George about current fears over radical Islam in Southeast Asia.

Malacca Mosque: The Aesthetics of Old Mosques in Malaysia

The old mosques in Malacca are the historical monuments or historical remains that are highly valuable to the development and Islamic civilization in Malaysia. The construction of the old mosques in Malacca around the 18th century represents the greatness of Islam in the state. In fact according to historical records, Malacca was once the most prominent center for dissemination of Islam in Southeast Asia that was formerly known as the ’Nusantara’. These old mosques had left behind unique aesthetics values, the result of cultural mixing occurred more than 300 years ago. Descriptive study was carried out in order to appreciate the aesthetics found in these old mosques. The study will focus on three of the oldest mosques in Malacca namely Tengkera Mosque, Kampung Hulu Mosque and Kampung Keling Mosque. Aesthetics appreciation is more towards the architecture, the art of carving/engraving and calligraphy art found in the three mosques. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p1342

Public Islam in Southeast Asia: Late Modernity, Resurgent Religion, and Muslim Politics

The article focuses on the study of public Islam in Southeast Asia, the world’s most populous Islamic region. More specifically, it examines “late modernity” and its relation to the unprecedented growth of Islam, the Islamic resurgence, and Muslim politics in the public domains of modern Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia and the Philippines. It also examines the history of Islam’s resurgence, the underlying factors driving the region’s Islamic boom, and the implications of the aforementioned phenomena on democracy, civil co-existence, and social relations among ethno-religious groups in these areas. Using Southeast Asia as a case of public Islam, the article’s main purpose is to revisit the strength of classic modernization and secularization theories that forecasted the decline, or even the death, of religion from global politics and public spheres. Finally, the article also aims to provide insights on the local dynamics and plurality of public Islam in Southeast Asia. DOI: 10.15408/sdi.v20i3.511

Intelektual Muslim Baru dan Kajian Islam

Book Review: Carool Kersten, Cosmopolitans and Heretics: New Muslim Intellectuals and the Study of Islam, London: Hurst & Company, 2011, xvi+324 pages.This book is a very important contribution to the study of Islam in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia, a country with the largest Muslims population in the world. The inclusion of Nucholish Madjid in this work on the intellectual dynamics in the Muslim world has a symbolic significance that cannot be avoided. Until the last two decades, Indonesia and Southeast Asia Islam are not seen by most of the Islamic scholars as integral part of Islam and Muslim world. Islam and Muslim in this area are considered peripheral to Islam and Arabic Muslim entities. In fact, this region is home to the largest part of Muslims in the world with its prominent dynamics. Kersten's decision to include Indonesian Muslim intellectual, Nurcholish Madjid, to his work is motivated by his urge to address the imbalance representation on the studies of contemporary Islam and Muslim world.DOI: 10.15408/sdi.v19i1.373

Gender and Islam in Southeast Asia

Emerging from a 2005 conference at the University of Passau (Germany),Susanne Schroter’s edited volume brings together an interdisciplinary groupof scholars, from anthropologists and historians to literary scholars and Muslimfemale activists, to examine this complex subject. The book is organizedinto four country-specific sections on Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,and Thailand, respectively. The fifth and final section, consisting of only onechapter, adds a transnational dimension by analyzing the Tablighi Jama‘at.Despite the volume’s breadth of disciplinary and geographic contributions,its authors share a common project: the recuperation of Muslim women’s history,and especially female Muslim agency, amidst the rise of Islamization inSoutheast Asia.In her introductory essay, Schroter works to unite the country-specificcontributions under a broader regional framework. She argues that whereasIslam in Southeast Asia has traditionally been “moderate, especially with regardto its gender orders” (p. 7), the recent “upsurge of neo-orthodox Islamposes a threat” (p. 37) to women’s rights. With characterizations of conservativeMuslims as “religious zealots” (p. 16) and “hardliners” (p. 19), shepresents Islamization as a process in which “orthodox” Muslims, often withinternational ties, have imperiled the moderate Islam of traditional SoutheastAsia and the liberal Islam of Muslim reformers. The majority of the volume’scontributors embrace this framing narrative. On the one hand, this globalstory enables them to shine new light on the region’s pressing debates overIslam and gender. Yet, on the other hand, the framework consistently placesfemale agency in absolute distinction with so-called orthodox Islam, therebyeclipsing a more complicated landscape of ethical contestation and culturaldifference.Building on Schroter’s framework, the book’s opening section on Indonesiafeatures four chapters, each of which emphasizes challenges Muslimwomen face in asserting their rights an identities in various Indonesian Islamicspheres. To begin, Nelly van Doorn-Harder investigates the Harmonious FamilyProgram of ‘Aisyiyah, Muhammadiyah’s sister organization, as “a tool totransmit the reformist views on gender and women’s position within marriage” ...

Memahami Pribumisasi Islam Melalui Kitab Seribu Masalah

Book Review: Ronit Ricci, Islam Translated: Literature, Conversion, and the Arabic Cosmopolis of South and Southeast Asia, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, xxii + 316 halaman, 2011.For the time when Islam spread, was adopted and also translated into a variety of traditions and cultures, a comparative studies model such as the one done by Ronit Ricci in Islam Translated has became a very important contribution. The long history of Islamization and conversion has given birth to many Islamic civilizations, including in Southeast Asia. A monolithic view or endless debate related to the origin of sources for the coming of Islam to this region, or the central–periphery perspective that dichotomizes Islam at Mecca and Medina as the ‘original’ and Islam in other places as ‘not pure’, has become not relevant anymore. For understanding the phenomena of Islam in Southeast Asia, the author of this book provides discourse on the processes of communication, contacts, networks, diasporas, interaction and transmission that happened in Muslim circles through a variety of different texts in Kitab Seribu Masalah.DOI: 10.15408/sdi.v19i3.359

Gender and Islam in Southeast Asia: Women’s Rights Movements, Religious Resurgence and Local Traditions

Gender and Islam in Southeast Asia: Women’s Rights Movements, Religious Resurgence and Local Traditions

Public Islam in Southeast Asia: Late Modernity, Resurgent Religion, and Muslim Politics

The article focuses on the study of public Islam in Southeast Asia, the world’s most populous Islamic region. More specifically, it examines “late modernity” and its relation to the unprecedented growth of Islam, the Islamic resurgence, and Muslim politics in the public domains of modern Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia and the Philippines. It also examines the history of Islam’s resurgence, the underlying factors driving the region’s Islamic boom, and the implications of the aforementioned phenomena on democracy, civil co-existence, and social relations among ethno-religious groups in these areas. Using Southeast Asia as a case of public Islam, the article’s main purpose is to revisit the strength of classic modernization and secularization theories that forecasted the decline, or even the death, of religion from global politics and public spheres. Finally, the article also aims to provide insights on the local dynamics and plurality of public Islam in Southeast Asia.DOI: 10.15408/sdi.v20i3.511

Gender and Islam in Southeast Asia: women's rights movements, religious resurgence and local traditions

Dedication Acknowledgements Susanne Schroeter: Introduction Susanne Schroeter: Gender and Islam in Southeast Asia. An Overview. Indonesia Nelly van Doorn-Harder: Polygamy and Harmonious Families: Indonesian Debates on Gender and Marriage Monika Arnez: A Dialogue with God? Islam and Lesbian Relationships in Two Post-Suharto Narratives Nurul Ilmi Idrus: Islam, Marriage and Gender Relations in Bugis Lontara': A Critical Analysis of the Lontara Daramatasia Siti Musdah Mulia: Towards Justice in Marital Law: Empowering Indonesian Women Malaysia Maila Stivens: 'Family Values' and Islamic Revival: Gender, Rights and State Moral Projects in Malaysia Philippines Amina Rasul-Bernardo: The Role of Muslim Women in Democracy, Development, and Peace: The Philippine Case Vivienne S. M. Angeles: From Catholic to Muslim: Changing Perceptions of Gender Roles in a Balik-Islam Movement in the Philippines Birte Brecht-Drouart: Muslim Women Leaders in the Philippines Thailand Alexander Horstmann: Female Missionaries and Women's Participation in Southern Thailand's Chapter of the Tablighi Jama'at Amporn Marddent: Religious Piety and Muslim Women in Thailand Transnational Farish A. Noor: Woman as the Constitutive Other? The Place and Meaning of 'Woman' in the Worldviewof the Tablighi Jama'at Bibliography About the Authors Index

Living Islamically in the Periphery: Muslim Discourse, Institution, and Intellectual Tradition in Southeast Asia by Iik Arifin Mansurnoor (review)

Reviewed by: Living Islamically in the Periphery: Muslim Discourse, Institution, and Intellectual Tradition in Southeast Asia by Iik Arifin Mansurnoor Mahani Musa Living Islamically in the Periphery: Muslim Discourse, Institution, and Intellectual Tradition in Southeast Asia Iik Arifin Mansurnoor Jakarta: UIN Jakarta University Press, 2011. 450 pp. ISBN: 978 602 8033 40 4 This volume is a compilation of the author's essays which were previously published in journals and edited books. These essays are grouped into four sections: Parts one and two focus on Brunei; Part three on Madura, while the discussion on Islam in Southeast Asia is covered in the final section. Under the theme of 'Keeping the faith and developing community and state', Part one embraces three chapters. The first chapter discusses the development of Kampong Ayer until the founding of a land-based settlement. The British Residency was introduced in 1906 and British Residents were influential in the state but with the state patronage. The sultan was firmly in control of all matters relating to Islam. This enabled Kampong Ayer to expand as an urban Muslim settlement despite the British plan in 1908 to move the capital to a land-based settlement. The role of the sultan as the paramount symbol of Islam in Brunei is covered in Chapter 2, entitled 'Historiography and religious reform in Brunei during the period 1912-1959'. The author stresses that the sultan's decision to place Brunei under the protection of Great Britain in 1888 and 1905/06 had a significant impact on the socio-religious life of the people of Brunei. The glory of the Ottoman empire, the development of tariqa orders in Southeast Asia, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 which meant the availability of more religious books from Mecca, and the return of trained scholars from Mecca, had opened up Brunei to changes for the first time since the nineteenth century. Interestingly, it was during the British Residency that many Islamic reforms took place, such as the prominence of Islamic law (sharia') in matters relating to family law and the clarification of the roles of religious officials in the judiciary (i.e. the introduction of local religious officials, kadi, to deal with cases relating to family law only). In the 1930s there were major changes in religious education when the sultan became the patron of all Islamic education reforms. In 1948 major institutional changes started and these were accelerated in the 1950s following the ascendency of Sultan Begawan to the Brunei throne. He incorporated foreign influences into his reforms (e.g., he followed Johor in the introduction of afternoon religious school) and established the Islamic Law Council in 1954. In the third chapter, entitled 'Socio-religious changes in Brunei after the Pacific War' the author continues his discussion on the Islamic reforms after 1945. On 1 July 1954, the Department of State Customs, Religion and Social Welfare was established and following the 1959 Constitution, the department was reorganized into the Department of Religious Affairs and the Department of State Customs and Social Welfare. This clarified the position of Islam as the official state religion while the implementation of the 1955 Enactment on Islamic Affairs, State Customs and Kadhi's Court manifests the strength of Islam in Brunei. [End Page 111] Part two of the book covers the theme 'Bringing Islam to individual and public: Education and intellectual tradition in Brunei'. The first chapter discusses the intellectual tradition through historical and religious text and the role and contribution of ulama in spreading knowledge among the population. In the second chapter 'Islamic education, state, and society in Brunei Darussalam', the author focuses his discussion on the development of religious tradition since the twentieth century through religious figures who, at the same time, served as state officials. They established religious network through students and a new balai. Iik divides the development of Islamic education into three phases: the early stage of development during British Residency in the first phase; the second phase covers the bureaucratization and institutionalization of religious education which took place after the Pacific War; and the third phase, the indigenization and maturation of religious education in the 1960s through Brunei scholars who had graduated from...

Islam Translated, Literature, Conversion, and the Arabic Cosmopolis of South and Southeast Asia

Islam Translated, Literature, Conversion, and the Arabic Cosmopolis of South and Southeast Asia

Mutual Affinities: Islam in Southeast Asia and the Arab World

Mutual Affinities: Islam in Southeast Asia and the Arab World

Justice and journalism: Islam and journalistic values in Indonesia and Malaysia

As the Global War on Terror has prompted new interest in Islam in Southeast Asia, western governments have scrambled to engage with Muslim journalists in Indonesia and Malaysia. Despite this attention, surprisingly little is known about how journalists in these two majority Muslim countries actually think about the work they do. This article draws on a series of semi-structured interviews with elite journalists in Jakarta, Surabaya, and Kuala Lumpur to provide some preliminary explorations of the relationship between Islam and journalism in Southeast Asia. It argues that Muslim journalists in both Indonesia and Malaysia express the universal values of journalism, but do so within an Islamic idiom. It concludes with a discussion of justice as the overarching ideology of journalism in Islam, and a comment on how western diplomats might use the language of Islam to reach out to journalists in these two majority Muslim countries.

Islam, Domestic Politics and International Relations

Political Ideology in the Arab World: Accommodation and Transformation. By Michaelle L. Browers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 210 pp. $26.00 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-0-521-74934-3). Islam and Peacemaking in the Middle East. By Nathan C. Funk, Abdul Aziz Said, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2009. 303 pp. $65.00 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-1-588-26569-2). Political Islam in Southeast Asia. By Gordon P. Means,. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2009. 444 pp. $32.00 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-1-58826-678-1). Al-Qaeda's terrorist activities, sectarian conflict in Iraq, and the electoral successes of Islamists in many parts of the Arab world have drawn great attention once again to the role of Islam in international affairs. In fact, since the Islamic resurgence of the 1970s, and especially the Iranian revolution of 1979, Islam has played an increasingly greater role in the domestic and international politics of the Muslim world. In the 1990s, violent and nonviolent Islamist challenges to Arab regimes sparked fears about the “Islamic threat.” Thus, given the context of the events of the last decade, the dearth of literature on the role of Islam in international relations, a discipline that seeks to make sense of global issues, is striking. To be fair, there have been some waves of related research. In the 1990s, Samuel Huntington's controversial Clash of Civilizations thesis stirred debate, but it became less about cultural–religious factors as a source of conflict and more about perceptions of Islam's role in international politics. While some of the literature after 9/11 that has probed the robustness of Islam as an explanatory variable for political violence, civil war, and terrorism may be considered part of a burgeoning literature on religion and politics, there is still a great amount of work to be done on Islam and international relations. The purpose of this essay is to do more than just review three books that deal with Islam and politics. Rather, I shall make the case that these books, which differ greatly in methodology, substance, and target audience, have something important to say about contemporary debates in international relations. Rather, I shall make the case that these books, which differ greatly in methodology, substance, and target audience, have something important to say about contemporary debates in international relations; they highlight the ways in …

Asia. Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia. By Tan Ta Sen. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009. Pp. 291. Tables, Illustrations, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Asia. Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia. By Tan Ta Sen. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009. Pp. 291. Tables, Illustrations, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Book Review: Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia

Book Review: Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia

Pesantren sebagai Pusat Peradaban Muslim : Pengalaman Indonesia untuk Asia Tenggara

This paper aims to examine the contribution of pesantren for Islamic civilization. it argues that pesantren has contributed to the history of Islam in Southeast Asia. in this study, the author surveys the socio-historical of the development of pesantren. this study discuses the philosophical aspect Islamic education in pesantren. this can be understood by examining the concept of self in process reproduction of ulama. the main point of this article is to seek the foundation for argument that the experience of Muslim in pesantren in Indonesia can be a model for Southeast Asia countries.