Malaysian Muslim Research Articles

Bidaah Dalalah: Konsep dan Pengamalannya Dalam Masyarakat Melayu

Bidaah based on superstitious beliefs such as belief in ghosts and spirits are very common among some of the Malay community. These beliefs unfortunately will lead to the practice of bidaah that can lead to the perversion of the Islamic faith which is infamously known as bid’ah dalalah. Examples of bidaah dalalah which are being frequently practiced by Muslims in Malaysia due the use of amulets and menilik which may lead to disbelief to God. What is of concern, such practices exist in the process of perbomohan such as the use of the jinn, the worship of evil spirits and so on. Ultimately, this paper will explore the concept and various forms of bidaah dalalah as well as its practice in the Malay society.

Kesesuaian Pemikiran dan Amalan Mazhab Selain Syafi'i dalam Masyarakat Islam di Malaysia: Satu Analisis Awal

The influence of Syafi'i madhdhab is deeply entrenched in Malay Muslim society since the advent of Islam to the Malay world. The Malay Muslims` attachment to the madhdhab is regarded as a sacrosanct tradition and it has never been contested until the emergence of Islamic reform movement in about a century ago. Among their major themes of reform is an idea called “borderless fiqh” which is viewed as an attempt to break the domination of Syafi'i madhhab in Malay world. This attempt has resulted in controversy among scholars as well as among the Muslim community who view it as a kind of heresy and does not suit the common norms of Malaysian Muslim society. This paper aims at analysing the claim that the teachings of Islamic reform, particularly in this issue, are not suitable for Malays Muslim society. It also identifies the reality and issues revolving holding to a sole madhhab among the community. This paper is based on research which undertook several methods, mainly observations and interviews with scholars and those who hold religious authority. The research finds that, to some extent, the openess to other madhhabs is considered by many as one of a main factor that contributes to division among muslim community in Malaysia and thus threathens their harmonic religious life. However, reform is still necessary in order to induce religious awareness among the community, on a condition that it should be undertook by proper manners and appropriate approaches that suit to the reality of Malaysian Muslim society.

Adult smokers' perception of the role of religion and religious leadership on smoking and association with quitting: A comparison between Thai Buddhists and Malaysian Muslims

In recent years, attempts have been made to incorporate religion into tobacco control efforts, especially in countries like Malaysia and Thailand where religion is central to the lives of people. This paper is a prospective examination of the perceived relevance and role of religion and religious authorities in influencing smoking behaviour among Muslims in Malaysia and Buddhists in Thailand. Data were collected from 1482 Muslim Malaysian and 1971 Buddhist Thai adult smokers who completed wave 1 (early 2005) of the International Tobacco Control Southeast Asia Survey (ITC-SEA). Respondents were asked about the role of religion and religious leadership on smoking at Wave 1 and among those recontacted, quitting activity at Wave 2. Results revealed that over 90% of both religious groups reported that their religion guides their day-to-day behaviour at least sometimes, but Malaysian Muslims were more likely to report that this was always the case. The majority (79% Muslims and 88% Buddhists) of both groups believed that their religion discourages smoking. About 61% of the Muslims and 58% of the Buddhists reported that their religious leaders had encouraged them to quit before and a minority (30% and 26%, respectively) said they would be an influential source to motivate them to quit. Logistic regression models suggest that these religious factors had a clear independent association with making quitting attempts in both countries and this translated to success for Malaysian Muslims but not for the Thai Buddhists. Taken together, results from this study indicate that religion and religious authorities are both relevant and important drivers of quitting, but whether this is always enough to guarantee success is less clear. Religion can be a culturally relevant vehicle to complement other tobacco control efforts.

Genesis and Development of A “Nonpartisan” Political Actor: The Formation of the Jama’ah Islah Malaysia (JIM) and its Roots in Western Europe

This paper looks at the genesis and development of the Jama’ah Islah Malaysia (JIM), a modernist-reformist Islamist organisation that today has played a vital and visible role in the political landscape of Malaysian politics. Little is known about the early genesis of JIM, and how it began in the 1970s and 1980s as a student-based cadre organisation, created by Malaysian Muslim students studying abroad in Europe and North America. JIM’s roots therefore lie in the Islamic Representative Council (IRC) that was a semi-underground student-cadre movement that was created outside Malaysia, and which aimed to bring about the Islamisation of Malaysian society through the process of social and political mobilisation. Working through the archives of JIM today and interviewing the foundermembers of JIM and the IRC, this paper is the first historical account of the formation and development of IRC and JIM to be published.

Religiosity, Ethical Judgments and Malaysian Muslim Students

Culture is often cited as one of the powerful determinants in shaping the personality and behaviour of individuals. Religion, being an important element of culture, is seen as playing an important role in determining how people behave in certain situations. Various authors have suggested religion as an important dimension in Malaysian ethical behaviour studies especially for the Malays. Yet this construct is generally ignored or incorporated into other constructs. This study investigates the influence of religious education on the perceptions of unethical business practices among final year students in one of the local universities in Malaysia. In particular, this study examines the impact of education stream on the level of religious commitment among Malay Muslim students and how these two variables influence their ethical judgment. It was found that the level of religiosity is negative and significantly related to the level of tolerant towards unethical business practices. The findings also establish that more students from the religious education stream are found to be more religious and consequently, are less tolerance towards unethical business practices.

An examination of the relationship between service quality perception and customer satisfaction

PurposeThis study attempts to examine the relationship between service quality perception and customers' satisfaction in Malaysian Islamic banking using the SEM approach.Design/methodology/approachThis model starts with SERVQUAL measurement scales consisting of six dimensional structures: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy, and plus the compliance dimensions to measure Malaysian Islamic banking service quality. Respondents are the customers (Muslim and non‐Muslim) who visit the bank counters. They must have an account with one of the full‐fledged Islamic banking and dual‐banking systems.FindingsThe results showed that the proportion of Malaysian Muslims' awareness of the Islamic banking products and services were high compared to non‐Muslim customers. The majority of the Islamic banking customers were satisfied with the overall service quality provided by their banks. The findings suggest that the standard model of Islamic banking service quality dimensions should consist of the six dimensions and good determinants of satisfaction. The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction was significant.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research should be considered in order to gather more information regarding service quality and customer satisfaction dimensions in the context of Malaysian Islamic banking industry.Practical implicationsThe six dimensions of SERVQUAL represent a valid instrument to measure service quality in Malaysian Islamic banking. Providing financial counseling to attract Muslim customers to use more Islamic banking products and services is critical, where 60 percent of the Malaysian population is Muslim. There is a potential target market for Islamic banking that needs be concerned.Originality/valueThis research is important in line with the obvious cross‐cultural and religious differences between these two key customer segments; Muslims and non‐Muslims. In the Malaysian context, there is a strategic dimension that needs to be understood.

The Protection of Refugees in Islam: Pluralism and Inclusivity

This article focuses on some principles in the Quran, Sunnah and Sirah of the Prophet Muhammad, with the aim of highlighting the position of Islam towards refugee protection. It discusses whether the question of refugee protection is in line with the values of pluralism and inclusivity in Islam. The article also examines the specific role played by the Malaysian Muslim Youth Movement, one of the leading Islamic non-governmental organizations in the country assisting in the protection of the rights of refugees in Malaysia.

On Becoming Good Women: A Study on the ‘Fragmented Self’ in Malaysian Muslim Women’s Writing in English

Malaysian Muslim women’s writing in English is a new literary phenomenon, and hence, there is not much critical literature. This paper examines some samples of writings in English by Malaysian Muslim women. It begins by providing the background of English language and literature in Malaysia in an attempt to address the complexities of writing in English in Malaysia. The paper also raises issues of importance to Malaysian Muslim women writers by focusing on the struggles and conflicts that they encounter, writing as Muslim women. This is because of cultural tensions faced as a result of urbanization and modernization, which bring in new values, very often based on Western mores. The paper examines how identities are fragmented as these women address taboo subjects like sex, sexuality, and illegal abortions. Their writings express the tension between succumbing to the dictates of society and the need to expose reality as it is. Muslim women writers are also at pains to voice their Muslim identity in a world so misinformed on matters relating to Islam and Muslim women. Muslims are expected to be virtuous by their religion, and where the women are concerned, the expectations are often higher than for men as interpretations of “good” behavior are often focused on women. This unbalanced representation of Muslim women, be it by Muslims themselves or Western media, has elicited gross misrepresentations of women in Islam or Muslim women in general. This paper documents the voices of Malaysian Muslim women writers in their attempts to represent themselves and their world but not without conflicts and predicaments. The paper focuses on the women’s ‘fragmented selves’ as they struggle to define and redefine what it is like to have multiple roles as Muslim women.

Market Cultures, the Middle Classes and Islam: Consuming the Market?

In discussions of Islam and consumer practices, there is a tendency to focus exclusively on the “clash of cultures”, particularly that between Islam and the “west”. In Islamic societies, consumer culture is often portrayed as a threat, harmful to religion as it privileges hedonism, pleasure, individualism and an expressive lifestyle. To counter the influences of the market and “deislamisation”, Islamic fundamentalists and revivalists have posited Islam as an innoculative pill against decadent western values. Such analyses, however, do not add very much to our knowledge of contemporary modernist Islamic societies undergoing rapid social and economic transformation. In examining the case of Malaysia, the paper seeks to shed some light on how the various interpretations of Islam impacts on modern Malaysian Muslims. The paper starts with an examination of the central concept of Islam as a discursive tradition and its continuing legacy in the Malaysian social and political formation. The paper next examines the role of the state and how its ability to affect a national vision of high‐modernist development and growing affluence has created a new Malay middle class. Increasing wealth and a growing middle class have seen an intensification of new consumption patterns and practices. At the same time, there is a growing Islamisation, and culturally and politically the urban Malay middle classes are split as they are both sympathetic to the Islamic revivalist tradition and are active consumers of middle‐class lifestyle. These contradictions played themselves out in the public sphere and percolate down into everyday life and practice, affecting power structures and discourses. Classes, identities, entrepreneurship, the nature of capitalism, civil society and dissent are consequently all affected. The paper therefore argues that the differing interpretations in Islam enable different understandings of consumption and identity formation and that such analysis can engender richer and greater analytical insights in the context of Islamisation, modernity and consumption.

The Nature and Structure of Muslim Religious Reflection

Muslims are often stereotyped as having rigid, fundamentalist attitudes. To date, studies have not examined the degree to which Muslims endorse a questing approach to religion, thus displaying openness to the exploration of religious practices and beliefs. A sample of 123 Australian Muslims and 74 Malaysian Muslims completed questionnaires including measures of: questing, as measured by Batson and Schoenrade's 12-item Quest scale (1991b) and Altemeyer and Hunsberger's 16-item Quest scale (1992); conservative religious belief, as measured by the Religious Fundamentalism Scale (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992); and Muslim religious reflection, as measured by a newly developed and validated measure named the Islamic Reflection Scale (IRS). The psychometric properties of the IRS are reported with associations between the other religious measures. Findings are discussed in terms of levels of Islamic openness and questing, and implications of a targeted measure of Muslim Religious Reflection for understanding the ...

A Study of Islamic Family Law in Malaysia: A Select Bibliography

Islamic Family Law is one of the most studied fields in Malaysian law. This is because it affects the personal life of Muslims, and because many issues have arisen as a result of the implementation of the Islamic Family Law Enactment which governs Muslims in Malaysia. Scholarship in this area has expanded with the development of the Enactment itself. Several approaches have been used to analyze the implementation of the lawinter alia,legal, socio-legal, comparative, and anthropological and sociological perspecitves. It cannot be denied that research and scholarly publications in the field of Islamic Family Law have contributed to further strengthening the administration of justice and the implementation of the law. As such, this paper is intended to describe the trends in the area of Islamic Family Law. Doing so will assist in ascertaining the direction of this field in the future.

Indian Muslims in Malaysia: Images of Shifting Identities in the Multi-ethnic State

Malaysia's multi-ethnic society has inherited colonial categorizations of race in which Malay, Chinese and Indian communities have been construed as homogeneous blocs. This paper traces the shifting identities of Indian Muslims in Malaysia in an attempt to de-construct these racial categories. It argues that Indian Muslims in the country have always moved between resistance and adaptation to these policies, particularly so after the Malaysian state introduced its Malay-centered Bumiputera policies. As race and religion denote racial identity, Indian Muslims have been pressed to side with either Muslim Malays or Hindu Indians for political representation and resource allocation—nevertheless, they have managed to retain certain levels of autonomy. Some of them have explored possibilities of economic autonomy or have joined the emerging networks of Islam and civil society. However, despite Malaysia's efforts to create a “Malaysian race” (bangsa Malaysia), the case of the Indian Muslims demonstrates the long and difficult path ahead towards racial consolidation.;>

The Role of Tabung Haji as a Deosit Mobilizer of Muslims in Malaysia, 1969-1990. A Historical Approach

Penulisan ini meninjau mengenai peranan Lembaga Tabung Haji sebagai bank dan penggerak dana daripada orang ramai khususnya orang-orang Islam yang hendak menunaikan Haji ke Makkah dan menggerakkan dana tersebut kepada para pelabur dalam pelbagai bidang untuk mendapatkan pulangan yang menguntungkan berasaskan kepada prinsip-prinsip Shariah dari tahun 1969 hingga 1990. Antara topik yang akan dibincangkan ialah sejarah penubuhan Lembaga Tabung Haji, matlamat pengkorpratan, dan peranannya sebagai salah satu institusi kewangan Islam yang penting di Malaysia dalam menggerakkan dana daripada orang-orang Islam di Malaysia dari tahun I969-1990.

Shifting Identities: Chinese Muslims in Malaysia

This paper concerns Chinese Muslims in Malaysia, and attempts to explain the phenomenon behind the shift in their identities towards either religion or ethnicity. It proposes that, upon arriving in Malaysia, the Chinese Muslims, finding themselves overwhelmed between a majority non-Chinese Muslim community and a majority non-Muslim Chinese community, have, for survival purposes or by political design, rather quickly assimilated into one group or the other. The paper takes as examples a few Chinese Muslim clans or families from different regions of Malaysia. It also briefly narrates the situation of the Chinese converts, and discusses the development in their status from a ‘social anomaly that exists in an ethnic limbo’1 to a small community of Malaysian Chinese who are Muslim, and who are accepted as such by all segments of society.

English and Islam: A Clash of Civilizations?

There is a substantial amount of literature documenting the attitudinal resistance of Muslims towards English and the supposed conflict between English and Islam. This article provides a critical review of the writings and research on the issue and discusses some of the reasons behind this resistance, focusing on Muslims in Malaysia. It argues that although English is rooted in the Judeo-Christian culture, and often viewed as a primary vehicle for the transmission of "Western" values, the learning of English is not in conflict with Islamic values. This article also presents an Islamic perspective on the role of language and the attitude that Muslims should adopt towards learning languages. It concludes by emphasizing the need for English teachers to take into account the socio-cultural aspects of learning English when teaching Muslim students, and for Muslims to value the importance of learning English for the purpose of acquiring contemporary knowledge.

Spiritual distress in a terminally ill patient with breast cancer.

For terminally ill patients, suffering can relate to issues beyond the physical body, such as psychological and spiritual distress. The North American Nursing Diagnosis Association defines spiritual distress as a disruption in the life principle, that, when intact, suffuses a person’s entire self, integrating and transcending biological and psychosocial aspects (Mesnikoff, 2002). Patients in spiritual distress express concern about the meaning of life, death and suffering, and may state that their illness is a punishment. They may be angry, cry, be withdrawn or show apathy. This case study concerns a 45-year-old Malaysian Muslim woman with terminal breast cancer. The woman presented with spiritual distress manifested as anger and deep denial.

Muslim Women's Challenges to Islamic LawThe Case of Malaysia

The reform of Islam by women and especially the lessons this activism might containfor feminist praxis is a highly topical and important issue. This article outlines someof the lessons to be drawn from studying this area with a specific focus on theactivism of some groups of Malaysian Muslim women aimed at the reform of Islam.Two different strategies for reform are explained and traced in their attempts toreform religious interpretation and the Islamic legal system, the Syar'iah. The aim of the article is to provoke dialogue over the relationship of Islamto women's rights, while highlighting the agency of Muslim women within anIslamic framework. Another aim is to contribute to the debate over what constitutesfeminism and the need to subject the debate continuously to cross-cultural andinternational perspectives.

Inter‐movement tension among resurgent Muslims in Malaysia: response to the state clampdown on Darul Arqam in 1994

(2003). Inter‐movement tension among resurgent Muslims in Malaysia: response to the state clampdown on Darul Arqam in 1994. Asian Studies Review: Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 361-387.

Inter‐Movement Tension Among Resurgent Muslims in Malaysia: Response to the State Clampdown on Darul Arqam in 1994

Inter‐Movement Tension Among Resurgent Muslims in Malaysia: Response to the State Clampdown on Darul Arqam in 1994

Globalisation and Communal Identities in the Plural Society Of Malaysia

Successful modernisation and global integration in Malaysia have opened up new possibilities and increased agency. At the state level, success has allowed its political leadership to act as spokesperson for the post‐colonial world. Agency for Malaysians has increased as well, but with a specific twist. Not only has individual agency increased but ‐ even more so ‐ new forms of social control have been created. From the background of a plural society, valorisations accompanying modernisation and globalisation were perceived as favouring or disadvantaging particular ethnic groups. This has lead to a politicisation of ethnicity by which the maintenance of integration has been pursued through the development of social control mechanisms that have given rise to new communal identities.Today, social control and Islam are closely interwoven. Islam provides a meaning system that links modernity and the modern present with a Malay past. Especially in urban areas, the equation “a Malay is a Muslim” has been changed to “a Muslim in Malaysia is a Malay”. The ambivalence of referring to universals like “post‐colonialism” and “Islam” as ways of expressing Malaysian particularities is shown in the self‐description of Malaysia as a successful “globaliser” and a post‐colonial and/or Islamic country in the official mass media. Physically, this in turn is reflected in the architectural styles of mega‐projects. Elsewhere it has been argued that globalisation has the potential to fragment societies. The question is whether this potential might lead to the emergence of a fragmented plural society in Malaysia.