Scholarly activity is in constant flux and this is the case in Islamic Studies,

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1 MODERNIST ISLAM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Modernist Islam in MUWO 92 Original Blackwell Oxford, The Muslim UK Article Publishering Islam World in Fall Southeast Volume 2002 Ltd 92 Asia Autumn 2002 Southeast Asia: A New Examination Howard M. Federspiel Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio Scholarly activity is in constant flux and this is the case in Islamic Studies, where one of the important contemporary trends centers on research that transcends national boundaries for regional and universalist views of Islam and Muslims. 1 In part, this trend reflects tendencies within Islam itself, where fundamentalism and globalization have broadened conceptions of what the universal Muslim community should be and where Islamic activity might profitably be undertaken. 2 In part, the trend reflects scholars own interests where enough studies of single countries or ethno-geographic regions (such as the Arab world) exist to encourage attempts at integration of major trends crossing political and social boundaries. Islamic modernism in Southeast Asia offers a case study of such development. Starting as an important movement in the Ottoman Empire in the latter part of the nineteenth century, Islamic modernism had a wide impact on Islamic societies throughout the world by the 1940s, when its message was superseded or integrated into the philosophies and ideologies of the day. 3 An important arena for modernist activity was Southeast Asia, where the movement had a significant impact on Muslims in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and southern Thailand. The movement in Southeast Asia left a considerable record of its activity and was subsequently covered academically by a fair number of scholarly studies on the individual personalities and associations important in the movement, although none were addressed specifically to an assessment of the overall modernist Muslim movement in the region. This article was written as an attempt to begin such an assessment. The Scholarly Literature Islamic modernism has been an important religious movement in Southeast Asia from the beginning of the twentieth century until the present time. 371

2 THE MUSLIM WORLD VOLUME 92 FALL 2002 Scholarly coverage of the movement in Southeast Asia began in the late 1920s and was an accepted part of the general description of the region in the 1930s, 4 although the modernist trend was not always made distinct from the general picture of Islam that was being described. One study of Indonesian nationalism during this period by the Armenian- Dutch scholar J. Petrus Blumberger 5 had an analytical description of the modernist movement in Indonesia, which remains important in light of later scholarship. Following Blumberger s lead, five major studies by H. Benda, 6 G. Kahin, 7 C. Geertz, 8 M. Yunus 9 and Hamka, 10 appeared in the 1950s, placing the modernists in Indonesia in perspective vis-à-vis national development in that country; Yunus and Hamka were actual participants in that history. Geertz s famous study of cultural contrasts on Java placed modernism accurately within the cultural context and countervailing movements of the time. In the 1960s, five major studies by G. Pijper, 11 Alfian, 12 T. Abdullah, 13 D. Noer, 14 and H. Federspiel 15 provided detailed information about the beliefs, political stands and activities of modernist associations themselves as they existed in the first half of the century. Along with later studies by M. Nakamura 16 and J. Peacock, 17 these studies constituted the key studies on the modernist effort in Indonesia for many years. Since that time, there have been numerous studies reexamining those early modernist movements in Indonesia by Indonesian writers, such as A. Jainuri, 18 R. Saidi, 19 A. Minhaji 20 and D. Wildan. 21 In the other three countries of the Southeast Asian region affected by Islamic modernism, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, studies are less prevalent, undoubtedly because Islamic modernism had less impact there. In this Malay zone, 22 the study by W. Roff 23 in the 1960s, A. and K. Hussain 24 in the 1970s and by I. Abu Bakar 25 in the 1990s are primary. Khoo Kay Kim, 26 H. Mutalib 27 and F. H. Abdullah 28 draw heavily on Roff as they cast modernism within the context of Malaysian history and national awareness. Scholarship about modernism in Thailand has not been as well covered and there is only the study by R. Scupin, 29 while other studies pass over that phase of history for general descriptions of the Muslim situation in a Buddhist state. 30 With the exception of F. von der Mehden, 31 overarching studies of Islam in Southeast Asia or the general Islamic world have not summarized or defined the nature of Islamic modernism in Southeast Asia with much thoroughness, although J. Voll 32 and The Cambridge History of Islam 33 have some coverage. At the same time, some authors of Southeast Asian history and national development over the past fifty years have included discussion concerning the impact of Islamic modernism on the societies and states of the region, especially Indonesia and Malaysia. 34 Sadly, as stated earlier, we have yet to see a definitive and comprehensive study of Islamic modernism in Southeast Asia. 372

3 MODERNIST ISLAM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA General Considerations The twentieth century has been a century of gigantic change for the political, economic and social structures of Southeast Asian societies as they moved from colonized, fragmented and culturally diverse entities in the early part of the century to standard nation-states. Islamic modernism has constituted an agent in that restructuring, but its influence has varied markedly in specific areas within the region itself. Standing alongside the powerful drives for national political independence, the economic development, and creation of modern societies, Islamic modernism cannot be regarded as a dominant influence. At best, it has been a secondary, sometimes tangential, and often a competitive agent in relationship to the economic and political mainstream. It made an impact, but only within a context, as we shall see below. On the other hand, within the narrower confines of the Islamic community in Southeast Asia, modernism has been a major actor for nearly a century in Indonesia and an important actor in the Malay Zone for the first half of the century. It has had to compete with other tendencies, notably a formidable traditionalist identification and an important secularized grouping throughout the region, and a sizeable nominal Islamic following within Indonesia. Still, if it has not shaped the entire Islamic community into its own image or determined its direction, Islamic modernism has nonetheless exerted considerable influence within that community and can claim credit for acting as a catalyst in the development of communal advancement in the last century. In particular, the enormous gains made in making Southeast Asian Muslims aware of their Islamic obligations, the performance in making Islamic lessons part of normal schooling, and the intellectual efforts in making modernization compatible with standard Islamic teachings, belong in considerable part to the awareness of those factors on the part of the modernist movement. At this point, it may be helpful to lay out the major features of Islamic modernism at its appearance in the latter part of the nineteenth century and somewhat later in the more specific context of Southeast Asia. Briefly put, Islamic modernism rests on the articulated ideas of two key thinkers, Persian political activist Muhammad Jamal al-din al-afghani, 35 (d. 1897) and the Egyptian jurist Muhammad Abduh 36 (d. 1905). Al-Afghani contributed the idea that technological modernization arising in the West belonged to humankind in general and was not simply a manifestation of Western civilization; hence the principles of that modernization could be adapted to Islamic social, economic and political practice without damage to past religious belief or behavior. Muhammad Abduh held that revitalization necessary for Islam to assume the degree of recognized greatness that it had enjoyed at times in its 373

4 THE MUSLIM WORLD VOLUME 92 FALL 2002 history depended on the proper application of principles contained in the Qur an and the Way of the Prophet. Those sources should be interpreted directly, rather than through scholars of the early and middle periods of Islamic history, so that Muslim thinkers and actors would be unhampered by past interpretations and could apply those principles to the contemporary world. An important explanation by the Syrian Arab Emir Shakib Arslan (d. 1946) underscores these two writers, for he articulated the notion that Islam had undergone a long period of stagnancy because of a turn inward, as emphasized by the high concern among believers for mystical practice, rote memorization in learning, and customary viewpoints in religious thinking, thereby avoiding the challenges of the contemporary world; redirection of effort and activism was demanded to overcome that lethargy. 37 In the central Islamic world, the Manar School took these major themes and gave them considerable expression throughout the period to 1950 and, in other regions of the Islamic world, the principles received substantial development through the work of many activists. 38 In Southeast Asia, the three major themes were preserved and even developed, but underwent considerable adaptation to specific religious and social conditions existing in the region in the first half of the twentieth century. In particular, modernist Muslims in Southeast Asia called for a further Islamization of the region with emphasis on overcoming the compromises that Islam had supposedly made with religious beliefs and practices that preceded Islam. 39 In this sense, it was an intensification movement designed to complete a process of conversion that had been in the works for hundreds of years, but had been forestalled because of European colonialism and loss of Muslim dedication. 40 The anti-colonialist tenet was of considerable importance, since British and Dutch domination had deliberately isolated or otherwise made ineffective the elements in societies in Southeast Asia that would have emphasized Islam and its role in operating the societies and states in the region. 41 Islamic modernists, like many other factions of Muslims and non-muslims, were hostile towards the continuation of colonialism and worked for its removal in Southeast Asia, sometimes openly and always clandestinely. In this effort, they played a role subsidiary to other nationalist forces which dominated politics in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Finally, modernists in Southeast Asia held that new Islamic institutions suitable to the times had to be constructed that would allow standard Islamic teachings to be stressed and, subsequently, these appeared in the educational, political and social welfare fields, 42 but in different form and shape in different parts of the region. Islamic modernism was important in the Western part of Southeast Asia and, consequently, affected the Indonesian archipelago with its major impact 374

5 MODERNIST ISLAM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA on Sumatra and Java, while the Eastern islands were less strongly affected. Throughout the Indonesian area, modernism retained its identity and vigor throughout the century. On the Malay Peninsula, it had strength on the island of Singapore, both the east and west coasts of present day Malaysia, and into the Malay provinces of southern Thailand, but by 1940 had lost its independent vigor and had mostly faded into the general Islamic community in those three areas. Modernism had a limited impact on the northern Borneo territories, 43 including Brunei, and almost no impact on the southern territories of the Philippines until the 1950s. The ease of communication with the outside world and the subsequent worldviews of the elite in various areas of Southeast Asia seem to have been the determining factors. Singapore, Jakarta and Padang were open to the outside world and had elite favorable to outside influences, including Islamic modernism, while Brunei, Sulu and Makassar were off the main communication systems and had elite that preserved more traditional outlooks and values. The Entry and Development of Islamic Modernism in Southeast Asia Islam initially arrived in Southeast Asia sometime between the seventh and tenth Christian centuries, via the trade routes. Afterwards, a long-term relationship was established between Southeast Asia and the central Islamic world through trade, the migration of Southern Arabian peoples, the pilgrimage, and student activity. 44 It was through these relationships that Islamic modernism also found its way to Southeast Asia from the Middle East, with the education of students from Southeast Asia in the Middle East having perhaps the most influential effect by the end of the nineteenth century. That is, many of the leading figures of the early modernist movement in the region were students in Arabia, so we understand how important that particular vehicle was. On the other hand, we know equally well that modernism also passed via the pilgrimage and with immigrants coming to Southeast Asia from the central Islamic lands, especially from Southern Arabia. But we must understand that modernism was not the only influence coming via that connector, but was only one of many influences passing along it. Islamic modernism s doctrinal opponents, Shafi i traditionalism and mysticism, for example, used the same vehicles (pilgrimage, immigrants and students) during the same period of time to defend and strengthen their own institutions and proponents. This cultural transfer must be seen in perspective. 45 The initial wave of modernist influence occurred at the very end of the nineteenth century when a group of young scholars who had studied the Islamic sciences at Mecca under the Minangkabaui shaykh Ahmad Kha ib 375

6 THE MUSLIM WORLD VOLUME 92 FALL 2002 (d. 1916) returned to Singapore and Sumatra and began to teach the new doctrine. They concentrated on the publication of periodicals to disseminate their ideas and on the establishment of new schools as a means of propagating the new approach to Islam. They regarded the purification of Islam as important and spent much time on making belief and practice of religion reflect the standards they constructed as suitable. Mohammad Tahir b. Jalaludddin Al-Azhari (d. 1957) in Singapore and Haji Rasul (d. 1945) in Sumatra were major figures in this first wave. 46 Although operating somewhat separately, because Singapore was in the British zone and Sumatra was in the Dutch, the two groups of converts emphasized similar themes and activities and maintained contact with one another. West Sumatra, known as Minangkabau, was a major center of activity. There, young scholars returned from Mecca to take up work in existing religious schools where they themselves had studied and in new schools which they founded. In traditional fashion, they worked at their own separate institutions and had a communications system that allowed them to exchange good students and to pass information and ideas among themselves. The journal al-munir, published at Padang ( ), was an important means of passing information, including jurisprudential issuances (fatwas) that spoke specifically to matters of Islamic reform in local society. 47 The major work of this group of scholars, however, was in the educational field, where a modified school curriculum for a new type of school known as the Madrasah Thawalib existed, which combined general education and Islamic sciences. T. Abdullah asserts that this school system arose because of the inability of the Dutch to establish enough schools of their own design in the Sumatran region where there was a large demand, so Muslim modernists felt forced to enter the educational field and fill the void. 48 A similar trend took place in Singapore and on the Western coast of Malaya. The magazine established there in 1906 was named Al-Imam and had a wide impact on Muslim society of the region; it enjoyed a readership in Indonesia, as well. The schools that were founded were modeled on the Egyptian madrasah and, in fact, many used Egyptian teachers initially, although as the schools themselves produced graduates, new madrasah were founded using local talent. The modernist effort in this Malay area took a strong stance against the ingrained customs of the region, which regulated traditional Islamic practice in ways found unacceptable by modernists. They also challenged the authority of traditional Muslim leaders, which naturally produced conflict with the Malay ruling elite and with British authority. But here, unlike on Sumatra, leadership of the modernist faction was largely among Arabs and Sumatran immigrants and the new movement did not become important enough among the general Malay population to become a 376

7 MODERNIST ISLAM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA determining force in religious matters or in the new Malay nationalism that was developing. Consequently, the two major figures from the movement that did make national contributions, Sayid Shaykh al-hadi 49 (b. 1862) and Za ba, (d. 1970), 50 worked in arts and letters rather than in politics or religious affairs. Significantly, the Malay competition with the immigrant Chinese, Arab and Indian communities for political control became the dominant factor in Malay nationalism and swept all others aside, including religious agendas. Islamic identification became part of Malayness, but the nature of that Islamic identification whether modernist, traditionalist or mystic was otherwise unimportant. On Java, modernism arrived slightly later than on Sumatra or Malaya. There, it centered on Agus Salim (d. 1954), Ahmad Surkati (d. 1943) and Ahmad Dachlan (d. 1923) beginning in about The message of these modernists was applied in a somewhat broader manner than in the previous efforts in Southeast Asia, as they became involved with political action, social action, and education. The essence of this second stage of modernism was on building new Islamic institutions. As on Sumatra, two of these leaders made an impact on the major population groups of the region and also cemented their hold by becoming important in the political activism of the nationalist groups of the era; they helped define nationalist issues of the day. 51 The founding of the Muhammadiyah organization was probably the most significant event in this wave of activity, both in attainment of membership, scope of activity, and longevity. Begun in 1912 by Ahmad Dachlan, the early movement concentrated on teaching Islamic fundamentals to Javanese children who attended Dutch-sponsored schools, with the blessing of Dutch authorities themselves. Over time, the movement built its own large school system, which afforded instruction in both general subject matter and standard Islamic teachings. That system ultimately expanded to encompass the entire spectrum of educational activity from kindergarten through post-secondary normal schools, and after the end of the era, went on to establish universities. The movement sponsored a printing press for the production and distribution of a vernacular Islamic literature aimed at the Javanese Muslim audience in both Javanese and in the newly emerging national language, Bahasa Indonesia. There were also scout movements, hospitals, clinics, orphanages, poor houses, and other social endeavors that engaged both male and female members of the organization. Ultimately, Muhammadiyah leaders joined forces with Haji Rasul on Sumatra and brought much of the Madrasah Thawalib system into the Muhammadiyah organization as well, thereby giving cross-cultural strength and coherence to the modernist movement in the larger Indonesian area. 377

8 THE MUSLIM WORLD VOLUME 92 FALL 2002 The organization, which numbered some 24,000 in 1930, later served as the backbone of one strand of Muslim political activity in the Republic of Indonesia after In the political realm, the most important work was done by Hadji Agus Salim, who was Dutch educated and had served a lengthy period of service as a member of the Dutch consulate in Jiddah. There, he assisted in Dutch regulation of the pilgrims from the Indonesian archipelago. Returning to the Indies, he took part in the development of the leading political movement of the day called the Sarekat Islam. He was instrumental in that movement in shaping the viewpoint of the modernist Muslim wing of the party that promoted the conception of Islam as a precursor to modern socialism and hence an answer to the Marxist position, which was trying to use the Sarekat Islam as a united front organization at the time. In this era between 1912 and 1941, Islamic modernism was intricately involved with the movement working for political independence and the construction of a national state, and Muslims were important members of that movement thereafter. Agus Salim was also the inspiration behind the effort to bring modernists and traditionalists together into a common front through a series of conferences between 1921 and 1926, which failed to bring integration or even unity between these two orthodox groups of believers, but did much for the two sides in identifying their respective positions. Perhaps most importantly, he sponsored an intellectual organization of Muslims attending Dutch high schools and through it trained a generation of Islamic leaders who manned many of the Islamic and Indonesian institutions in the first generation of independence after The final figure in the second wave was Ahmad Soorkati, a Sudanese Arab who worked in the schools of the Arab community, composed mostly of Hadramauti immigrants, which were the elite of the Muslim community in Indonesia, with religious schools more advanced than other Muslims in the region at the time. He retained a reputation for devotion to the principles of modernism and was close to Ahmad Dachlan in doctrinal outlook and regarding educational endeavor as the centerpiece of the modernist effort for the day. 54 Because the Arab community was regarded as outside the nationalist framework, he did not have the opportunity, as did Dachlan and Salim, to shape events in the broader Indonesian society. Nonetheless, he had considerable reputation as a scholar. Finally, the last major arrival of modernism occurred in the 1920s with the work of Ahmad Hassan (d. 1958), who concentrated on the ideological formulation of modernism and gave expression to the themes and arguments raised by the modernists over the previous 25 years. Significantly, this movement was not so much inspired from abroad as it was an intensification 378

9 MODERNIST ISLAM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA of efforts started in the work of Dachlan and Salim. Using a printing press and public debate as instruments, Hassan and his friends in an organization called the Persatuan Islam (Islamic Union) challenged all those it found not in accord with their view of what Islam demanded of humans. Accordingly, Christians, the Ahmadiyah, traditionalist Muslims, secular nationalists and even some modernist Muslims were charged with error and condemnation for their positions and actions. Through this effort, Persatuan Islam gave full voice to standard Muslim positions on many issues, but because its activists were outspoken and unrelenting in their ideological attacks on others, they were often branded as troublemakers. The explanations of standard Muslim Sunni beliefs in the new Indonesian language, however, attracted much attention and remained popular even until the present time. 55 Throughout the discussion above concerning these several waves of penetration into Southeast Asia, personalities have been identified as the representatives of the modernist effort. In the Malay Zone, the personalities were highly important and made contributions in their own right without much identification with organizations. In the Indonesian area, religious associations were used as the way to implement modernist proselytization, and single individuals were mostly important as leading members. Hence, while these personalities were important for their own contributions, they were also the leaders and spokesmen of sizeable movements of people who were converted to the modernist belief system. Consequently, many members participated in the movements; parties, blocs and other organizations begun by the individuals named here and became important as leaders or representatives of the movement. Starting with only a few in number at the beginning of the century, these organizations had tens of thousands of members by the end of the The Challenge to Modernism in Southeast Asia Modernism gained adherents fairly rapidly in Southeast Asia, but was also severely challenged from several quarters, both within Islam and in the wider Southeast Asian environment. Within Islam, it had to contend in sharp debate with the entrenched religious elite that already existed, known as traditionalists. This existing system had control of official positions established by the native states in the form of muftis, penghulus, imams and various other titles of respect and authority. The debate, however, took place largely on doctrinal issues with the traditionalists charging modernists with fanaticism and modernists charging traditionalists with obstinacy for not putting aside their dedication to the scholars of the Shafi i law school for new legal formulations based on the Qur an and Way of the Prophet. Traditionalists were also the purveyors of mysticism at times, so they felt under 379

10 THE MUSLIM WORLD VOLUME 92 FALL 2002 pressure from the attacks of the modernists on that popular institution. This animosity was to last for a long period of time. In Singapore, Malaysia and southern Thailand, the rivalry abated with the Japanese occupation in the early 1940s, but in the Indonesian area, it lasted well into the 1980s, until the two sides finally came to a tacit understanding. At the beginning, polemic was often harsh, with proponents of the two sides calling those of the other side rude names and castigating them as being untrue to their religion. Burial in cemeteries was denied in some cases. 57 The clash with dominant political powers was strong as well. Dutch, English and Thai administrators in their respective regions regarded all activist Muslims they did not directly control as a threat to their rule; modernists constituted a part of that challenge, but for varying periods of time, depending on the location. In Thailand, modernist identification was never regarded as separate from the general Malay-Muslim community s response to the imposition of Thai national values on the population, starting in the early part of the twentieth century. In the British area of Singapore and Peninsular Malaya, modernists were seen as a threat when they first appeared, but less so as time passed, as some were co-opted into the established governmental system. Others used the press for expression of their viewpoints and found it expedient to keep rhetoric at a level acceptable to British censors. Eventually, the few modernist groups that survived were taken into the United Malay National Organization in the 1950s and became part of the nationalist effort without much differentiation from other member organizations. 58 In Indonesia, modernists were identified with the drive for independence with stress on the capacity of Indonesians to rule themselves, which was the stance of most nationalistic groups at the time. Islamic modernists in Indonesia, and perhaps in Malaya as well, were often regarded as anti-modern, for they strongly objected to Western values of the time secularism, women s emancipation, general social equality that were at odds with established patterns of the region and with interpretation of the prevailing religious teachings at the time. 59 Further, there were struggles with local cultures and pre-islamic values that had established the customs and ways of life of the region, which local inhabitants were reluctant to jettison or change appreciably for greater identification with Islam. Here, a dilemma presented itself in which Islam and culture were both regarded as important and as being in union with one another. To emphasize one at the expense of the other was seen as upsetting a delicate social balance and inviting cultural disaster. Traditionalist Muslims had worked slowly and carefully at changing that balance in favor of Islam, but the modernists were committed to immediate change, with emphasis on the development of Islam even at the expense of local custom. Such open 380

11 MODERNIST ISLAM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA advocacy produced considerable friction in society, in families and among individuals themselves. This was true in all areas of the region under discussion. 60 Finally, there were also serious disputes with non-muslims that called into question the overall tolerance of Islamic modernists regarding other peoples, although certainly the disputes were not one-sided. Christians were seen as wrong-headed for their view of Christ and castigated for their attacks on the sexuality of the Prophet Muhammad and on Islam as being out of step with modernity. The Ahmadiyah was charged with misinterpreting scripture regarding the nature of the Prophet Isa and the finality of Muhammad s message. The Chinese were branded as heathen polytheists who manipulated their predominant role in the economy as a tool of exploitation, and the Arabs were charged with racial insensitivity for their insistence on elite status within the Muslim community because of their association of the Prophet with their race. Secular nationalists, as well, who belonged mostly to nominal Muslims populations, were harshly and unrelentingly attacked for promoting the cause of Indonesian nationalism without an accompanying Islamic identity, claiming such an approach elevated nationalism to a level equal with God and hence was polytheism. 61 Modernists alienated most other groups and sometimes one another and were not great proponents of unity, except on their own terms. The Contributions of Islam to Southeast Asian Society Modernists appeared at a particular time when Malay/Indonesian was being developed as a modern language and contributed substantially to it through the production of literature, both magazines and general studies of religion and its application to society. Certainly, Islamic literature existed earlier and, under normal conditions, a new Muslim literature in the vernacular probably would have arrived later in any case, but modernists undertook the task and enhanced earlier Muslim literature based largely on Arabic texts and translated Arabic materials. The earlier literature had been elitist because its reliance on strong Arabic language skills meant that only a limited number of people in the populace had access to it. The modernists went to the vernacular, to the simplified text, and to elementary lessons; it opened Islamic teachings to the wider Muslim population. In itself, this was a useful and valuable contribution. 62 The modernists helped develop a school system that bridged the difference between general Western subjects and Islamic sciences. Colonial schools and later their successor institutions in independent Malaysia and Indonesia were too few and too narrow in their subject matter, while earlier 381

12 THE MUSLIM WORLD VOLUME 92 FALL 2002 Muslim schools were too limited in their emphasis on Islamic subject matter. The blend came with the modernists, and they supplied it in the creation of madrasah that gave opportunity for education at a time when the demand exceeded the ability of authorities to offer such training universally throughout society. In truth, the traditionalists participated in this effort as well, but the initial effort seems to have been modernist in origin and their activity was always considerable. 63 Modernists also promoted intellectual thinking in both Indonesian and Malaysian societies that dealt with public and societal issues in a broad sense. In particular, that intellectualism explored religious obligations for a society that was only beginning to understand its own adherence to the Islamic religion. In this respect, it acted as a counterweight to Western thinking, which had a tremendous impact at the time and, while it was hardly successful in turning back Westernization, it formulated objections and alternate courses of action which assured that such Westernization was not accepted without question, but underwent adaptation to make it compatible with existing values and cultures. Again, in fairness, it must be understood that there were many other voices in society with much the same view, so Muslim intellectualism was a part of a larger indigenous voice calling for care in such cultural borrowing. But the Muslim intellectual ability is certainly seen well in the important debate between Agus Salim and his colleagues with a socialist-communist movement early in the century that featured Islam as an alternate system, with its own socialism in a superior system of values. This early intellectualism in Indonesia is seen by many observers as a precursor to the much heralded Indonesian Muslim intellectual movement of the late twentieth century. 64 Certainly, later intellectuals Nurcholish Madjied (b. 1939), Dawan Rahardjo (b. 1942) and Amin Ra is (b. 1944), et al. drew on wider religious trends including comparative religion methodology from the West, but their initial impulse and undergirding Qur anic reference point are Islamic modernist. Finally, as alluded to above, Islamic modernists participated fully in the nationalist movements and proto-nationalist movements of the day in Indonesia, Malaya, Singapore, and southern Thailand, sometimes as distinct groupings, as in Indonesia, and sometimes as part of larger communities, as in the Malay Zone. Strikingly, Muslims usually took the high ground, emphasizing such values and populist concepts as elections and democracy, but they were often out of sync with contemporary realities of nationalism, power politics and political tradeoffs, which other factions used far more effectively. In the long run, modernists, like their traditionalist colleagues, were not highly successful in politics, but still contributed importantly in that realm as well

13 MODERNIST ISLAM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Endnotes 1. See, for example, Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997) and Ahmad Ibrahim, et al. (eds.), Readings on Islam in Southeast Asia (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1987). 2. Haddad and Esposito. 3. H. A. R. Gibb, Modern Trends in Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1947); Wilfrid Cantwell Smith, Islam in Modern History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957). 4. Among these early studies was L. Richmond Wheeler s, The Modern Malay (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1928), , and; G. H. Bousquet, La politique musulmans et colonial des Pays-Bas (Paris: Paul Hartmann, 1939), xx, and G. Pijper, Fragmenta Islamica: Studiën over het Islamisme in Nederlansch-Indië (Islamic Fragments: Studies concerning Islam in the Netherlands-Indies). Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1934, T. Th. Petrus Blumberger, De Nationalistische Beweging in Nederlandsch-Indië (The Nationalist Movement in the Netherlands-Indies) (Dordrecht: Foris, 1987, 1929). See esp , , Harry J. Benda, The Crescent and the Rising Sun: Indonesian Islam under the Japanese Occupation (The Hague: W. van Hoeve, 1958), George McT. Kahin, Nationalism in Indonesia (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 195x), xxx. 8. Clifford Geertz, The Religion of Java (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1960). 9. Mahmud Yunus, Sejarah Pendidikan Islam di Indonesia (The History of Islamic Education in Indonesia) ( Jakarta: Mutiara, 1957). 10. Hamka (Hadji Abulmalk Karim Amrullah), Ajahku: Riwajat hidup Dr. H. Abd. Karim Amrullah dan Perdjuangan Kaum Agama di Sumatera (My Father: Biography of Dr. Haji Abdul Karim Amrullah and the Efforts of the Modernist Religious Group on Sumatra) ( Jakarta: Wijaya, 1950). 11. G. F. Pijper, Studiën over de geschiedenis van de Islam in Indonesia (Studies concerning the History of Islam in Indonesia) (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977). 12. Alfian, Islamic Modernism in Indonesian Politics: The Muhammadijah Movement during the Dutch Colonial Period ( ). Madison, University of Wisconsin Ph.D. dissertation, Taufik Abdullah, Schools and Politics: The Kaum Muda Movement in West Sumatra ( ) (Ithaca: Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, 1971). 14. Deliar Noer, The Modernist Muslim Movement in Indonesia (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1973). 15. Howard M. Federspiel, Persatuan Islam: Islamic Reform in Twentieth Century Indonesia (Ithaca: Cornell University Modern Indonesia Project, 1970). 16. Mitsuo Nakamura, The Crescent Arises over the Banyan Tree: A Study of the Muhammadiyah Movement in a Central Javanese Town (Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada Press, 1976). 17. James L. Peacock, Purifying the faith: The Muhammadijah Movement in Indonesian Islam (Tempe: Arizona State University Program for Southeast Asian Studies, 1978). 18. A. Jainuri, Muhammadiyah: Gerakan Reformasi Islam di Java Pada Awal Abad Kedua Puluh (Muhammaiyah: Islamic Reform Movement in Java in the Beginning of the Twentieth Century) (Surabaya: Bina Ilmu, 1981). 19. H. Ridwan Saidi, Pemuda Islam dalam Dinamika Politik Bangsa (Muslim Youth in the Dynamics of National Politics 1925 to 1984) ( Jakarta: Rajawali, 1984). 20. Akhmad Minhaji, Ahmad Hassan and Islamic Legal Reform in Indonesia ( ). Montreal, McGill University Ph.D. dissertation,

14 THE MUSLIM WORLD VOLUME 92 FALL Dadan Wildan. Sejarah Perjuangan Persis (The History of the Persatuan Islam s Efforts) (Bandung: Gema Syahida, 1995). 22. Malay peoples with historical and contemporary communication are found across these three countries which they share with the Chinese in Singapore and Western Malaysia and with the Thai in southern Thailand. 23. William R. Roff, The Origins of Malay Nationalism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967). 24. Abdullah and Khalid Hussain, Pendita Za ba (Za ba the Intellectual) (Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1974). 25. Ibrahim bin Abu Bakar, Islamic Modernism: The Life and Thought of Sayid Syekh Al-Hadi (Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1994). 26. Khoo Kay Kim, Malay Society: Transformation and Democratisation (Petaling Jaya: Pelanduk, 1991), , and; Khoo Kay Kim, 30 Years of Nationhood: A Historical Perspective (Kuala Lumpur: Persatuan Muzium Malaysia, 1987), Husin Muttalib, Islam and Ethnicity in Malay Politics (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1990), Firdaus Haji Abdullah, Radical Malay Politics: Its Origins and Early Development (Kuala Lumpur: Pelanduk, 1985), Raymond Scupin, The Politics of Islamic Reformism in Thailand, Asian Survey, XX, 12 (December 1980), Disinterest in the impact of modernism can be seen in a major anthology of articles on southern Thailand published by A. Forbes, which hardly mentions the subject in some 20 scholarly articles. The same is true of Pitsuwarn, the modern reference to Muslim events in that country. See Andrew D. W. Forbes (ed.), The Muslims of Thailand (Gaya: Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, 1988), 2v.and; Surin Pitsuwarn, Islam and Malay Nationalism: A Case Study of the Malay Muslims of Southern Thailand (Bangkok: Thommasat University Press, 1985). 31. Fred R. von der Mehden, Religion and Nationalism in Southeast Asia (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968), John Obert Voll, Islam: Continuity and Change in the Modern World (Boulder: Westview Press, 1982), The Cambridge History of Islam, edited by P. M. Holt, Ann K. S. Lambton and Bernard Lewis (Cambridge: University Press, 1970), v. 2A, For example, M. C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981), ; John Gullick, Malaysia: Economic Expansion and National Unity (London: Ernest Benn, 1981), 39 44, and Barbara Watson Andaya and Leonard Y. Andaya, A History of Malaysia (London: Macmillan, 1982), Nikki R. Keddie, Sayyid Jamal ad-din al-afghani (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972). 36. Malcolm H. Kerr, Islamic Reform: The Political and Legal Theories of Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida (Cambridge: University Press, 1966). 37. Amir Sjakib Arsalan, Mengapa Kaum Muslimun Mundur (Jakarta: Bulan Bintang, 1955). 38. C. C. Adams, Islam and Modernism in Egypt (New York: Russell and Russell, 1933), ; Voll, Islam, See Kenneth P. Landon, Southeast Asia: Crossroad of Religions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948), , and: C. Snouck Hurgronje, Het Mohammedanisme, in Neerlands Indië, edited by D. G. Stibbe and H. Colijn. Amsterdam, Elsevier, 1929, I,

15 MODERNIST ISLAM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA 40. Roff, Malay Nationalism, 65 67; Hamka, Ayahku, Aqib Suminto, Politik Islam Hindia Belanda (Islamic Politics in the Netherlands Indies). Jakarta (Lembaga penelitian Pendidikan dan Penerangan Ekonomi dan Sosial, 1985), 9 37, summarized in Howard M., Federspiel, Indonesian Transition: Muslim Intellectuals and National Development (Commack: Nova Science Press, 1998), ; Khoo Kay Kim, Malay Society, See, for example, H. Endang Saifuddin Anshari, Wawasan Islam: Pokok-Pokok Fikiran tentang Islam dan Ummatnya (Islamic Insights: Principles of Islamic Thought regarding Islam and its Community of Believers) ( Jakarta: Rajawali, 1969), The northern Borneo territories consist of the contemporary Malaysian states Sarawak and Sabah and the independent nation of Brunei. In the early part of the century they existed as three separate entities, but related entities under British colonial administration. 44. Rita Rose Di Meglio, Arab Trade with Indoensia and the Malay Peninsula from the 8 th to the 16 th Century in Islam and the Trade of Asia, edited by D. S. Richards (Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1970), ; Azyumardi Azra, Hadhrami Scholars in the Malay- Indonesian Diaspora: A Prelimary Study of Sayyid Uthman, Studia Islamika, 2, 2 (1995), 1 9; C. Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka in the Latter Part of the 19 th Century (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970), Hamka, Ayahku, 55 58; Aboebakar Atjeh, Sejarah Hidup K. H. A. Wahid Hasjim dan Karangan Tersiar (The Biography of A. Wahid Hasjim and His VariousWritings) ( Jakarta: Panitya Buku Peringatan, 1957), Hamka, Ayahku, ; Roff, Malay Nationalism, Hamka, Ayahku, Abdullah, Schools and Politics, Abu Bakar, Islamic Modernism. 50. Hussain, Pendita Za ba. 51. von der Mehden, Religion and Nationalism, Th. Petrus Blumberger, Moehammadijah Encyclopedië van Nederlandsch Oost- Indië, VI, ; Alfian, Modernism ; M. Din Syamsuddin (ed.), Muhammadiyah Kini dan Esok ( Jakarta: Panjimas, 1990). 53. Fred R. von der Mehden, Religion and Nationalism in Southeast Asia (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), 54 73; Blumberger, Nationalistische Beweging, ; Erni Kahfi, Hadji Agus Salim: His Role in Nationalist Movements in Indonesia during the Early Twentieth Century. Montreal, McGill University MA thesis, 1996, ; Dardiri Husni, The Muslim Youth Movement in Indonesia during the Dutch Colonialism Era: A Study of Jong Islamieten Bond (JIB). Montreal, McGill University M.A. thesis, Pijper, Studien, Pijper, Studiën, ; Minhaji, Ahmad Hassan. Federspiel, Persatuan Islam. 56. See figures for various modernist associations given in U. S. Government, Office of Strategic Services, Political Parties and Movements in the Netherlands East Indies. Washington, 1945, Federspiel, Persatuan Islam, Roff, Malay Nationalism, Roff, Nationalism, 56 90; John Funston, Malay Politics in Malaysia: A Study of UMNO and PAS. Singapore, Heineman, 1980, Noer, Modernist Muslim, Mohd. Taib Osman, Islamization of the Malays: A Transformation of Culture in Readings on Islam in Southeast Asia, edited by A. Ibrahim, et al. (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1985), 44 47; Thomas M. Fraser, Jr., Rusembilan as a Moslem 385

16 THE MUSLIM WORLD VOLUME 92 FALL 2002 Community, in Readings in Southeast Asia, ; C. A. O. lkvan Nieuwenhuijze, Aspects of Islam in Post-Colonial Indonesia (The Hague: Van Hoeve, 1958), Blumberger, Nationalistische Beweging, , ; Noer, Modernist Muslim, 103, Federspiel, Islam and Ideology in the Emerging Indonesian State: The Persatuan Islam (1923 to 1957), Forthcoming publication still in manuscript form. 63. Yunus, Sejarah Pendidikan, 361; Roff, Malay Nationalism, Douglas E. Ramage, Politics in Indonesia (London: Routledge, 1995), ; Fachry Ali and Bahtiar Effendy, Merambah Jalan Baru Islam (Pioneering the New Islamic Way) (Bandung: Mizan, 1986), Safie bin Ibrahim, The Islamic Party of Malaysia: Its Formative Stages and Ideology (Pasir Puteh: Nuawi bin Ismail, 1981), 8 23; Deliar Noer, Partai Islam di Pentas Nasional (Islamic Parties on the National Stage) ( Jakarta: Grafitipers, 1984),