Reproduced from Islam in Southeast Asia: Negotiating Islam, edited by Norshahril Saat (Singapore: ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, 2018). This version was obtained electronically direct from the publisher on condition that copyright is not infringed. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute. E-book is available at <http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg>
The ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute (formerly Institute of Southeast Asian Studies) is an autonomous organization established in 1968. It is a regional centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security, and economic trends and developments in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment. The Institute s research programmes are grouped under Regional Economic Studies (RES), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS), and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS). The Institute is also home to the ASEAN Studies Centre (ASC), the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre (NSC), and the Singapore APEC Study Centre. ISEAS Publishing, an established academic press, has issued more than 2,000 books and journals. It is the largest scholarly publisher of research about Southeast Asia from within the region. ISEAS Publishing works with many other academic and trade publishers and distributors to disseminate important research and analyses from and about Southeast Asia to the rest of the world.
First published in Singapore in 2018 by ISEAS Publishing 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace Singapore 119614 E-mail: publish@iseas.edu.sg Website: <http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg> All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute. 2018 ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore The responsibility for facts and opinions in this publication rests exclusively with the authors and their interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of the publisher or its supporters. ISEAS Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Islam in Southeast Asia : Negotiating Modernity / edited by Norshahril Saat. 1. Islam 21st century Southeast Asia. 2. Islam and politics Malaysia. 3. Muftis (Muslim officials) Malaysia. 4. Salafīyah Malaysia. 5. Students Indonesia Religious life. 6. Islamic fundamentalism Indonesia. 7. Islamic leadership Indonesia. 8. Islamic renewal Singapore 9. Southeast Asia Relations Middle East. 10. Southeast Asia Relations Southeast Asia. I. Norshahril Saat, editor. BP63 A9I828 March 2018 ISBN 978-981-4786-99-7 (soft cover) ISBN 978-981-4818-00-1 (E-book PDF) Typeset by International Typesetters Pte Ltd Printed in Singapore by Markono Print Media Pte Ltd
CONTENTS Preface About the Contributors vii ix 1. Introduction 1 Norshahril Saat Section I: Malaysia 2. Emergence of Progressive Islamism in Malaysia 13 Wan Saiful Wan Jan 3. Competing Discourses Among Malaysian Muftis: 35 Still a Case of Arabization? Norshahril Saat 4. The Riyal and Ringgit of Petro-Islam: Investing 63 Salafism in Education Mohd Faizal Musa Section II: Indonesia 5. The Middle East Influence on the Contemporary 91 Indonesian Campus Islam Yon Machmudi v
vi Contents 6. Contemporary Middle Eastern Islamic Thought 112 and its Transmission in Indonesia: A Critical Assessment Azhar Ibrahim 7. Plural Islam and Contestation of Religious 140 Authority in Indonesia Ahmad Najib Burhani 8. Preachers-cum-Trainers: The Promoters of Market 164 Islam in Urban Indonesia Najib Kailani Section III: Singapore 9. Shariah Revivalism in Singapore 195 Noor Aisha Abdul Rahman Index 231
preface This edited volume comprises of specially commissioned chapters and selected papers from a 2015 workshop entitled Islamic Developments in Southeast Asia. The workshop was jointly organized by ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS). All selected papers from the conference have been revised to include any new developments related to Muslims living in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. This book would not have been possible without funding support from KAS. I also wish to thank the former Director of ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, Mr Tan Chin Tiong, for initiating this project to understand contemporary issues in Southeast Asian Islam. The original aim of the project is to examine the Middle East impact on the region. Its scope has, however, been expanded to uncover regional and local dynamics in shaping Islamic discourses in the Malay-speaking world. I also wish to express my appreciation to Dr Terence Chong, Deputy Director of the Institute, for providing useful comments on the book concept. He was also the co-convenor for the 2015 workshop. I also wish to express my gratitude to Ms Pearlyn Y. Pang for her editorial assistance. I am also grateful to the excellent work by the ISEAS Publishing team, particularly Mr Ng Kok Kiong, vii
viii Preface Ms Rahilah Yusuf, and Ms Sheryl Sin Bing Peng for providing useful feedback in the overall production of this book. Finally, I wish to record my deepest appreciation to all contributors in this volume. May their efforts offer new insights on Islam in the region. Norshahril Saat (PhD)
About the contributors Azhar Ibrahim is Lecturer and Deputy Head of the Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore (NUS). He obtained his PhD and MA from the same department in 2008 and 2002, respectively. Previously, he was a lecturer at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University. His research interests include sociology of religion, sociology of literature and critical literacy, as well as the Malay Indonesia intellectual development. Ahmad Najib Burhani is Senior Researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jakarta and Visiting Fellow at ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. He received his PhD in Religious Studies from the University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB), USA. During the last year of his study, he won the Professor Charles Wendell Memorial Award from UCSB in the field of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. His academic interests include religious minorities in Islam, urban mysticism, and religious movements in Southeast Asia. His most recent book is Muhammadiyah Berkemajuan (2016). Mohd Faizal Musa is Research Fellow, Institute of Malay World and Civilization, National University of Malaysia (UKM). He has won numerous literary awards including the ix
x About the Contributors Anugerah Seni Negara (National Arts Award) in 2006. Among his earlier published novels are Cinta Hari-hari Rusuhan and Perempuan Politikus Melayu. His book 1515 won first place in the Hadiah Sastera Utusan Malaysia-Exxon Mobil 2002. It also received the National Book Prize in 2005 under the Malay Language General Fiction category. Najib Kailani is Lecturer at the Department of Interdisciplinary Islamic Studies, Graduate School UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He received his PhD in Southeast Asian Social Inquiry from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Australia. His research interests include urban religion, youth and pop culture, and economics of religion. He has published with RIMA: Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs and contributed a book chapter entitled Muslimising Indonesian Youths: The Tarbiyah Moral and Cultural Movement in Contemporary Indonesia, in Islam and the 2009 Indonesian Elections, Political and Cultural Issues: The Case of Prosperous Justice Party, edited by Remy Madinier (2010). Noor Aisha Abdul Rahman is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore (NUS). Her research and teaching areas include Malay legal history and institutions, Muslim law and its administration in Southeast Asia, and sociology of religion (Islam and Malay religious orientations). She has authored and edited monographs and journal publications on Malay adat laws, Shariah in Singapore, religious education, teenage marriages within Singapore s Muslim community, religious orientation of the Malays, and Muslim women and development.
About the Contributors xi Norshahril Saat is Fellow at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. In June 2015, he was awarded a PhD in International, Political and Strategic Studies by the Australian National University (ANU). His research interests are mainly on Southeast Asian politics and contemporary Islamic thought. In 2018, he published The State, Ulama and Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia. His articles have recently been published in journals such as Asian Journal of Social Science (AJSS), The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, Contemporary Islam: Dynamics of Muslim Life, Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs, and Studia Islamika. Wan Saiful Wan Jan is Visiting Senior Fellow at ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. He was previously Chairman of the Istanbul Network for Liberty, a global network of scholars and researchers interested in exploring and promoting the principles and values of a free society in the Muslim world; and Founding Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), Malaysia. He is a regular commentator on Malaysian and ASEAN affairs, and his views are widely quoted in local and regional press. Yon Machmudi is currently Head of Post Graduate Program of the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, School of Strategic and Global Studies, Universitas Indonesia. He received his doctoral degree from the Faculty of Asian Studies, the Australian National University (ANU) in 2007. He specializes in Political Islam in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. His current research includes The Impact of Social Changes and Modernization of Pesantren toward the Decline of Ulama s Authority in Indonesia (2013 2015) and Why They Resist
xii About the Contributors the State: The Transformation of Darul Islam in Indonesia (2015 2017). His book publications include the following: Islamising Indonesia: The Rise of Jemaah Tarbiyah and the Prosperous Justice Party (2008) and The Contemporary Middle East History: The Leadership in Saudi and Libya (2016). He has also contributed the following book chapters: The Development of Political Islam in Indonesia, in Norms, Interests, and Values: Conflict and Consent in the Constitutional Basic Order, edited by Henning Glaser (2015) and Saudi Indonesia Relations, in Saudi Arabian Foreign Policy: Conflict and Cooperation, edited by Neil Partrick (2016).