Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid

Islamist Realignments and the Rebranding of the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia

This paper traces changing patterns of Islamism in Malaysia, focusing on developments during Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s final administration (1999–2003) and since Abdullah Ahmad Badawi assumed the premiership of the country on 31 October 2003. This period witnessed the making of a nascent Islamist civil society whose alliances have capriciously undergone realignments and reconfigurations in its endeavour to reach a stable equilibrium with non-Islamist forces. The emergence of a vibrant and burgeoning civil society in Malaysia has been characterized by lively vicissitudes in the relationship between its Islamist and non-Islamist elements. Having experienced a colourful and chequered relationship with the state and other Islamic movements since its official founding in 1971, the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM: Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia) has, since its leadership rejuvenation in 2005, attempted to reassert its dominant place as an influential and legitimate voice of the Malay-Muslim masses, but with mixed ramifications.

Islamist Conservatism and the Demise of Islam Hadhari in Malaysia

This article argues that Islam Hadhari, as a model for development officially inaugurated during the administration of Malaysias fifth Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (2003–9), encountered failure. Its lack of success was significantly due to the rise of Islamist conservatives, who deliberately interpreted Islam Hadhari as a political instrument to impose Islamization from above in a manner not conducive to living in a spirit of peaceful coexistence in a multi-ethnic society. While on the one hand it promoted an Islam that cherishes the values of inclusivity, moderation and inter-religious tolerance, on the other hand Islam Hadhari unfortunately triggered defensive responses from Islamist conservatives. This ad hoc conservative alliance comprised religious leaders associated with the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), state religious functionaries, scholars affiliated to the opposition Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS: Parti Islam SeMalaysia) and Islamist non-governmental organizations. The rise of this Islamist conservatism aggravated ethno-religious relations during Abdullah Ahmad Badawis premiership, leading to the setbacks experienced by his government in the general elections of 2008. By then, the death knell had been sounded for Islam Hadhari. It was steadily consigned to the graveyard of history by the administration of Najib Razak, who took over from Abdullah in April 2009.

Politically Engaged Muslims in Malaysia in the Era of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (2003–2009)

Abstract Long regarded as an embodiment of tolerant Islam and peacefully co-existing with modernisation within a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society, Malaysia unexpectedly aroused much attention as a potential breeding ground for Muslim radicals in the aftermath of catalytic events which pitted the West against the Muslim world. Malaysian Muslims are said to be susceptible to Middle Eastern-originated radicalism, as exemplified in interlocking transnational contacts and agendas sowed between increasingly globalised Muslim networks adept in exploiting latest trappings of modernity. This article urges readers to engage in deeper reflection on the local dynamics of Malaysias Islamisation process, in order to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of challenges posed by politically engaged Muslims in Malaysia. It is argued that, belying the regimes profession of a progressive Islam known as Islam Hadhari, Malaysia under Abdullah Ahmad Badawis Premiership witnessed an abrupt escalation of inter-religious tension which not only threatened to disrupt communal harmony and nation-building, but also posed a security risk. The origins of such instability could arguably be located to the peculiar manner in which politically-laden Islam is applied by the regime, in particular by its home-nurtured Islamic bureaucracy.Abstract Long regarded as an embodiment of tolerant Islam and peacefully co-existing with modernisation within a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society, Malaysia unexpectedly aroused much attention as a potential breeding ground for Muslim radicals in the aftermath of catalytic events which pitted the West against the Muslim world. Malaysian Muslims are said to be susceptible to Middle Eastern-originated radicalism, as exemplified in interlocking transnational contacts and agendas sowed between increasingly globalised Muslim networks adept in exploiting latest trappings of modernity. This article urges readers to engage in deeper reflection on the local dynamics of Malaysias Islamisation process, in order to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of challenges posed by politically engaged Muslims in Malaysia. It is argued that, belying the regimes profession of a progressive Islam known as Islam Hadhari, Malaysia under Abdullah Ahmad Badawis Premiership witnessed an abrupt escalation of inter-religio...

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi: A Malaysian Neo-Conservative?

This article proposes an analysis of changes implemented during Malaysias Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawis administration (2003–09), using the theoretical framework commonplace in studies on conservatism. Based on the premise that transformations in conservative polities are prone to producing conflict, the dynamics of conflict situations during Abdullahs checkered Premiership is foregrounded. As we apply the main criteria defining conservatism to regime behaviour in Malaysia, it becomes clear that such criteria are stoutly held by the regimes elites in their quest for social harmony and political stability. Regime maintenance then finds justifications in such seemingly sublime ends, thereby self-perpetuating Malaysian conservatism. Such despondency prevailed during Mahathir Mohamads administration (1981–2003), which displayed bias against changes and introduced schemes to justify the systems it upheld. Transmutations wrought during Abdullahs tenure may have been neither substantial nor totalizing, but within the conservative paradigm which had long gripped national politics, Abdullahs deviations were significant nevertheless.

Communication: Islam, Weberism and economic development: an adjunct to Nagata's outline of the Arqam experiment in Malaysia (1968–1994)

This communication questions the theoretical analysis of the relationship between religion and modernisation, as deriving from ‘Weberism’, by which I mean the body of thought which has evolved, out of the consensus of scholars studying the German sociologist, Max Weber (d. 1920). Western-based post-Second World War modernisation literature demonstrated high expectations that the developing world would toe the line of the secular, rational, industrial and democratic West. Scholars constructed deterministic theories of the global evolution of society which not only rejected the possibility of non-Western religions undergoing positive reformation, but surpassing even Weber, also degraded the overall contribution of religion to the modernisation process. Weberism has been prone to blame Oriental religions as a cause of their stagnation and thereby a barrier to modernisation. At the centre of Weberism is the contrast drawn between the mystical otherworldliness of Oriental religions and the worldly asceticism of Protestantism, particularly Calvinism, whose religious ethic is said to have been conducive to the development of capitalism and economic rationalism among the populace of Western Europe. Weberism has been subject to various interpretations which are not in the present author’s interest to discuss. Suffice it to say that the widespread treatment of Weberism as a deterministic theory of values, i.e., that religious beliefs are directly related to economic life, has had a profound impact on Western scholarship of Islam and the Islamic world. The overwhelming tendency of Western social scientists studying Islamic societies has been to denigrate, even to the point of denying altogether, a positive role of Islam in economic development. Overlooked was the fact that, while Weber was forthright in his condem-

Globalization of Islamic Education in Southeast Asia

On 11 September 2001, terrorist attacks devastated the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the United States — an event referred to hereafter as 9/11. The United States consequently embarked on a global war on terrorism (GWOT), which has since been reproved by analysts for being over-militaristic, neglecting ideological warfare and uncritically aggregating disparate trends of terrorism (Cf. Kilcullen 2005; Desker and Acharya 2006). Unfortunately, the United States’ vigorous pursuit of the GWOT has cast a dark shadow on the prospects for intercultural and interreligious understanding between the Western and Muslim worlds.