The
many faces of Islam in Malaysia
By Yukiko Ohashi
When it comes to Islamic revivalism in Malaysia, talk tends to focus on the
epic struggle between the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) and the
governing United Malays National Organization (UMNO). This obsession must stop.
Rather, questions must be asked about whether the number and character of the
country's Islamic movements might increase or "mutate" further.
The continued emergence of these groups up to the present suggests attempts to
give Islam greater social and political coherence within the confined
democratic space provided in Malaysia.
Even Jemaah Islamiya Malaysia (JIM), a relative latecomer that believes in
advancing its Islamic cause slowly, with roots that trace back to the
establishment of the Islamic Representative Council (IRC) in the United Kingdom
in 1974, is no exception.
According to academic accounts, there are at least seven forms of Islamic
revivalism to have emerged in Malaysia over the past 40 years. These groups are
the ABIM, al-Maunah, Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia (KMM), Darul Ahkam, JIM,
Jamaah Tabligh and PAS. Jamaat Tabligh and PAS were actually established in
1952 and 1955 respectively, while Darul Arqam was created in 1968, ABIM in 1971
and JIM in 1991.
This is not unlike the situation in other countries throughout the Muslim
world, where increasingly Islam has manifested itself in various organizational
and political forms.
Within Malaysia, again like most Muslim societies, these groups range from the
piestic/peaceful types to politically ambitious ones.
Al-Maunah and KMM are not impervious to the use of violence to challenge the
secular existence of the state head-on; the former even staged two arms heists
in 1999 to further its goals.
Two other groups not discussed in the official discourse are the Sufi sect of
Nashabandi, which includes members of the Perak royalty, and Malaysia's Muslim
Shi'ites, who, though their numbers are too small to warrant action from the
state just yet, have been treated with suspicion.
Despite the existence of these groups, scholars who often speak about the
specter of Islamic revivalism in Malaysia typically focus on the struggle
between PAS and UMNO, which heads the ruling National Front (Barisan Nasional
or BN). This is understandable given the high stakes in this contest, but must
stop if the country is to address the nature of its Islamic
movements.
Where they all stand
Said Muhammad Shukri Salleh, a professor in Islamic studies at the Malaysian
Science University (USM): "Only PAS, ABIM and JIM are registered with the
Malaysian Registrar of Societies. PAS is registered as a political party, ABIM
as a youth movement and JIM as an Islamic NGO [non-governmental organization].
Darul Arqam and Jamaat Tabligh, on the other hand, operate as unregistered dakwah
[missionary] movements."
In the eyes of the Malaysian government, which has historically brooked no
nonsense from militant Muslim groups, Darul Akham, al-Maunah and KMM have since
been contained.
In other words, militant Islamic movements have been rolled back. Key members
of KMM, one of which is the son of Nik Aziz, currently the chief minister of
Kelantan, are still being detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA), which
allows for detention without trial, for having received armed training in
Pakistan and Afghanistan.
But rolling back one tide does not imply that the larger wave of Islamic
revivalism has crested. In fact, dissatisfied with the limited options at hand,
but driven by the need to do more in the name of God", extremist Muslims in
Malaysia have been known to join Jemaah Islamiya (JI), whose base is in Indonesia.
Obviously, this has puzzled authorities. Why would fervent Muslims in Malaysia
seek out their kind in Indonesia? More important, unhappy with the status quo,
they have sought to create what is mythically known as "Islam Nusantara", a
kind of Islam that spans from southern Thailand to Mindanao in the Philippines.
The inclination of some Malaysians to JI, small as the number may be, also
challenges a theory hitherto peddled by Dr Chandra Muzaffar, president of Just
World Trust (JUST) since the 1980s, that the Islamic movement in the country is
primarily driven by the search for a greater identity beyond the racial
category provided by being a mere Malay in Malaysia.
Hybridized Islam
Being confronted with the problem of divergent Islamic movements led Farish
Noor, a leading Malaysian commentator on Islam currently based in Germany, to
aver the existence of a hybridized (Malaysian) Islam.
Indeed, he has urged scholars and the relevant authorities dealing with the
specter of Islamic revivalism in Malaysia to understand the social and
political circumstances that have led to the continued differentiation and
division of Islamic movements.
If they could be properly profiled, goes Noor's implicit logic, then the issue
of whether groups can become violent or not can be faced head-on. The public
would also have a better understanding of which groups to join, or shun.
In light of events after September 11, 2001, this advice is timely, as the full
dynamics of Islamic revivalism have to be understood beyond the militant type,
or beyond genre only.
Although the sample of Islamic groups in Malaysia has been small, ranging from
seven to nine at this stage, their very hybrid nature provides a microcosm that
showcases Islam's fluid nature.
Islam's very elusiveness, however, can lead to the tendency of some to want to
establish one version only, often a punitive and patriarchal type. It is here
that UMNO and PAS have been caught in a logjam, with neither side willing to
relinquish its positions to the other.
It is also here, at the inter-party level, that Islam has been used as a
strategic tool, to which Muslims are increasingly aware. UMNO has glibly
allowed PAS to stick to its manifesto of creating an Islamic state, knowing
such a position will drive moderate and non-Muslims into its fold; a ploy that
worked in the last election.
Yet, by using Islam in an electoral contest to gain strategic advantage, UMNO
has also undermined the belief of some earnest Muslims.
Muslims not confident with the Islamic credentials of these two parties have
sought to "assert their own Islam".
Some have therefore sought to compensate any perceived inadequacy in Malaysia,
by joining groups such as JI and Jamaah Tabligh; the latter is strictly
non-political, and seeks to live according to the habits and practices of the
Prophet Mohammed, sometimes by spending 40 days and nights in the mosque.
Those who join JI, however, are religious firebrands who, having seen through
the hybrid nature of Islam in Malaysia, now seek an even purer version of Islam
that translates into crude militarism.
The case in Malaysia therefore offers a glimpse of the opportunities with which
Muslims - seeking Islamic reaffirmation in the temporal realm - enter, and
exit, different Islamic groups.
Of particular note are Malaysians such as key JI lieutenant Dr Azhari, who is
now on the run from authorities, to answer to a seemingly higher calling by
rejecting the Islamic options in Malaysia, to pursue a path of pure violence.
Obviously, such members do not represent anyone other than themselves, therein
the danger is one they pose to all.
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