The Islamic Debate in Malaysia: The Unfinished Project

Abstract

This paper discusses the various models of the Islamic state in contemporary Malaysia. Rather than arguing in terms of a conflict between the state and Islamic resurgence, it tries to trace the multifaceted forms of constantly shifting meanings of Islamic modernity, civil society and democracy that surpass all party boundaries. This involves the conservative hudud Islam of the opposition party PA S and its temporary turn towards e-Islam and democracy as much as Mahathir's modernizing Vision 2020 and its contestations on the state level. The constant overlapping between ‘modernist’ and ‘conservative’ Islam shows Malaysia at the forefront of a development that is also occurring in other countries of the Muslim world where new models of governance, statehood, political participation and social systems are debated in close reference to Islam. As Malaysia emerges as one of the most rapidly modernizing Muslim countries in the world, this paper argues for a more differentiated look at these developments, which have largely gone unnoticed due to the Western fixation with ‘Islamic fundamentalism’.